Porto Alegre Churrascaria

Having never been to a Churrascaria, I was in a huge disadvantage as I assumed it worked like a normal restaurant. Spouse and I just finished a movie at the Arclight; and looking for something different for a change from the other restaurants in the mall. Porto Alegre looked different and interesting.
You step in, and the ambiance is quiet elegance. Hostess immediately greeted us, and made us feel welcome and her manner was very professional.
At table, got distracted with drinks menu, so didn’t realize the lack of any menus presented. Waiter came by with a basket of bread and explained how it worked. Seemed to be buffet style eating, with meat carts coming along every so often. How fun!
Ordered a mango vodka martini … DE-​LI-​CIOUS!
I’m a bread maker myself, and a bit of a bread snob; so bit into bread and was disappointed. While the bread itself was tasty, it felt like it was severely undercooked; and so it was akin to eating par-​boiled bread dough. The waiter explained it had cheese in the middle and that is why it was that way. Didn’t taste any cheese, it still tasted like severely undercooked bread dough.
Hit the salad bar; which has soups, black beans, rice, fried plantains, potatoes; and of course a bevy of salads — lettuce, Cole slaw and pasta salads. With most of the fixins to go on.
We were offered Lamb, Steak, Pork, sausages (mild & hot), chicken. The only one I thought had any taste was the chicken and steak; though the steak was a bit too rare for my tastes (medium rare, closer to the rare side). The chicken was flavorful, the pork very fatty, the sausages — run of the meal sausages, nothing outstanding. The lamb was very good, not at all gamey… Would have been nice to have a little mint sauce for it though.
The meat was nothing that made us want to stand up and shout. Nor feel like we got great value for the meal.
The bill was sticker shock … $ 44/​person. Silly us to never have asked about it before we started in.
We didn’t have any dessert, none appealed to us though it is included.
But Great Caesars Ghost … $ 44/​person … Unless you are VERY hungry, and a big meat eater; there is no way this turns out to be a value meal.
If money isn’t that big of a deal for you; it is a great place to at least try once. The service was excellent, both waiters very attentive without being cloying. All of the meat carvers, similarly frequent and available. My mango martinis was the bomb! But with what I ate from the salad bar and the little bit of meat I ate; I was a very profitable guest. Spouse less profitable, but not by much.

Nice calm ambiance for a Friday night. This place doesn’t get too crowded so it’s good for any type of occasion. Everyone here dresses very casual – nothing fancy, but the restaurant itself looks nice and is well kept in my perspective.
Service was outstanding. The service is well mannered and properly dressed. Our waiter, Ray, was always there when we needed him and was quick to bring us anything we ordered or needed.
I loved all the meats that were served to us. Each so unique with its own flavor. They definitely know how to season the food! My favorite was the garlic sirloin or chicken.
Overall, the food was great, the service was great, and the establishment itself is nice. My boyfriend and I are two of the pickiest people ever, so you should take our word for this :)
I will definitely be coming back and recommending to friends and family

I was expecting less but this is a great place!
The service was awesome and the good too

This place is a pretty good churrascaria, especially for those local to Pasadena or northeast Los Angeles. It has everything you expect from a churrascaria — lots of different meat choices served at your table by men rotating the floor with little swords/​large skewers, a diverse salad bar, and a fixed price. A great place to go for a dinner and movie date night. If you are going to a movie at the Arclight, they provide a longer parking validation.
Pros:
— great service
— a good variety of meats
— it’s spacious; less cramped and crazy than the Fogo de Chao in DTLA
— a nice, large salad bar that includes cold shrimp, stews, and sauces (like chimichurri, hot sauce, and criolla)
— a routine flow of the «gauchos» serving the meat who will give you the cut you want (like a rare slice) and as many pieces you want
Cons:
— like all churrascarias, it’s pricy — about $ 44 for dinner per person — so just come hungry
— do not attempt to eat here on an «off» hour — i.e., between lunch and dinner; the meat is overcooked and the selection is not as good
— the wine comes in cheap, thick glasses — devaluing the experience
— the salad bar does not feel as «upscale» as Fogo de Chao — but I don’t care as much about that; the salads and stuff in these places are there to fill you up and distract you from the true star (the meat)

We have been to other Brazilian steak houses, but this is the best by far! Love the food, service and the ambiance! Highly recommend this place! Cost is comparable in price to others.

