This article is the first of a series about San Diego Restaurants you can’t miss. If you live in San Diego, or even more important, if you come to America’s finest city as a visitor, I wanna give you some great options for dining in San Diego, California.
I live in San Diego for more than 6 years, I’m originally from Brazil, so please forgive me for any mistakes, because English is not my first language, but I’ll try my best to comply with all the grammar rules.
Being an engineer from Brazil, I wanna start telling you about the Brazilian cuisine and the Brazilian restaurants available in San Diego.
One of the most traditional kind of restaurant/cuisine in Brazil, is what we call “churrascaria”, which would be a BBQ restaurant, but different than anything you can imagine, if you don’t know how it is yet.
Of course we’re talking meat here, so if you’re a vegetarian I apologize, but It’s not going to be a good choice for you. The Brazilian BBQ steakhouse, whatever you wanna call it, It’s an amazing dining experience, specially if you never tried.
So what is it, exactly?
It starts with a salad bar and a all you can eat buffet that includes most traditional dishes from Brazil. That would be more than enough, but don’t let that fool you, the fun is yet to begin.
At your table, there is a ‘sign’ with two sides, one red and one green. You use that to show the servers that you “want meat” when the green side is up or red, if you’re not up to it. The servers will bring you more than 20 different kinds and/or cuts of meat, all from the BBQ, that includes ribs, pork ribs, chicken, Italian style sausage, turkey wrapped in bacon, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, skirt stake, try tip, try tip with garlic, top sirloin . . . Well, you get the picture.
They will come to your table, if your “sign” is green and keep serving you until you can’t handle no more.
It’s an amazing experience. I took a few American friends to this restaurant for their first time, and they loved it. They couldn’t believe the amount of food and the quality of the food. Everything is delicious. Of course quality will vary from place to place, and even how many different kinds of meats they will serve, but the experience is similar.
In San Diego, there is two different Brazilian BBQ restaurants, both in downtown and actually, very close to each other.
One is called Rei do Gado, or the king of the cows. It’s a good restaurant, It’s been in business for a while now and on a Saturday night you’ll need reservations. Prices can be expensive for a Saturday night, around $35 per person. One great tip is to go for a weekday lunch special, that costs around $13 a person, a much better deal. But don’t get me wrong, It’s worth it every dollar. Rei do Gado is located at 939 Fourth Avenue, in downtown San Diego, on the famous Gaslamp Quarter. The zip code is 92101 if you wanna da a map search.
The other great choice is Samba Grill Churrascaria, also in downtown, and like they like to call, It’s an endless parade of skewered meat! Samba Grill headquarter is in Salt Lake City, and the San Diego location is at 514, Horton Plaza, Gaslamp Quaters, Downtown San Diego (92101). Yes, it’s inside the Horton Plaza mall.
So there you go, if you have never tried one of this Brazilian BBQs places, GO! If you’re in San Diego, or coming to San Diego and looking for a good San Diego restaurant, try the Brazilian feast.
