Tropeiro

This was my first time at Tropeiro yesterday and I must say this was a mind, or rather stomach-​blowing experience!
The concept is based on the Brasilian meat restaurant experience: you have a salad bar with free and unlimited service, and a selection of meats that are cooked on a rolling basis, for you to choose from. The cook comes to your table with each type of meat, one at a time (thank God) but at a rather swift pace. In total, you get to taste 14 different meats, all more delicious than the other. My favourite I think was the lamb and the pork chops… they were melting in my mouth!
Service was absolutely perfect and you are sure to have a very nice experience, especially with the whole ‘show’ around the meat service. You might say there is a bit of a lack of authenticity because none of the staff member was actually Brazilian, but I could live with it!
A piece of advice though: pace yourself and you don’t have to try absolutely all the meats (like I did)…that can be a bit much to deal with!
If you still have room after the 14 meats though, I recommend their banana toffee ice cream: very refreshing after this kind of meal… although again, you might want to take it easy on the dessert :) Enjoy!

This is now my fav restaurant! Love this place. Food is just amazing ! Staff really friendly too. The meat just keeps coming and coming until you turn your card to red and sometimes it’s still comes lol. You’ll defo have meat sweats by the end. I had my stag doo in here as well. I just noticed I’m in their photo. Second guy in holding the green card.
Recommend this place, it’s a must.

stay off the lamb but eat copious amounts of everything else :-)
I have eaten here a few times, I’ve also eaten at Viva Brazil (Brasil maybe) and to be honest I can’t tell the difference food wise. The meat perhaps has more types of flavourings, not more flavour though, at Viva but to be honest the meat is much of a muchnens. The focus is on the meat so I’m not sure a vegetarian would like it here, although the salad bar is very good it may not be enough for a main meal.
It’s the laidback atmosphere that I prefer about Tropeiro, it has less frills, and no random carnival dancers which is what I prefer when I’m eating. It has always been less busy compared to its counterpart down the road when I’ve been, I think location plays a part in this as the other aspects, price quality etc seem very similar to me.
For those of you not familiar with this type of dinning it works like this. There is a big buffet in the middle, this is primarily salad but has warm stews, soups, and sauces you fill up here as often as you like and wait for your meat to be served. It’s all you can eat, salad buffet and meat, with up to ten types of meat, depending what time you go, being brought over to your table and cut to your liking on big skewers. The things come out at random times in random orders but if you keep eating they keep coming. The salad bar is great, big variety of things and the potatoes are out of this world.
The meat is amazing, I really enjoy everything they have, and the selection is varied, ribs, brisket, wing, sausages, gammon and a whole host of others. Simple seasoned, generall just salt and pepper but incredible succulent and tasty at the same time. Tonight the lamb was a bit disappointing but when nine other things are prefect who cares.
At face value it is expensive, around £25.00 just for food pp, however you can easily spend 3 hours here pacing yourself and enjoying some friendly conversation with the servers. Not somewhere I could afford to come ever week but for a special occasion with a big group an no rush this place is fantastic.

Initially, Tropeiro didn’t massively impress me. But the more I ate, and the more I think about the experience as a whole, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it!
Tropeiro is a Brazilian Churrascaria, where all the meat is served to you rodizio style, which is a Brazilian steakhouse in which you pay a set price and a selection of meats are all brought to your table on giant skewers. When you arrive at the restaurant, you’re given a card that has a green and a red side, and this basically allows you to signal to the staff when you want more food or when you’re finished.
Last night, Colin and I went in here for the first time as I’d read all the positive reviews of it on Unilocal and decided it was the place to satisfy my meat cravings. When we went in, a waitress came over and asked if it was our first time, and seeing as it was, explained to us the way the restaurant worked which was helpful. We were to take our plates up to the salad bar, and when we were satisfied, we could come back and turn out meat cards to green. The salad bar was packed with things from pasta to cucumber to salsa and it was all delicious. The salad bar is unlimited, just like the meat, which is glorious!
A selection of 10 different meats are then brought over the course of the evening, in no particular order. There was rump steak, pork ribs, gammon, chicken, chicken wrapped in bacon, sausages, chicken hearts (yup!), rump cap, brisket and ribs. I absolutely loved the rump cap, or picanha as it’s known. So rare and juicy and tender. The brisket was really chewy, so I didn’t enjoy that as much, and everything else went down nicely. Even the chicken hearts, which Colin almost gagged looking at.
For £19.95 a head, I think it’s an absolutely fantastic deal. You don’t get massive pieces of meat, so it does require sitting a bit longer the hungrier you are, but I left completely full and thoroughly satisfied. I’d definitely go back!

