Churrasco of St Clair

I often buy food for takeout in these tiny place of St. Claire. I love the Portuguese chicken! (Rotisserie). It’s usually cut into 8 pcs with rice and potatoes are good in a mushy way. They give you good portions. Their sauce is very tasty.
The area is small and there are only 2 tables for dine-​in.

OMG. .. 2 sandwiches totally kick-​ass: steak and onions + broiled chicken
Steak sandwich. .. broiled fast-​fry steak, smothred in carmalized onions, hot sauce etc.
Broiled chicken. .. perfectly charred chicken, hot sauce, tomatoes, mayo to keep chicken moist and deeelish.
Value. .. yummy food, solid prices, friendly staff. ⁵⁄₅

Very disappointing. Was on a short holiday visit back to Toronto, looking for some of the delicious chicken I used to get weekly when living in Little Portugal. This place had a big sign claiming «Best chicken in Toronto!» — should have been my first warning.
Inside was dingy, but nothing unusual — until packing my half chicken dinner for takeout, when they gave me a thumble-​sized container of piri piri sauce. That’s supposed to be what the chicken is basted and cooked in, but figured it was a little sampler bonus. Wrong.
Fortunately I opened the bag in the car, finding no cutlery, no napkins, and a very sad looking piece of chicken flanked by anemic rice and some greasy potatoes. Had to drive around the block, park again, and return to ask for extra sauce and eating tools. Thanks.
Should have returned the meal too. Instead of its spicy and juicy namesake, this «churrasco» chicken was totally lacking in any flavour, clearly thrown on the rotisserie with no basting or spices — for too long at that, being totally dried out. Even when the sauce was added, it tasted like day-​old baked chicken with some watered-​down (and sugary?) Franks on top.
Rice and potatoes were equally cheap quality with zero topping or flavour (though lots of grease). The latter tasted more boiled than roasted. The rice featured a few tired frozen peas, like little bits of healthy optimism floating in a sea of mediocrity.
Won’t be back.

Best chicken place in the city!
The soup is fantastic for those winter days and it’s great to cure a cold! It’s my go to soup when I am sick and need to recover quick and have no energy to prepare food myself!
I love this place! The potatoes are so delicious they will leave you wanting more!

Had Churrasco way back when I was at Oakwood CI. After many years later, I decided to take my family there. I always had rotisserie and stuck with it again. The smell when you enter the place is great. Still smells like it did 15 years ago.
Service was pleasant and quick.
The chicken was good, tender and moist, however the flavour was not as I remembered it. I felt it was lacking something. The roasted potatoes (also something I love) was good but again, something lacking in the flavour.
Perhaps my tastebuds are used to the salty Swiss Chalet or Costco’s Rotisserie chicken, but I found the taste a little bland.
Would I go again, if the craving for rotisserie chicken is there, and there is no costco nearby… sure.

I love the BBQ (ie. Rotisserie) chicken here! So juicy and a ton a flavour. Hot sauce is amazing, not too spicy more just flavourful.
Caesar salad– really delicious with real bacon and a homemade sauce.
potatoes– outstanding! Taste like they maybe have been cooked directly in chicken fat.
The regular garden salad is pretty bad, an their grilled chicken is quite dry, I’d stay away.
I recommend getting a Portuguese bun with your meal, really fresh.
We come here almost once a week just for this chicken. For almost the same price as a loblaws Chicken ($ 11) why would you ever go anywhere else?

Not what it use to be back in the day when my friend Roy and I would visit here back when he lived around the corner. Not as good but they still has good days. Once worthy of five stars now, just slightly better than most of this type of place on a good day. Sad when things that were so good change and not what they use to be. I give it 4 stars because although it is not what it use to be, it is still among the best for this style of chicken. If anyone knows of better Churrasco type place, please send me a note, I would love to try it.

After reading reviews, I was really looking forward to trying this place out when we moved into our new neighbourhood. The end result really left me wanting more (literally) for the price.
The chicken we had was not overly tasty, which is one thing. The other thing is the chicken we received had very little meat on some legs and thighs. Dry, tasteless, no meat. Mmm, you think a chicken place would get this right.
The potatoes were actually a treat, although they weren’t exactly cheap for a bag of taters. They were good snack food, but I’d hardly visit just to pick some of those up. I’d worry about that annoying the counter staff as well, because when I asked to pick up a couple of treats (like their apparently Loblaws bought tarts), they gave the expression it was trouble for them to serve those.
This place isn’t cheap either, so you’re not saving anything going here over a chain like KFC. It seems like this place lives more on reputation of what it once was from folks living in the neighbourhood for a long time, than what it actually offers these days.
Given the various offerings around Wychwood, I’d avoid this place and get take out from some place else.