This was our first time dining at Porto Alegre and we will definitely be back. Our server was very attentive. They have a great salad bar and their meats are tender and flavorful.

Me and my boyfriend had a late lunch here last week and we had a blast! All the buffet was delicious, from salads, appetizers, endless meats and desserts; everything was fabulous! The restaurant was so fancy and clean! Service was impeccable they keep on bringing out new meats and they even remembered what we tasted! I love the Brazilian bread that they bring, which is always delicious! It was so warm and gooey Lunch buffet was only $ 21, surprisingly reasonable! We will definitely be back soon!

Quick tips!
1. Porto Allegre will validate your parking within Paseo Colorado. This is good for 90 minutes of free parking. $ 2 for each additional 30 minutes.
2. Park all the way to the end of the parking lot nearest to the BJ’s. There is an elevator that takes you to the second floor.
3. Located between El Cholo Café and PF Chang’s
4. Weekend and dinner prices will run you about $ 40+ and weekday lunch prices are $ 21.00
5. They do have happy hour, I’m not sure if it’s daily but IIRC it’s from 2 PM to 7 PM with various drink specials and small appetizer plate specials.
6. There is a full service bar and lounge area.
It has been quite sometime since my first review of this place. As I said before, there were some consistency issues with the food and service, I am happy to report that the food has taken a major, major improvement. I’ll first talk about the food which is supposed to be the star of the restaurant anyways.
As noted before, they have a very large salad bar filled with many different items. From leafy salads to pesto pastas to cold cut italian style meats and cheese to even fried bananas. Among their offerings also include a fantastic meat chili sauce, a chicken stroganoff, and a seafood style stroganoff too. Aside from this, they also offer rice for those indulging in carbs.
For those new to Brazilian barbecue, you’ll notice a strange traffic light cube on your table. This traffic light cube signals to the gauchos – meat specialists – to start bringing their carved meats to your table. Green means go, yellow means a break, and red means stop. The waiters will also give you a fantastic cheese bread that comes out hot and has the texture of chewy mochi and cheese.
The star of the meal is obviously the meats, which include a variety of different ones between lunch and dinner. As I have more experience with the weekday lunch, I’ll talk about their set of meats here. In my previous review, I noted there were some issues with the meats that speak to inconsistency. I spoke with the owner, John, who told me that most of these quality issues have been fixed by having a dedicated person working on all the meats at once. Now, there is only one person in charge of cooking all the meats and the meats are cooked in a slow cooked fashion to ensure juiciness.
Tritip — My least favorite of the meats because any sort of marinade doesn’t reach the inside of the meat, if it’s cooked and roasted well on the outside, I would prefer the outside cut because at least it has flavor.
Picanha — My favorite of the meats, a slight strip of fat is on the top slice of the meat. Again, try to get an outside piece for maximum flavor. Very delicate, tender, and a little crispy when finished properly.
Pork tenderloin — One of the best on the menu, crispy, but a little fatty. For those who don’t really like pork, this can change your perception.
Pork belly — Also quite fatty, but now usually very crispy and nicely cooked.
Chicken legs — Usually very crispy, and unassuming, but very juicy on the inside.
Spicy polish sausage — Not a true brazilian offering since it is kielbasa, but there is a nice slight heat on it.
Sausage (? not sure of the meat, but not the spicy one) — Not a fan personally as I find the casing a little hard.
Pork ribs — Quite nice flavor, but can be tougher to eat.
Turkey breast wrapped in bacon — My girlfriend’s favorite, a very juice cut of turkey wrapped around with bacon. Sometimes the bacon can be a little less crispy than preferred, but still a favorite among the two of us.
The only thing they can really truly improve on when it comes to the food is the availability of ingredients in their stroganoff. There is never enough chicken, and it’s mostly just soup. Otherwise, the last time that we were there, their fantastic chili wasn’t present and never came out for the rest of our time at lunch.
Porto Allegre offers dessert a la carte from the buffet. However, they do have fried bananas for those who don’t want to pay extra for dessert. I have tried their flan and it is fantastic. Quite the blend of creaminess and caramel sauce. The slice was also pretty big and generous! I can’t comment on the rest of their desserts, but given the opportunity I would probably try it.
Previously, I mentioned how bad the table service was before. The table service still needs massive improvement. Drink service is still slow and plates will definitely stack up. The one thing that makes me particularly unhappy is that the it took them over 10 minutes to charge our credit card and return our validation. The time stamp on the bill was printed and delivered to our table around 1:40ish pm and the bill came back around 1:55ish. During this time, I wasn’t able to flag down the server because I never saw him on our side of the room. Does it really take 15 minutes to swipe my credit card? You might think that this is no big deal, but we were charged for parking. Great food, but be wary of poor service.