I visited Tropeiro as part of a dedicated survey of the Brazilian establishments in Glasgow. I was turned onto this type of dining by several friends in the United States.
So, I took a firm friend who is an established carnivore. I did not want any whining when the meat started to arrive. He had also been to Tropeiro before and he had a firm grasp of the at table etiquette of eating at a Brazilian restaurant. So guide at my side, we grabbed a table near the front and ordered a single beer. The price of beers in these places usually pretty high and so we were sticking to the single beer rule.
First a review of the sides. I have to say I was really impressed by the buffet that was laid out. Decent salad bar and a excellent selection of Brazilian and Scottish vegatable dishes. The Brazilian fish stew was excellent and I would have had this as a main course if possible.
But here is the conundrum. You arrive at this place with an agenda. The purpose is to consume the skewered meat that is circulating the room and dished out in small sections. So, an over-​indulgence in these lovely side dishes does seem to be a waste.
The meats started to arrive, some of better quality than others. The sausages and chicken was lovely along with the the lamb, however, the beef and pork I found really fatty. I am not sure if this is the style that Brazilians prefer, but I found it too much fat for myself.
The thing you discover quite quickly is that animal protein fills you up really fast. It sets off the chemical triggers that tell your brain you are full much faster than carbs. So, possibly 6 visits later by the waiters, I was completely done and I was wondering what the fuss was with this.
I am sure it would be good if you had a large table of folks but at 20 – 30 quid a head before drinks, this could get expensive fast. Personally, I would have preferred to get a really nice single piece of meat and enjoy the really gorgeous sides available here.
I would try Brazilian Dining at least the once. You may find that this is the style of eating you really enjoy. Personally, I am not a fan.

Another good place for a meat feast. A little less pricey than the other Brazilian Steak House nearby with then 10 cuts rather than 15 still makes for a good selection. The rump on this occasion was excellent. The frequency of servings is a bit lower but that does allow for a bit of breathing space.

MEAT!
This is not a place for the vegans or vegetarians I’m afraid ~ although they do offer veggie stews and plenty of salads, etc… but this place is all about the meat.
T’was my second visit to Tropeiro and after my 1^st visit I was begging people (even strangers ‘Leave me alone you crazy pink haired woman! I don’t even know you!’) to go back because upon my 1^st visit I thought it had all been some mad meat dream (like a cheese dream but more bloody). So when the opportunity arose to go back I went ‘Hell yeah!’ and I was already sat there, in the restaurant waiting for everyone else, like a month before we were actually going… but hey! I can have a thousand Caipirinha’s while I wait *sluuurp* Talking of those gorgeous (yet unpronounceable) cocktails — this was my first taste of them and boy, I think I have a new favourite cocktail! Yum yum. It’s a mixture of a sugar cane spirit, sugar and limes, lots of limes. On this occasion I did actually drink about 5 of them (oh the shame.) but I actually felt FINE the next morning so YAS to that.
Now, I’m not very good at All-​You-​Can-​Eat buffet places ~ I tend to go ‘WOAH! FOOOOD!’ and just pile everything on my plate (should of brought my bigger plate, a la Alan Partridge) then after about 30 minutes I’m ‘Urgh. I feel ill’ So when I seen that all the salad/​bread/​olives/​stews/​etc. were in a buffet style I tried not to go too mad (I still kinda did though) and had pretty much a small amount of everything — so many lovely foods to chose from: potatoes with chilli, garlic olives, yummy rice, BREAD, salad bits, vegetable stew and much more. You can fill your plate as many times as you like with these which is fab.
I must say that our lovely waitress came around once we’d all sat down and settled and explained, to those unfamiliar with the place, how the place works — you all have a card with green on one side and red on the other; green means MEAT PLEASE! and red means I THINK I MAY DIE FROM MEAT POISONING! or something like that anyway. You help yourself to the buffet then one by one the meat dudes come around with their meat on a huge sword (ooh err matron), tell you what type of meat it is then ask if you’d like some. Now there are too many types of meat for me to mention but on this particular evening all the types of beef/​steak I had were absolutely DELICIOUS. Melt in the mouth and meaty goodness, WOOF! Also, I must add you can say to the meat peeps (they have an official name but I can’t remember it) if you’d like your meat well done, medium, rare or still breathing (joke).
Now I have been here twice and also been impressed twice I will most deffo, Fo SURE, be back to this establishment. I would also like to try other Brazilian restaurants to see how they fair in comparison (and also just to glug another delicious Caipirinha)
Tropeiro: we shall most definitely MEAT again. (Oh dear)

