Brazilian "Rodizio" Dinner, Saturday, 13th January 2007 (event now closed!)

For the first dinner of 2007, I had initially thought of doing a spicy Indian, Thai or Vietnamese just because it is winter but then, I realised that it is the sort of predictable thing any other dinner club would do. And I don't really want to be that predictable (it's not really my style). Anyway, the weather is not really that cold anyway (so far) so my mind wandered over to other interesting cuisines from warmer climes and in the end, we decided on a Brazilian rodizio for our first dinner of 2007.

For those unfamiliar with a rodizio, I believe it was originally a Brazilian gaucho (cowboy) style of cooking where different kinds of meat are skewered on swords and grilled over an open fire. The waiter then comes around and slices meat off the sword on to your plate. You can also help yourself to some pretty interesting salads as well from a nice buffet. As far as I know, there are at least 10 kinds of meat (mainly different cuts of beef, chicken, lamb, turkey and pork) served at the restaurant where we are going, and if you want more meat, then it is not a problem as you can have as much as you want to eat at no extra cost. During the dinner, the waiters will also wander around offering various kinds of staples such as beans, potatoes, breads, pasta, etc, but I would advise having too much of that as they tend to make your stomach (really) bulge. I speak from sad experience. There will also be some live entertainment as well, which I have not seen myself as I was there when it was a quieter night but allegedly it is Brazilian in nature which I think sounds like fun on a Berlin January night.

Anyway, the restaurant is Brasiliero, Kurfürstendamm 151, 10709 Berlin, and the dinner is set for the evening of Saturday, 13 January 2007. The other bit of really good news is that this is a fixed-price event, where the rodizio and entertainment will cost around 25 Euro or less per person, excluding drinks. If you want to know more, their website is http://www.brasil-brasileiro.de/

Please note that we will be trialling a new fairer selection process for the members coming to the dinner. You now have until the end of the year to send in your requests, after which around a dozen lucky people will be chosen at random and notified 10 days before the dinner. We can actually accommodate more than 12 people so do let me know if you feel like coming to try some Brazilian cowboy food in January!

As usual, my email address is chris@berlindinnerclub.com and I hope to see lots of you again in 2007!

Chris

How it went on the night...

I have got to say that the atmosphere was pretty Brazilian, including the level of service. But then, we were a large group and the restaurant was packed out, so things went about as good as it can go. Overall, the meat was really very good, succulent and tasty, just what one would expect from a good Brazilian joint. I think we got around 10 different varieties of rodizio, and we could have done with a couple more but the last round came at 23:00, so it was a pretty late night out. The salad buffet was also interesting, but then so is the entertainment... Watch out for the cook dancing on top of the grill!