Lunch @ Orlando's Texas de Brazil

I ate lunch at Texas de Brazil on International Drive in Orlando, FL. Texas de Brazil is a Brazilian Churrascaria where waiters come around and slice various meats off of swords onto your plate.

I started at the salad bar. Besides from the normal salad, they had lots of good stuff like various cheeses, olives, crab cakes, meats, tabouli, and soups. They also had some really interesting stuff that I had never seen before such as caper berries (left side of the plate between the pasta and chorizo). Capers are one of my favorite salty foods, so I really liked these. Apparently normal capers sold in supermarkets are immature when they are pickled. If they continue to grow, they become caper berries, which were served here. It was a good salad bar, although it seemed like they had room to serve twice as many items with the amount of space between each dish. Maybe that's for dinner (not that I'm complaining).

I finished my salad and returned to my table to get served meat on swords. My favorite choices were the chicken wrapped in bacon, the sausages, pork ribs, and sliced pork. I'm not a big fan of beef, and when it's not well done, I get grossed out by the blood dripping out of what I am about to eat. It seemed like the majority of the steak and beef served wasn't cooked to my liking, and I only got one piece that was close to being cooked throughly. I have tried a Portuguese Churrascaria in the past, and it seemed all of the meat was automatically cooked to well done, including the steak. I wish they at least came around with some skewers of cooked steak here to give you a choice on how well the meat was cooked. With the exception of the steak being served dripping in blood, I liked everything else. I'd go again...

Bairrada Rodizio Churrasqueira Restaurant

I ate take out Portuguese food for lunch from the Bairrada Rodizio Churrasqueira Restaurant in Mineola, NY. Roast suckling pig and mixed grill were ordered.

The roast suckling pig was good. The pig was served still in it's skin. There was a bit of fat in the meat, but as far as pork goes, the pig was very tasty and tender. It was served with rice and homemade potato chips. They needed some salt, but otherwise were very good.


The mixed grill consisted of a skewer of chicken, steak, sausage, onions, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes. It was served with rice and french fries. I am not a big fan of steak, so I didn't think it was anything that good, but at least it was well done rather than having the blood squirt out of the dead cow flesh when you take a bite. The chicken was tasty, but the best meat on the skewer was the sausage. The rest of the meat all tasted basically like char-grilled meats, while the sausage actually had a distinct flavor.

Eating the food as take out didn't give you the whole churrasqueira experience with waiters walking around with meat on sticks, slicing it at your table, but the food was still good. Take out was a whole lot cheaper too!