Picanha’s Grill

When visiting Luz for a family wedding recently, there was the difficult decision as to where to have the second hen do — anyone who has read my reviews will know that our first, which took place at Bundell Street in Liverpool and was an absolute hoot! — was going to take some beating.
Luckily, some friends and family are permanent residents in Luz so helped the bride organise the event. As a group of circa 25 women, it was going to be a difficult decision whatever; many of the places in Luz are quite small and wouldn’t want to cut off their evening’s custom 100%, so Picanha’s appeared to be a great option.
For € 25 ahead we signed up for the serve yourself buffet in the centre of the room, the Brazilian meat on skewers circulating the room, unlimited red or white sangria (beer or wine were also an option but they weren’t very forthcoming with these options), and live music throughout the evening.
Service was very friendly throughout and understanding of people’s meat preferences — well done or rare etc. — and communicated well with the party, both in English and Portuguese. They even organised a shuttle transfer for us as it’s really located outside of Luz.
The buffet didn’t stand out as anything special and was unlabeled, proving difficult for anyone with allergies or dietary requirements. I filled up with plenty of salad, some bread, a potato & onion dish, some beef stew (which was delicious) and chicken. There was something that appeared to be pizza but actually had banana on it. An unusual flavour to say the least!
The meat coming round was by far the highlight of the evening and I am becoming quite fond of this style of eating. We had everything from spicy sausage to wild boar, the latter being the best thing of the evening. Half a garlic steak also went down very well!
The music during the meal is hard to judge. It was slow and a bit too mellow for the atmosphere we would have liked, but the guy had a great voice and could seriously play the guitar, and I understand the need to find a balance for us and the rest of the diners. When we had finished and people started to get onto the dance floor, he did manage to pick up the pace and entertain us for an hour or so!
Great value for the amount we managed to get through, both in terms of food and the sangria, but the location is quite off-​putting as it adds an extra journey element to the evening and I think the space could do with a bit more ‘oopmh’ to reflect the theme.