Rodeo Brazilian Steakhouse Rodizio — Restaurant in Toronto

Absolutely phenomenal dining experience. My wife is from Rio - and we both absolutely loved the food.

Well worth the 75$ - gratuity was optional but well deserved. It wasn't crowded and unlike most other AYCE, if it was- it wouldn't feel overwhelming with the layout.

Atmosphere: the restaurant is very clean, neat and tidy- salad bar directly in the middle, and the bar portion off to the side. Music was all in Portuguese - and was not loud - so definitely heightened the experience.

Salad bar: fantastic. There was a huge number of options for anyone- from build-your-own salad to straight up brie cheese & prosciutto. Self-serve, so you can control how much you have. But word of advice: don't fill up on it. Everything I had was delicious, but I wanted to try it all- so I ate over half a plate full before even getting the meet!

Sides: also fantastic. Server brought out three sides to start, but we could request additional of any. Comes with fries, deep fried banana, rice with beans & farofa and Pão de Queijo.

Rice, beans & farofa- fantastic. The beans were cooked perfectly and stewed to perfection- creating a perfect meld of flavors. Deep Fried Banana- now this is something I've never had before, but was it ever good! It wasn't dense, and the crust was thin and perfectly cooked. Had some at the beginning and some at the end- worked perfectly with the main course and as a dessert. Pão de Queijo - freshly made. Soft, chewy, deliciousness- as they always are!

Now... the meat. The whole reason you'd go to a Steakhouse. DELICIOUS. We didn't have a single complaint about ANY of the meats - it was absolutely delicious. Everything came out at a relatively good pace. We had: rack of lamb, lamb shank, parmasean chicken, chicken thigh, parmasean pork, alcatra, garlic beef, picanha, New York striploin, and Filet Mignon wrapped in Bacon. There were more meats- we couldn't make it through everything!

Just to highlight some of them - due to character count:

• Parmasean chicken - definitely our favorite non-beef meat. The parmasean gives it a light crust from the barbecue, and while it's so flavourful- it's not overpowering. The pieces are small enough that every bite has some crust. The chicken itself was so soft and almost melted in your mouth. It was cooked perfectly. • Parmasean pork - unlike the chicken, it was sliced. The way the pork absorbs the parmasean created something unlike I've ever tried before. The parmasean was so strong with the first bite, but your taste buds adjust quickly to it to experience something new. • Alcatra - this was something me and my wife had never heard of before, but I wish I had years ago. Definitely my #1 cut of steak on the menu today. I can't even begin to describe it - the outside was so soft and so flavourful, yet so juicy. It wasn't heavily seasoned, thus amplifying the flavour of the barbecued meat- definitely worthy of writing home about.

ANY of their meats are worthy of a whole story. Everything was perfectly cooked & seasoned. Picanha was cooked perfectly and very flavourful, alongside the classic NY Striploin (my 2nd choice of steak from what we tried), and the fattiness from the bacon soaking into the filet mignon added a new height to the flavour. Garlic beef wasn't over garlicly- it was more of a light garlic, which differentiates itself from a garlic beef dish you may find at an Asian restaurant (we were very pleased and we both love garlic.) Chicken thighs were lightly seasoned and boneless- not gristly at all. I don't like lamb- but my wife had high praise that it was soft & delicious.

As well- if you like any of the beef well done- they will barbecue it longer for you.

The pineapple was very delicious- fresh & perfectly cinnamonned- sliced the same as a meat. Perfect way to finish off all the meats!

The only complaint I'd really have is that there was no signs for the salad bar - there were a few things that we weren't quite sure what they were, so we skipped over them.

Absolutely loved everything. If you're looking for Brazilian Steakhouse- go here! You...

TLDR; The meats tasted wonderful to myself and my party, Gustavo and Sebastian were kind and attentive, and I have absolutely no qualms with anything that we experienced. This evening I took my wife and mother out to eat here after my Mother read about it online and wanted to try it for her visit to Toronto.

Gustavo and Sebastian were serving us this evening. Sebastian was the one bringing out the food while Gustavo was taking care of everything else.

We came in for a 7:00PM reservation and were surprised to see we were the only ones here, and were concerned at first about this, but that quickly faded as we were helped.