10 years ago this place was the best change of ownership over the years and the place is awful now. tastes like a dry grocery store chicken with Franks red hot sauce.

Previously, I was in Mississauga hoping to get some Portuguese chicken at my fav restaurant brassas chirassco near the west end of Mississauga but learned they do not open on Mondays :(feeling a little disappointed. I went on my way on the bus to my friends place who lives Bathurst and St Clair. I pulled out my smartphone went on Unilocal to find something to eat in the area and behold «The Churrasco of St Clair» perfect it being a walking distance from the subway station.
Went in ordered the ¼ chicken dinner and a pineapple sumol soda to drown it down… Total cost under $ 10.
Now down to the meal, came with a bed of fluffy rice and a nice portion of potatoes. Chicken was delicious and the potatoes were amazing. The plus side of this place is the rice and potatoes were not as greasy as the other churrasco’s I have been to in the Gta, which is a plus for me!
Didn’t try their hot sauce as I am not a fan of spicy foods and sauces.
I’ll definitely come to this place again for my Portuguese chicken cravings.

Just had this last night. AWFUL!!!
Portions of chicken very tiny, dry, tasteless. Hot sauce was more like BBQ sauce with Indian spices. BARF! And they don’t even serve veggies as a side.

As Dave Chapelle once said, «If you don’t like chicken and watermelon, something’s wrong with YOU». I have to agree about chicken. It’s almost universally never bad. When grilled, it’s so delicious.
After years of eating those grilled chickens from grocery stores that brag about their chickens being air chilled, I had the fortune of being introduced to Portuguese style of cooking chicken. They use charcoal and add piri piri sauce. Usually it comes with rice and potatoes. After getting Portuguese chicken, I can never go back to grocery store chickens.
The key difference is that I don’t find Portuguese cooked chickens to be as dry. With grocery store chickens, the insides taste like rubber with no taste. You don’t get this problem with Portuguese chicken at this restaurant for some reason. Every bite is deliciously seasoned. If the «original» taste is not enough for you, add some spicy sauce! I never thought I’d be impressed by a simple dish of grilled chicken + rice and potatoes.
You can get a ½ chicken dinner combo for around $ 10 and this is a steal! They pack the box with rice and potatoes. Unless you’re a manly big eater, I think you’ll find it hard to finish one box. If you can’t finish, do share with someone!

For years I’ve heard of a magic land of chicken, where rivers of spicy sauce cascade over golden potato hills and valleys of fluffy rice.
Sadly, I had thought this poultry El Dorado to be forever forbidden; it’s a tiny joint with no seating and, so I believed, no delivery option to sate the hunger of the car-​free.
Thanks to a few well-​positioned reviews on this very site I learned that Churrasco of St Clair does in fact deliver to my ‘hood, and my days of soggy, flabby Swiss Chalet are behind me.
So let’s open up the takeout containers, shall we?
We are two. We order dinner for four, for we are hungry and the star of the show is all lean protein and veg. The dinner comes with a large soup (good broth, tonnes short round pasta, and soft meat torn from the bone), salad (a bright garden salad that’s faultless except for refrigerated, mealy winter tomato), rice and roast potatoes, portuguese buns and of course the bird itself. Three thimbles of peri-​peri sauce accompany the lot. We anticipate leftovers.
There are just some culinary truths that no matter how hard you try, you cannot avoid. One such truth is that crisply roasted chicken skin just doesn’t travel well. It’s well-​seasoned and patches retain that delicious flaky-​sticky saltiness, but much of the bird’s dermis has gone limp and slack as it steams waiting to be eaten.
The bird arrives cut into eight. It’s a bit smaller than expected, and apparently very top-​heavy. White meat and thighs are generously portioned, but drumsticks are tiny. I didn’t know Dolly Parton raised chickens. The meat itself is tender and delicious. It has cooled since arrival, as we worked through our soups and salad. Piping hot, it would be crazy addictive. The sauce provides full-​throated heat and smoky depth. I save the unused portions (my dining companion is spice-​averse) and it paints every meal for the next day or two.
Of the three forms of starch, the little roast potatoes are the best of the lot. I gravitate towards the most-​cooked; golden and unctuous, they’re a great foil for the chicken and a perfect contrast to the salad. The rice is pleasant but undermined by overcooked, superannuated peas. The bread finds new life in a Portuguese version of an egg mcmuffin the next morning. Fried egg, more peri peri sauce, bliss.
Churrasco of St. Clair has long been on my local resto bucket list. I can cross it off, though I’ll be keeping the delivery number on my refrigerator.
P

Sure it used to be better and is now over shadowed by its popular neighbour Stockyards; but stockyards only sells its chicken 3 days a week and doesn’t have the awesome piri-​piri sauce.

