Ipanemas Grill — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

Based on the Brazilian Rodizio concept, the food in this restaurant is NOT authentic. The Brazilian prime cut, called Picanha, was flavorless and bland. Asking 3(!) times to add more salt to it, I was then served a salty and dry cut that was rubbery and chewy in texture. Reason: they use common table salt instead of the coarse grain salt that is used in Brazil. The table salt penetrates the meat rather than enclosing it to built a sealing crust to keep the juices in. Once the table salt penetrates the meat, the juices will escape and what is left is a dry, rubbery over-salted piece of meat. Other meat served was similarly flavorless. I asked if any Brazilian employee would be present, but there are no Brazilians working at this place. I have been traveling to Brazil over 18 times during the past 12 years and have been eating in countless Churrascarias, but this place here was my worst experience so far. -- 2 stars. What makes this place 1 star is the boldness to add 15% service to our bill, despite my lengthy feedback on their quality. I had to insist getting this fee removed. Their response was, to simply ignore our request for the bill for over 15+min(!!). Getting up from the table to indicate that we are leaving "helped" to get the bill served. Worth to mention is their aggressive attempt to sell either wine or cocktails at the table. Over 4 attempts later, the last employee "asking" us to buy a wine rolled her eyes (!) once we made clear that we are sticking to water only....

If you don't mind paying $60 USD per person for the stingy step cousin of Fogo de Chao (the same price as the real experience in Rio btw🤔), then this place is for you. We were too embarrassed to walk away in shock, so we stayed hoping that something absolutely spectacular was to come.

Well, the lobster, shrimp, and octopus were delicious standouts, but the servings were small one off's in the beginning that never came back around, then the meats became more basic, meh, small, and eventually laughable as we sat. I felt beef ranged from good to okay. There were plenty of other things that we declined so I can't comment on those.

The buffet was interesting and I liked much of it, but I couldn't get over the disappointment of the sushi, which looked like it was made with fish but was actually vegetables. I've had sushi in Brazil and I don't recall that ever being the case. But hey, I'm no expert. 🤷‍♂️

Our main waiter was friendly. The profit margins per head at this place must be impressive for what they actually serve. I'm positive you could could find the same amount of delicious seafood for a fraction of the price somewhere else and I'm certain that's the case...

We came here because my family and I were hungry for good, Brazilian steak... but we were disappointed! When we arrived they told us the prices ... $830mxn for meat and seafood, $630mxn for just meat, both options are typical rodizio all you can eat. We went with just meat AND they told us they would charge for our children ages (11 & 6)! In Brazil one would be half price and one would be free. We stayed anyway in hopes that the meat would correlate with the price. WRONG AGAIN. There was very little meat selection and most were over cooked. We could tell that the meats were previously frozen because of the lack of taste and juices. Some sausages that came out were burnt/black. The buffet was simple, although they did have some good sashimi. The capirinhas were $120mxn and very weak. We got a bottle of wine for $500mxn which was pretty good. When the bill came we got a real SURPRISE ... a 15% service charge added!! If you have never been to an authentic Churrasco and have some money to burn then maybe you will...