CCJ’s Steakhouse & Lounge

Great atmosphere, good are okay. But took us 30 wait for food during lunch hour and it wasn’t even busy! (we were the only table in a group of 8)

Man I love steakhouses!
I’ve been eying this place for quite some time now but it honestly doesn’t look to nice from the outside. I think it’s the sign more than anything as it took over the old Local Heroes location that used to be here.
One of my friends finally got me to go for lunch and I’ve been back twice since.
The décor is really nice inside and they have a patio with tables and umbrella patios for each table. There is a bar in the middle of the patio and the patio is painted white.
Going over the menu I realized it wasn’t a steakhouse like The Keg or Al’s but more of a South American steakhouse. I’ve tried a few of the seafood appetizers which were all good with some interesting/​nice sauces.
For the mains I’ve tried the Paradilla and they have an all you can eat special last week (they are doing this about once a month for a few days) were they have 3 – 4 types of meats that was all you can eat with salad, rice and potatoes.
The Paradilla was a mixture of chorizo, ribs, chicken, steak and pork with a side. I chose to have it over rice. One of the things you’ll come to realize is that the meats are all cooked pretty well. I think this might be a south american thing? I would need someone to confirm as most of the other places I’ve been to tend to overcook some of the meats. It’s not to the point were it’s dry but cooked a little past what I tend to cook it at. The chicken, steak and pork were good but I really enjoyed the chorizo and the ribs. All the meats are usually seasoned but not over seasoned as I’ve found at some places. I wish the chorizo was a little spicier but it was definitely good! The ribs just fell off the bone when I pulled at the bone. It was definitely delicious.
The all you can eat lunch I had last week was also good. They made their own hot sauce and a sauce similar to a chimichurri sauce that I really enjoyed. On the all you can eat meat menu for the day was roast beef, eye of round roast, chicken and flank steak. I found the roast beef dry and not a lot of flavour but really liked the others. The chimichurri sauce was really good on all the meats and I ended up eating a lot of flank steak.
I know they have a rodizio service but have never tried it. If you’re unfamiliar with rodizio it’s a set price and the server staff brings out many types of grilled meats that they carve off onto your plate if you want to try it. There is a lot more meat than what the lunch special had and is also all you can eat. There is a place at Château Cartier that offers this that I have not tried. For you Toronto folk you should look up Copacabana for reviews of similar restaurants.
If you order steak or any other items off the grill you want to REALLY stress to the wait staff that you would like the meat cooked about 2 levels lower than what you want. If you want medium rare I’d ask for rare or blue because the meats are pretty thin and will be overcooked. My friend asked for medium rare and it was medium well almost well done.
I hope this place sticks around for a bit but they honestly need to change the sign because it never attracted me to go in. I know some people have said the same thing to me! If you do see the sign, give it a second guess and go in to try something!