I know this used to be one of the best in the city but seriously it’s not up there anymore. Reviews from the earlier 90’s adorn the wall like a faded beauty queen.
We were unfortunate to be in the neighbourhood on Monday, I really wanted to go to the stockyards but they are closed on this day. It was so cold and we did get parking so we hiked it over to CofSC.
The order:
2 half chickens on the grill w/​potatoes rice, & fries
2 buns
2 pops
$ 26
The chicken was overcooked and dry. Not hot to taste and small like a cornish hen. The rice was bland, tasted like dirty dish water. Potatoes were good in a mushy way. Fries well they are deep fried frozen jobs, only thing that was hot. If it wasn’t for the smothering of hot sauce nothing would have had flavour.
The place needs a good cleaning and the two prep «girls» in the back should watch their conversations while people are eating.

Last night I got a bbq chicken right off the rod just as it finished cooking, awesome! Was also impressed that the staff managed the line up so that when people came in they knew how long they’d have to wait for a chicken (rather than telling them when they got to the front of the line.
I also had the grilled chicken once but prefer barbecue although I will try the grilled again at some point.

I remember the first time I ordered from here — 6 yrs ago when we first moved into the neighbourhood. And it was good. And it is still good. And every time I nom I always think, why do I ever bother with Swiss Chalet? (Especially when it is sooo much closer to home. [After I finish reviewing all my neighbourhood haunts you will probably be able to triangulate my exact home location.])
Like Julianna B. I prefer the rotisserie over the grilled chicken. The combo sizes are generous and best part is that it still tastes great reheated the next day. The sauce is tasty and is available by the jar. Still haven’t figured out how to exactly replicate the churrasco chicken at home, but the sauce sure helps!

As you pass by this restaurant, you cant help but be drawn in by the wonderful aroma of BBQ chicken. Having grown up with Nando’s as a part of my weekly diet, i felt compelled to find the best portuguese chicken this city has to offer.
Churrasco of St Clair has a reputation of being one of the best portuguese chicken take out joints in the city, and that’s what i plan to elaborate on.
After going in with some really high expectations of this place, i can vauge that the grilled chicken here is off the hook! It was flavourful, crispy on the outside, and nice and tender on the inside. The hot sauce was good… not nandos good but definitely a great addition to your meal!
While there isnt much (if any) real seating here, there are some really nice parks close by to grab some take out and make a mini picnic. My only real pet peave with this place was that the rice kinda sucked… and for me, that sorta killed half the experience of being able to really enjoy the chicken. Being a brown kid, the rice/​roti (some sort of bread) component makes up half the meal with any meat n veggies… n that’s why this place wasnt really for me. The potatoes were pretty good but i wouldnt go on to brag about them.
If i lived in the area, i could definitely see myself grabbing just the chicken from here on a regular. If you do go, dont forget to get some custard tarts for dessert… no diggity… no doubt!

This little hole-​in-​the-​wall is another neighbourhood institution. You regularly see fire trucks or police cars pulled up, and a line of burly guys coming out with bags of chicken.
I’m a Churrasco of St. Clair heretic, which is to say that I prefer the rotisserie to the grilled (shields head and looks around nervously). I find the grilled too greasy for my tastes. The little potatoes are terribly good, and the dressing they give out for their salads is deliciously salty. The caesar comes with big salty chunks of bacon, too. My husband loves the spicy sauce passionately.
Their pre-​wrapped chicken sandwiches are okay, but suffer from comparison with the ones done by the churrasco place in the south St. Lawrence market. The Churrasco of St. Clair ones have big hunks of chicken the sauce can’t moisten sufficiently, and I’ve found pieces of cartiledge, which grosses me out hugely.
They’ve started doing fries which are entirely edible, if not anything I’d skip the little potatoes for.
NB: it’s warm in the winter and brain-​meltingly hot in the summer. I look at the cooks working over the grills in what must be 35+ heat and wonder how they survive the day.

3−½ would have been ideal, but 4 stars might have been possible if they didn’t regularly run out of grilled chicken. The BBQ is fine and all, but the grilled is so much better it’s a wonder that they offer 2 kinds at all.
That being said, I’ve been going here for years. The little potatoes are really to die for, but unfortunately for my family they are not vegetarian friendly. The Portuguese corn bread is also really good, and saves from having to travel to kensington to the bakery.
Pick up extra hot sauce, they never give you enough. And if you really have to get the grilled — then call ahead to reserve.