One of two Brazilian carnivore dens I’ve visited while in Glasgow.
Never mind the ambiance and the fancy drinks menu — they all distract from what really matters in evaluating churrascarias: the quality and variety of meats.
Tropeiro is a tad outside the city center, a ten minute walk west from the central station on Argyle.
The meats were consistently overcooked; I enjoy the occasional end cut but not at every serving. There simply weren’t enough guests to turnover the stock. Trouble was that remainders were returned to the grill to be cooked yet further, inevitably blackening everything.
The coconut milk in the fish stew was a bit excessive, though it was Tropeiro’s saving grace for me that evening.

What a place! All you can eat BBQ’d meat, carved in front of you at your table, for £20.
The meat was lovely. You could try steak, chicken thighs, sausages, pork ribs, gammon, and even chicken hearts.
In the centre of the room there’s a chilled section with lots of salads, pastas, and sauces. There’s also ample portions of rice and stews available too.
I recommend trying a Caipirinha. Basically just rum, lime juice, brown sugar and lots of cruahed ice. So refressing and maximises the room in your stomach for more meat.
It’s well suited to large groups, but equally as well to couples. I had a great night.

Brazilian food has never particularly appealed to me, but my other half insisted we try out Tropeiro at the weekend, a relatively new Brazilian buffet style restaurant at the far end of Argyle Street (past the Raddison and keep on walking).
There isn’t much in this area to make it a place you’d particularly visit, so I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting much. I have eaten in a Brazilian place once before, and fancied nothing off the menu other than fish. My boyfriend had a bean stew which wasn’t to my taste, so I was sceptical to say the least.
We arrived to be greeted by a lovely big, airy restaurant, with wooden tables and dimmed lights, with an overwhelming smell of barbecued steaks. Yum. We were told we could have a table for an hour, because they were fully booked, so we took it gratefully. Right next to the area where they BBQ the meat skewers. Hot is an understatement.
The lovely waitress explained the way our meal would work. The Rodizio concept, Brazilian for ‘continuous service’, is used here, and you’re issued with a card each, with a green side and a red side. Green side up means come and feed me, red side up means no thanks! This is a system that I like! You’re also provided with a little pair of tongs each to pick up the meats from your server, and a bowl for any bones or fatty bits. We also ordered a couple of caipirinhas, an absolute must in a Brazilian restaurant!
We began by picking up some sides and starters from the buffet table in the middle of the restaurant. My only nitpick at this point is that there isn’t a lot of room for manœuvre around the table, because of other customers seated nearby. The table was heaving with loads of bowls full of delicious accompaniments: couscous with red onion and cucumber, mixed olives, spaghetti pasta with tuna and roasted peppers (delicious by the way), roasted aubergines, breads, oils and pastas to name a handful. We filled up and headed back to our table.
Pretty much as soon as our bums hit the seat, a man dressed like a Brazilian ‘Gaucho’, came to our table wielding a large double skewer packed with chicken legs and sausages. We accepted them, and went on eating. Within three or four minutes, another Gaucho came with a skewer of Pichana, sirloin flavoured with garlic and oils. This was to die for. Absolutely divine, although if you are at all squeamish about how your meat is cooked then I would leave this one out. There was blood on my plate, but it was amazing!
And so, the night continued much the same! Every 5 – 10 minutes a man would bring another mouth watering meat to our table and ask if we would like some. The highlights were definitely the sirloin and the Cordeiro, spring lamb marinaded in rosemary and white wine stuffed with lemons. I have to say that the red meat far surpassed the chicken which is usually my meat of choice. Everything was cooked to perfection.
We went back to the buffet to help ourselves to some more Brazilian fare, which included my other half’s favourite Feijoada, a black bean stew with diced sausages and a delicious fish stew with coconut and palm oil. I could only manage a little of this with a spoonful of white rice. This was a feast indeed!
We finished on a high note, absolutely stuffed to the brim! We’d been offered a total of 8 or 9 meats in the duration of our meal, and I’d tried about 5 of them. The idea is superb, and a fantastic idea if you are with a big group, very social and a great talking point.
For the buffet and two cocktails, we racked up a bill of just under £50, not too bad at all. The welcome was warm, the atmosphere relaxed and the food fantastic. Only one thing bothered me. In the course of our meal, we hadn’t turned our cards over to green once, yet the waiters just kept coming anyway! We weren’t complaining, but clearly the system wasn’t observed, or maybe we looked like we needed a good feed!