Texas de Brazil – Brazilian Churrascarria Steakhouse Experience in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Sometimes you just need to get out and indulge for a few hours, for whatever reason, in whatever way you choose. For us, after three months of upheaving our life to sell the boat and the past several weeks of final preparations to fly back to Europe, we decided to go and let off some steam in the best way we know how – food! Because it’s always more fun to share the good times with others, we invited our good friend, Orlando, to join us.
Our restaurant of choice was the Texas de Brazil Steakhouse in San Juan, just a ten-minute drive from where we’re staying. While neither of us eats a lot of meat just the sake of it anymore, we’re happy to indulge when we find something that’s particularly special.
Texas de Brazil is one of the best churrascaria restaurants in Puerto Rico and this particular branch has been open for more than eight years. Set up in the style of a high-end Brazilian churrascaria, Texas de Brazil has a lot more to offer than a wide selection of amazing grilled meats.
Even the salad bar is a culinary experience in itself and you could easily take your meat-free friends along for a meal with you! Japanese sushi maki, fresh variety of gourmet artisan bread, imported cheeses, fresh buffalo mozzarella, steamed asparagus with strawberry sauce, Brazilian hearts of palm, grilled Portobello mushrooms, Greek olives, shrimp salad, sautéed mushrooms… the list goes on!
Of course, the heart of the reason we were there in the first place was not the salad bar, amazing as it was. This churrascaria steakhouse is manned by a team of “Gauchos” who not only carve your prime grilled meat straight onto your plate, but they actually chose the cuts, prepare and grill them as well. The people carving your steak, lamb chops and chicken onto your plate are not waiters, but specially trained chefs, or “Gauchos.”
Sticking with the Brazilian theme, when you are ready for the Gauchos to bring another cut of meat for you to try, simply flip over the small, round placemat to show the green side – green means go – and they’ll know that you are ready for more. When you feel like taking a break or simply focusing on the food you already have on your plate, then flip it over to show the red side and you’ll be left alone to enjoy your food.
The quality of the meat was exceptional, which was fortunate for me as these days I only ever eat red meat if it’s excellent! Every cut was cooked to a perfect medium rare with nothing but a healthy dose of rock salt to seal in the flavors and juices.
Accompanied by a traditional-style caipirinha, our three-hour lunch was capped off with a desert section of carrot cake, key lime pie, and creme brûlée.
It’s not often that we spend three hours at the table when we go out for a meal, but this was so good we didn’t even notice!
Are you on Pinterest? Pin these!