Great customer service! We have tried other brazilian steak houses in the past and this is by far the best and our favorite. The food is amazing. The flavor is perfect and they go above and beyond on their service.

Not all Brazilian churrascuria restaurants are created equal. They typically boast an extensive salad buffet and unlimited meat, but the quality varies considerably between locations. Sadly, Porto Alegre ranks beneath Fogo de Chão and M Grill in terms of ingredients and overall experience.
Located on the second floor of a shopping center, Porto Alegre has a modern, open floor plan with a full bar and salad islands. Early on a Thursday night, most of the tables were empty – a pleasant alternative to the cramped chaos of Fogo de Chão. Their caipirinha fruit cocktail is good, although overpriced for a small carafe stuffed with fruit.
While service was efficient, the beef cuts were poorly trimmed and lacking seasoning. I found the filet and tri tip gristly and chewy, in desperate need of chimichurri. Their poultry dishes were significantly better, especially the bacon wrapped turkey. After over an hour of dining, the duck and quail failed to make an appearance.
If you’re craving Brazilian, there’s better, less expensive alternatives not far from Porto Alegre. Try M Grill in Koreatown for a superior meal.

Been here a handful of times and I really do enjoy the meats they serve. My fave is their
tri-​tip, peppercorn steak, and top sirloin. I do enjoy their salad bar and cheese ball appetizers. Their black bean is well seasoned and tasty.
Servers are kind and keep up with the meat service without having to waive them down.
Drinks are great, but a bit pricey. Overall, a fun spot to go to with friends and family.

Great food especially on Christmas Day when everything else is closed. Great service. The server switched out my wine when I didn’t like the one I ordered initially with at no cost. They allowed us to order from the a la carte menu rather than from the Brazilian buffet because we weren’t that hungry. My friend and I shared the duck, chicken stroganoff, prime rib, mixed greens, the bread — which is not your run of the mill bread, awesome. The desserts were good too. Will definitely be back.

This place was just ok when ot comes to looks. It goes plain after the door. The servive was great. The food was just like other Brazilian resturants lots of meats. The meats were really good. This is a scaled down version of the place in BH. I would go back but not soon. Im tired of meats right now.

My first time ever trying Brazilian BBQ.
There was separate area for side dishes such as a salad, rice, soup etc and the servers bring meat to the table and continuously feed you unless you had enough lol
Meat was so tender, juicy, and so much flavor. I wish I could eat more … Thumbs up!

Came for lunch with my BF and my gf G. Both being newbies to this place.
Salad and side bar is plentiful. Now for the meats… Since it is all about the meat!
Waiter asked us how we prefer our steaks. We answered medium rare x2 + 1 medium well.
Ughmmmm why ask this question, when all the meat is cooked to ‘leathery chewy’ level? If the server never stated what meat he was carving, we really couldn’t tell what type of meat it really was to start off with.
Each of the red meat taste like they were all boiled then rolled into spices and charred on the outside to give it the look of being on the ‘grill or plancha’ … But damn for $ 20+ per person don’t be acting like Burger King and just stamping grill marks on the meat ! Grill the damn meat!!!
For the price, so not worth it. Pretty much we all had very expensive salads with rice and black beans … Plus a few edible slivers of meat that was not memorable at all.
Poor cows /​chickens/​pigs. Gave up their lives to be mistreated so. You guys could all have been done due justice and be the talk of the town.
Instead my favorite dish was a cucumber feta salad and their beets and grapefruit medley. Yea. My hankering for meat continues…
$ 100 later, we left hungry n with a funny metallic taste in our mouths.
Kinda like a street walker minus the smeared makeup n without the money for our pimp.

Not bad, but not terrible.
I wouldn’t come here expecting the same caliber as Fogo de Chao; however, the meaty offerings were decent enough.
The bacon wrapped turkey was probably the best thing here (even over the bacon wrapped filet and ribeye). The turkey was tender and not dry at all.
The salad bar had decent offerings as well.
The service from the waitstaff was mediocre even though the restaurant was only half occupied.
They charge dinner prices all day on the weekends.
I would suggest trying out the joint for lunch first. I doubt I would return for the dinner prices as the quality of the meat just isn’t worth the price point.

