Like its namesakes, Churrascaría Texas de Brazil is humongous. A rodizio-style restaurant with sister establishments in the Lone Star State, Orlando, Memphis and Aruba, it's a two-story monument to meat, with a Tara-like staircase plus elevator. It seats more than 400 and has a 140-item salad bar and 450-bottle wine list.
Like its namesakes, Churrascaría Texas de Brazil is humongous. A rodizio-style restaurant with sister establishments in the Lone Star State, Orlando, Memphis and Aruba, it's a two-story monument to meat, with a Tara-like staircase plus elevator. It seats more than 400 and has a 140-item salad bar and 450-bottle wine list.
Huge split sides, legs, flanks, ribs and loins of lamb, pork and beef plus whole chickens and spicy Brazilian sausages are spin-roasted and grilled over a mesquite flame. Young runners, some in gaucho attire, ply the rooms, slicing off massive doses of protein from sword-like skewers at tableside.
In addition to standard fare, the salad bar boasts delectable, smoky Brazilian-style beans and rice, wheels of cheese as big as tires, sushi, tomato-basil soup, one of the best eggy potato salads in town and a cilantro-spiked shrimp ceviche.
Circular rooms are bodacious with floral sprays big as trees and mirrors large and ornate enough for Louis XIV. On busy nights, it can sound like the Orange Bowl at game time.
Warm, bite-sized cheese muffins and gratis sides of mashed potatoes and fried sweet plantains are all delicious, but save room because the main event -- meat -- is ever on the march.
The lamb is crusty and kosher-salt-sealed outside, juicy inside. The top sirloin is enticingly smoky and garlicky; the anise-scented sausages are as fat as knockwursts; the chicken and a sensational filet mignon are wrapped in bacon; the pork loin is encrusted in Parmesan.
A tray full of treats including bananas Foster pie, Key lime pie and Brazilian cheesecake looks tempting but we pass, our last shred of willpower intact.
Place: Texas de Brazil Churrascaría.
Address: 11401 NW 12th St. (Dolphin Mall), Miami.
Rating: Very Good.
Contact: 305-599-7729, texasdebrazil.com.
Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays, noon-4 p.m. weekends, 5-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, till midnight Friday-Saturday.
Prices: Full dinner $38.50, lunch $17.99; children 7-12 half-price, 6 and under free; desserts $5.95-$7.95.
FYI: Full bar; 15 percent tip added; AX, DC, DN, MC, VS.
