|
About 25 years ago, my family and I lived
in Brazil, where my father worked on that country's first nuclear
power plant. One of my fondest memories of that time is a visit to
a Brazilian restaurant called a "churrascaria". These are a
uniquely Brazilian invention which, in my opinion, would do well in
the USA. They are an "all you care to eat" style restaurant that
features barbecued meats of every variety. In a typical
churrascaria, you are seated at a table, partake of a salad and
vegetable bar, and when you're ready for meat, you have a device
(typically a card) on your table that indicates you're interested
in meat. Roving servers will drop by to tempt you with various cuts
of steak, chicken, pork, lamb, sausage, etc. If you like what they
have, they'll slice some off the skewer they're carrying and you
grab it with tongs and put it on your plate. When you are full, you
use the device to tell the servers you're finished and they stop
bringing the meat.
I've just returned from "Sal & Carvao" (Portuguese for "salt
and charcoal"), a restaurant located at the intersection of Finley
and Butterfield in Downers Grove, Illinois. This churrascaria is
one of three I've visited in the United States. The others were
located in Washington, DC, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It's
definitely a good one.
My vegetable plate included asparagus, roasted spring vegetables in
a balsamic vinaigrette, and jambalaya (technically not a vegetable
dish). I also had some proscuitto and salami. All of it was
first-rate, fresh-tasting, and delicious. This was followed by the
meat courses, which included "bottom sirloin", marinated chicken
breast, linguica (sausage), lamb, chili-lime chicken, filet mignon
wrapped in bacon, and probably one or two other meats I'm
forgetting. In addition, there were three side dishes offered.
These included garlic mashed potatoes, a vegetable medley, and
truffled french fries.
The service at Sal & Carvao is great, easily an 8 or 9 out of
10. I rarely wanted for anything.
The side dishes weren't bad, but not my favorites of the meal. I
don't care much for garlic mashed potatoes, though theirs were
better than average. The vegetable medley was good, but I'd gotten
my fill at the harvest bar (salad bar) earlier. And the fries,
well, I didn't care for them but they were OK. (The side dish
concept, by the way, is something I've only noticed in the U.S.
churrascarias. I assume they're provided to reduce the guests'
intake of meat items, which are probably cheaper in Brazil than in
the U.S.) I generally ignored them during my dining.
The meats were all good. The filet was probably my least favorite
since it was a little dry, but even that was good. The marinated
chicken breast was excellent. The bottom sirloin was great. The
linguica was perfect. The lamb was the second-best I've ever had
(the best, interestingly, was at a churrascaria in Washington, DC).
On balance, I'd have to give Sal & Carvao at least an 8 out of
10. The service is excellent. The food is really good. The seating
was comfortable. The "harvest bar" was very good.
I have only two real complaints about the place. The music got a
bit loud during the latter part of my visit, and took away some
from my enjoyment of the food. My other complaint is that they
don't have a location in Columbus, Ohio. If they did, I suspect it
would become one of my regular haunts at home!
Related Blogs:
Related Links:
|
