Seconds?

How about fourteenths instead? At Rodizio Brazilian Grill, the entrées keep coming until you ask them to stop.

Rodizio Brazilian Grill is my vegetarian sister’s worst nightmare and your inner carnivore’s dream come true. It’s a place where you won’t have to stare at the menu and try to convince yourself that you’d rather have the Parmesan-encrusted beef tenderloin than the bacon-wrapped filet mignon. Or wait… maybe you really do want the filet. Or maybe the KC strip steak? Yeah, there’s none of that pesky “deciding” to be done at Rodizio. If it’s made in the kitchen, it can be on your plate. Your only decision is when to stop eating.

The word rodizio signifies a style of restaurant service common at Brazilian steakhouses (or churrascarias) where chefs circulate the dining room and continually offer patrons food sliced straight off a big ol’ skewer until they’ve had enough. At Rodizio in Springfield, you pay a set price ($21) to partake of soup, the cold bar buffet and about 15 kinds of slow-roasted meats.
Our server was sweet and helpful, although she was not present most of the time because half the work is DIY and the other half is done by the chefs who bring the meat around. She first explained the restaurant’s concept to us, saying that the goal is to taste everything that’s offered, and then she brought us each a bowl of vegetable beef soup and a cheesy biscuit. After that, we let ourselves loose on the serve-yourself cold bar.

The items on the cold bar were a little bit like a Pollock family backyard potluck: Lots of salad dishes that were yummy but somtimes mayonaise-y and less exotic than I hoped they would have been. One side of the cold bar had what looked like canned olives, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese cubes and the like. The cheese looked like it had been sitting there for a bit too long. Your enjoyment of carnivore time at Rodizio probably won’t depend on your access to fresh cheese, but if you think it might, then go at lunch.

But the cold bar was not all bad. My dining buddy, Evan Fisk, had a pasta dish with red sauce and calamari that he really enjoyed. As simple as it might sound, my favorite item on the cold bar was the soy-ginger-ish dressing on one of the salads. That dressing was go-ood.

There are about 15 meats you can taste once you turn your coaster to green and let the chefs know that you’re ready for them to pay you a visit. We turned our coasters over, and someone was at our table right away. He cut off a two-bite-sized piece of Parmesan-encrusted beef tenderloin for each of us, and we suddenly decided that we might be there all night. This was just a couple of bites, and we didn’t know how long we’d be waiting for our next two bites. In case you wonder the same thing, the answer is “less than a minute.” Before we could even try the tenderloin, another chef was at our table offering spicy sea bass. Then another with ribeye. Soon our server came by with roasted potatoes and sweet potato fries for sides, as well as a very delicious, spicy-herby sauce to dip all of the meats in. The next thing we knew, our plates were full, and we were no longer sure what was what.

Evan’s favorite was the bacon-wrapped filet, but I preferred the KC strip steak. The rump roast was a close second, and it was the most tender roast I’ve ever eaten. There was even a Brazilian meatloaf that was brought around by a hilarious singing chef with a Jamaican accent. (He was the same person who brought us our sea bass, which he also presented with a song. If you ever visited Tropical Breezes before it closed, you’ll recognize him as one of its extra-fun owners, Ainsworth Williams.)

I don’t have a negative thing to say about any of the meats (and there were 13 different meats that came our way). We wanted to make it all the way to 15, but we couldn’t do it. We had to turn our coasters to red, signaling that we were finished with the meat-on-sticks part of the meal. Also, we’d spotted the dessert cart and decided we needed to save a little room for sweets. Keep in mind, desserts are not included in the price of the meal. Nobody told us that, and since the treats were being distributed via cart by a traveling chef, we thought they were part of the deal. We nabbed chocolate cream pie and lemon meringue pie. I couldn’t finish the lemon meringue, but Evan was a champ with the chocolate cream pie, I have to say.

My recommendation: Let the meat-eatin’ demon inside you break free at Rodizio. It’s not an everyday kind of eating. But it’s worth it at the very least for the experience of dining a different way, and these slow-roasted meats won’t disappoint.

Rodizio brazilian grill, 3371 E. Montclair St., 417-881-8882, 11 a.m.–2 p.m., 4:30 p.m.–9 p.m., Mon.–Sat.

About reviewing
Reviews are written by our editors as a service to readers, without advertising consideration. Visits are as anonymous as possible, and all expenses are paid by 417 Magazine. New restaurants are allowed four weeks to establish themselves before a first visit. To comment, please e-mail editor@417mag.com.

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