Churrascaria Palace — Restaurant in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Read below for my “what’s good here” comments, but what’s deplorable to me is that this otherwise fine restaurant appears to use fake reviews to pump up their overall score, i.e. streams of dozens of reviews posted on the same day by “Guides” who have no other reviews and no comments nor photos which in my thousands of reads and hours on Google Maps, does not occur! Take 2 minutes yourself to scroll through and see what I mean! There is no such thing as 20% of the seating capacity of a restaurant doing a Google Maps review each day. So I was offended before coming here that this place seemingly thinks potential customers are idiots! By the way, a significant American corporation I formerly worked for would be reluctant to use this restaurant due to the seemingly unethical review score pumping up process deployed here! Why shoot your own self in the foot as a business? THAT SAID, there are also real 5 star reviews herein, so I somewhat reluctantly and with much curiosity came here to experience this long-standing restaurant. Well, the service here is indeed excellent, every person we encountered here was super friendly to us, helpful, accommodating, and we were never rushed and most importantly understood us / what meats we wanted. The buffet here is small compared to similar places, yet the food choices were still great, a nice range to suit most tastes and the quality of most items very high. Some people rave about the sushi here, to me it was okay but very basic and limited as one might expect, this is a meat grill right? Meats here were cooked nicely, not overdone, and of course everything was generously salted (my preference). If you don’t like salty stuff, maybe don’t come here. The atmosphere is loud, looked like some tour group tables etc., however as a couple they seated us at a nice quieter table in back, it became a near private room which worked for us, maybe our reservation helped not sure. We enjoyed the place a lot. We tested the availability of things they don’t just bring around, I suggest you read the provided list and make your requests early on, and in all cases they had the item and graciously served them, the head waiter even came by often to ensure we got our Buffalo (so good!) and ostrich (fun to try, not the cook’s fault, but not our thing, it turns out ostrich is kind of rubbery to us, maybe that’s why there is no huge world demand for ostrich). Note that the big bottle of water here is priced to make sure that those not drinking wine pay the same amount of profit margin $ for their beverage as the wine drinkers (see bill, maybe ~ half the restaurant’s profit on our bill is on the water). So my rating score walking in the door was -1 stars for lack of ethics, and a 4 star for the full actual food and service experienced, resulting in a total...

~ The service was fantastic. The ambiance was good. The music wasn't too loud and the genres played were between average and softer, in intensity. It is a buffet style type restaurant. The food was good and the servers brought the meat to your table, to cut it fresh in front of you. I prefer cheeses and fish, and eveything they served was fantastic. The wine selection was absolutely incredible, with a wide range in prices and types. This place is on the expensive side, even for Rio. And, for the price, I still felt satisfied after the entire meal. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Rio. And I, personally, plan on returning. ~ Le service était fantastique. L'ambiance était bonne. La musique n'était pas trop forte et les genres joués se situaient entre moyen et doux, en intensité. C'est un restaurant de type buffet. La nourriture était bonne et les serveurs ont apporté la viande à votre table, pour la couper fraîche devant vous. Je préfère les fromages et le poisson, et tout ce qu'ils ont servi était fantastique. La sélection de vins était absolument incroyable, avec une large gamme de prix et de types. Cet endroit est cher, même pour Rio. Et, pour le prix, je me sentais toujours satisfait quand le repas était fini. Je recommanderais certainement cet endroit à tous ceux qui visitent Rio. Et moi, personnellement, j'ai...

TOURIST TRAP! (Food is good but service is poor & DAM its pricey💰💰💰)

The GOOD 👍👍

The buffet is decent with many salad options / fresh sushi + sashimi / excellent cheese options / some warm dishes too) All of the meat is fantastic. Really well seasoned cuts of all types (beef / chicken / lamb / ribs ) Plate replacements are faster than light.

The BAD 👎👎👎

The seafood tray is awful. Shrimp is not cleaned so the dark sand vein is still intact along with the shell... The grilled calamari was just ok. The decor and setting is completely outdated. Feels like an old cafeteria rather than a high end steakhouse. Table setting feels chaotic. Our table of 4 was joined with another table of 4... Why? I wasn't interested in hearing discriminatory remarks coming from the table right next to us... They charged us R$27 (15 CAD) for a 750ml bottle of water. That's insane. Most cocktails around the city are ~R$ 20. The seating tax is a chunky 12%. I don't mind if the service is good but servers are always rushed so multiple times we've had meat juice either sprayed or dripped on one of us... If you prefer a calm meal, this place is not for you.

Gave it a 1-star because my expectations were high based on other reviews & the full package experience is sub-par. (meat selection...