Pricey but just OK.
I didn’t really know what to expect from this place but the food was definitely solid. Though for the price and the cuts of meat (some were fatty and overcooked), I’d rather go to a steakhouse.
I was most disappointed in the unlimited salad bar. Just uninspired food without a ton of flavor. Nothing special… sort of like Sizzler minus the cheese toast.
They did provide cheese bread for the table (little round cheese rolls) but it came out late. We also were waiting for the plantains for a while.
They definitely pile on the meat here and at one point I got overwhelmed. It’s hard to try to have a conversation and keep up with all of the rounds of meat! I ended up feeling rushed and waaaaaaay too full afterwards. I wish they would just space out the meats a bit and be cognizant of how quickly people are eating.
We paid well over $ 100 for two people and a glass of wine. Definitely not something you can do for a casual dinner.

Ate here for Valentine’s evening. Dinner was indeed delicious, and the waiters were prompt as could be in spite of the restaurant being busy that evening.
Things that could have enhanced the evening: 1) The waiters could have come around to our table a tad quicker with the tasty meats. It’s a little frustrating to sit there hungry anticipating for the next sample. And 2) The restaurant quickly ran out of the Asada Papas (garlic-​like cubed potatoes) that were super delicious. After I finished my initial portion, I walked back to the salad bar at least three times within 20 minutes, and the waitstaff never put out more of that product.
All in all, it was a very nice evening. Great ambience, and good food. They validate for parking, and the underground lot is easy to access from Colorado Blvd.

Stopped by this evening for dinner, felt like binging on some ayce brazilian bbq so I did a search and this place was the closest to me with the most solid reviews.
Started off with the salad bar, nice variety of greens, pastas, cheeses. The artichoke salad was real good. They also have soups and chili which I didnt try but smelled delicious. Tried the black beans which were nice and flavorful, rice, and some kind of sweet candied banana’s. The mini cheese rolls aka pan de quiejo was good.
I ordered the brazilian beer which looked like a dark lager, Later i would realize that this was the perfect addition to my meat binge.
On to the main course… I kept the meat coming for a majority of the time after the salad. Good selection and variety of meats, tried everything they had. The ones that I enjoyed the most and stood out were the signature beef picanha, the garlic steak, the turkey wrapped in bacon (yumm!!), chicken drumstick. I really enjoyed all of the meat they had to offer although I think the skirt steak could have been a little better it wasn’t bad
After my meat overload I ordered the brazilian flan for dessert, It was really good. It was a bit different then your average flan but in a good way. Usually i can only have a few bites of flsn because it’s sk horribly sweet but this one was so good I actually finished the whole thing.
Service was good, waiter was attentive, they kept the meat coming and didn’t seem stingy or try to fill us up on the cheaper stuff.
I think I would come back if I am in the area and craving some ayce bbq goodness, but I would also like to give some of the other churrascarias a try just to have something else to comapre this to. Very solid place I think it’s worth a try

After eating M Grill in K-​Town, I thought it would be downgrade eating in Porto Alegre. After the price is almost $ 10 difference. The meat selection is less here, and that surprise to me the most, it was almost empty house during weekday lunch hour… All this are not good sign.
Despite all this, I do enjoy eating here. Most important their salad bar was impressive, it actually offer more stuff then M Grill, the salad bar has just about everything. This is something you might wanna avoid if you paying for the full price here. The meat selection is decent, it doesn’t had lamb for lunch, their dinner seem to had a lot more but also twice the price…
I enjoy their picanha, it was juicy. The meat that impressive me the most was their pork ribs actually. That was some of the best rib I ever had. The flavor just right and not too sweet, I can’t stand those HFCS that use in most bbq sauce. The one thing I keep eating in the salad bar, was those cocktail shrimp.
Customer service was good, our waiter look like Mike Tyson. Interior was nice and pretty big, it even got a piano in the middle. If you tired of KBBQ, and love meat and AYCE. Churrasco is very good alternative. The lunch price was $ 19, they give out like $ 20 off coupon for dinner. I probably would come back for their dinner someday. I think this is underrated churrasco.