The atmosphere of the lighting, the arrangements, and the decorations were lovely and fit well IMO with the food and dinner time style.

Gustavo after seating us asked if we'd been before, and since we had never been kindly walked us through how the evening was going to work and made it simple to understand.

Basically you have your salad bar to start, and a small series of side dishes (rice, beans, fried bananas, and french fries), then you are provided with a small card that is green on one side and red on another, and when it's green you're signaling you want them to bring you some meat. Once you're ready for meat to start coming out, they will ask if there's any meat you don't want (e.g. no pork). After that, it's just a lovely train of delicious meats!

In our case, Sebastian was always the one who brought out the meat. He would come out with a smile, say the name of the meat, and what kind it is (e.g. some cuts of pork/beef may not be obvious what animal they are from). Whomever wants a portion he will cut off a portion for, and sometimes he will ask you to use tongs to grab the slice while he cuts.

Perhaps due to it not having many people in there when we arrived, we absolutely had no concerns with how fast they brought us the meat. Definitely had to set our cards to red a few times just to catch up to Sebastian's speed!

I felt like there was more than enough variety. We had easily 15 different meats provided. We loved the Lamb Rib, Filet Mignon (particularly the parmesan crusted one), and the New York Steak. There was also a cut of beef that I cannot recall the name of. To Sebastian's credit, he was very kind in repeating the names of any cuts as many times as I asked; patience of a saint.

Once we had done the entire rotation of meats, Gustavo explained that we could have more, or switch to desert which was a delicious pineapple cut with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Also, I was surprised how good the drinks were. I had the Brazilian Colada (Pina Colada essentially) and my wife had the Caipirinha, both tasted fantastic. I can be really picky with drinks, but they both landed for us.

So, again, I had absolutely no qualms, and Gustavo and Sebastian were kind, patient, and...

Went there on a Saturday evening. Yes, the A/C was not working. Management told us that before we got seated, so we had time to leave if we weren’t comfortable. They also gave us plenty of ice. Using our common sense, we knew it would get hot since it wasn’t on the main floor. If your body is naturally warmer than others, I’d recommend waiting until they have A/C. Despite that, our time there was so fun!!! I’d go again. Their Chef (very nice person) was helping out in the back and serving food!! So those who complain about service not being quick enough – you clearly did not spend any time getting to know your servers to know the lack of staff, or aren’t level headed enough to realize the WHOLE PROVINCE IS SHORT-STAFFED. This is a high-activity work environment, so I appreciate all the staff that came to work and make our night amazing! I did NOT appreciate seeing customers being rude to the staff members that work during the pandemic…and yes, there were a few of them there. I was there on a Saturday evening. I witnessed the salads being re-loaded several times. Some foods at the salad bar: green salad, macaroni salad, charcuterie board meats, a whole wheel of parmesan, breads, mango salad (amazing), cucumber salad, smoked salmon (SO HAPPY they had this), Greek dolmades, avocado salad (So good!), and I’m missing just few. I would have appreciated hand sanitizer at the salad bar as we were all touching the same serving spoon for each entrée…though I think it would also be common sense to bring your own (yes, I brought my own) during a global pandemic. Keep in mind that one of the Brazilian meats is MEANT TO BE COVERED IN SEA SALT when made! I cannot remember the name…. but it is SUPPOSE to be that way. I did not know this until that evening. To me, everything was delicious. I enjoyed all the meats (and I said yes to everything until I was full). The meats came in as often as they humanly could, so no complaints there. The grilled pineapple was delicious (grilled whole, outside covered in cinnamon). They had a live singer who played guitar who helped with the whole ambiance. My friend who’s been to Brazil warned me that they don’t normally serve cream with their coffee whenever he goes there. The same goes for this restaurant, but they did accommodate with whipped cream! I also did NOT see a mandatory 20% tip on our bill. It was for a table of 3. My reasons for not giving 5 stars: There could have been more space in-between the tables. There was one area where they did not seat anyone… so this could have helped decrease the congestion. Opening the windows would have been nice (unless they were already open??). Having hand-sanitizer by the salad bar. Having a barrier between the singer to help avoid...