Tried Every Kind Of Meat Offering At Espetus Churrascaria (6/366)

"Enough is as good as a feast."
~ Joshua Sylvester


Espetus Churrascaria is a Brazilian steakhouse here in SF that boasts 14 different kinds of meat, skewered and prepared over an open flame. It is "Rodizio-style", meaning the servers come to your table, cut your choice straight off the skewer for you, and keep coming until you say "stop!" (there's a cool little red and green wheel you can use to signal when you need a break, or when you want them to bring on more meat!). They also have a great buffet with salads and a few other dishes, but since the meats are so good and the selection so varied, we jokingly say, "don't waste your time on the buffet". Usually, there are a few meat items we skip as well, because we want to spend our precious stomach space on only the our favorite cuts of meat.

We've only been to Espetus a handful of times, mostly because it's not super cheap (about $50/person not counting drinks, tax, or gratuity), but tonight was a special occasion because it was our friend Russell's last night in town on his holiday visit with us, and our other friend Brian's birthday. A great reason to go somewhere fun like this, and a good chance for me to be able to try all their different meat offerings.

There was:

Parmesan Pork


Shrimp

House-made Sausage, Beef Rib (my favorite), Pork Loin


Lamb Chop, Sirloin, Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breast,

Garlic Beef, Chicken Hearts, Top Sirloin,

and finally, Chicken Thigh, Filet Mignon, and Leg of Lamb


Everything was absolutely delicious. My favorite is still the beef rib - a succulent cut of meat marbled with just the right amount of fat - tender and juicy and salty. Perfection. The shrimp are cooked nicely, but because of the process, the shells tend to thin and stick to the shrimp, making them hard to remove. The Parmesan pork is a bit of a gamble - due to health code regulations most restaurants are forced to overcook their pork products and since a lot of pork cuts are actually relatively lean, the flavor and juiciness suffers when overcooked. Also, sausage, while tasty, is traditionally made of lesser quality meat/parts. I'd probably still save the room spent on those choices for some of my more favorite cuts like the rib and filet. But really, everything here is of wonderful quality.

If you like meat, you simply must feast here at least once. Although Espetus is all-you-can-eat, you don't have to stuff yourself silly, but it's hard not to when they have such fantastic food.