After 5: Restaurant Review: Rodizio Brazilian Grill

Imagine this: You walk into a bustling restaurant where servers in white shirts reminiscent of the 1970s – flowing sleeves and open collars – are carrying huge knives and pieces of meat with a skewer right through the middle. At each place setting are stainless steel tongs, poised to catch the meat as it is sliced and place it right on your plate. A large cold bar area offers all the accoutrements of the meal – salads, pastas, vegetables, cheeses, even sushi. Without having to make a single menu choice, except to say “enough,” you have experienced the most unusual dining environment to hit the Ozarks since “throwed” rolls came to town.

This is Rodizio Brazilian Grill, a churrascaria-style restaurant.

‘The McDonald’s of Brazil’

The person responsible for Rodizio, Nan Kim, is part of the Buenos Aires, Brazil, family that in 2002 brought the Argentina Steakhouse to 1410 E. Republic Road. While The Argentina Steakhouse is meant for the fine linen and silver crowd, Rodizio is more family style and casual. Both offer seating in a private dining area for business parties and special events.

Yet, Rodizio’s prix fixe of $21 per person keeps it in the special occasion bracket.

Rodizio General Manager Zachary Lanham calls the churrascaria-style restaurants “the McDonald’s of Brazil” for its prevalence.

The three-course meal starts with soup and fresh biscuits. The self-serve cold bar is always open, and the carved meats come throughout the meal.

Everything was well seasoned. The soup, however, was on the oily side, with what looked like little bits of canned potatoes and carrots, so feel free to skip it in order to save room for the meat and potatoes. Lanham said the soup is made fresh daily.

Our party of six appeared to be the norm. We had come to eat and be entertained, and Rodizio delivered.

Our waiter was David, although he was not the only server who stopped by our table that night. He and the busy gauchos came by as long as we had our green “go” cube turned up, signaling that we were still eating and ready to sample the latest selection from the grill.

Head gaucho Ainsworth Williams was highly entertaining. He’s also the former owner of Tropical Breezes, one of the restaurants in Springfield that has come and, sadly, gone. A showman at heart, Williams literally sang his way through each dining room offering “fresh sea bass, all the way from Fellows Lake” in a lilting voice that carried over the din of dining chatter.

Throughout the evening, we were served sausage, top sirloin, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, garlic marinated rib eye, leg of lamb, chicken legs, chicken breast, ham, meatloaf, sea bass and pork loin. In addition, the gauchos continually bring hot-roasted potatoes and wonderfully seasoned sweet potato French fries.

Several of us at the table found the meats a little rare for our taste, but our server quickly accommodated that by offering to prepare sample plates of each meat cooked to our liking. Without any real interruption to the timing of the meal, we each had a saucer of several meats placed in front of us – repeated as often as we asked. In fact, one of the sword bearers went so far as to bring us rib eye cooked to medium well just because he’d noticed our penchant for the toastier ends.

We ordered several different desserts and passed them around. The chocolate cake was one of the desserts made in-house. Feel free to find out which ones are prepared on any given night and try to go for those. Regardless, each one of the $5 dessert offerings is dressed from the cart with chocolate or strawberry sauce and presented with a flourish.

The verdict

Rodizio has the slight disadvantage of comparison with a Rodizio Grill we recently visited in Denver. The Denver Rodizio (no relation) offered hot as well as cold foods on its bar and another six or seven meats. It was also more expensive, and given Springfield’s restaurant market and the differing sizes of our two metropolitan areas, the local Rodizio has probably achieved an appropriate balance between food and price.

Our bill for two was about $57, including dessert and a substantial cup of coffee, plus tip. Rodizio may be a social setting more than a business setting, and as such is perfect for family gatherings.

Rodizio has five dining areas and, on our Friday night visit, every one of them appeared full of customers. An outside area seems ready for spring.

When we left our table, there was a waiting list of people; Lanham pointed to the quality of food, saying, “That’s what brings them back.”

Reservations are accepted and recommended.

Rodizio Brazilian Grill

Address: 3371 E. Montclair (formerly Tres Hombres, at Battlefield and 65)

Phone: (417) 881-8882

Hours: 11 a.m.–2 p.m. and 4:30–9 p.m. Monday through Saturday

History: Founded in November by the Kim family of Buenos Aires

Features: Rotisserie-grilled meats served tableside

Price points: Prix fixe of $21 per person, plus beverages, dessert and tip

Drinks: Happy Hour is 4:30–7 p.m.

Ambience: Upscale family. The restaurant seats 250 in five dining areas, and offers a private room for corporate entertaining.

Parking: Plenty of on-site parking

Reservations: Recommended for larger parties.

Glossary of Terms

Rodizio (Ro-DEE-zee-oh): a style of restaurant service common in South America, particularly credited to Brazil.

Churrascaria: A restaurant where rotisserie-grilled meat is sliced at the table, off of a spear or skewer, in small portions. Servers return to the table frequently with different varieties of meat.

Prix Fixe: A French phrase for fixed price, usually including more than one course and chef’s selections rather than ordering from a menu.

Gaucho: The term used for cowboy in South America.

Kay Logsdon is director of the food channel, an affiliate of Noble. Paul K. Logsdon is director of public relations and publications for Evangel University. They have 25 years of experience reviewing restaurants.[[In-content Ad]]