UYE Meatpocalypse Wow @ Rio Grande Churrascaria

I’ve been Unilocal Elite since 2010 and have never attended a Unilocal event… until this! When I got the email about this event, I knew I could not pass it up — there’s little that I love more than a Brazilian churrascaria. Thankfully, Ron was able to squeeze me and my 3 guests onto the list. Thanks again! We got there around 7:05. There was like 3 seats left somewhere in the middle of the big Unilocal table so the waiter instructed the 4 of us to sit at the table directly next to it. I was glad we got some extra wiggle room, but sad I couldn’t mingle with the rest of the Unilocalers too much.
We ordered drinks — the caipirinhas were a bit too strong for my liking but my husband loved them. They gave us a plate of yuca and other goodies which we really enjoyed. The salad bar was pretty weak compared to other churrascaria restaurants I’ve been to, but nobody really goes there for the salads, eh?
The meat kept coming and coming… contrary to most of your beliefs, I think our table out-​ate Ron! Yea, we were keeping tabs ;). I enjoyed the beef ribs, skirt steak, and beef wrapped in bacon.

Great night out with fellow Unilocalers and their guests at this UYE put together by Ron. I usually don’t head out to LIC but you can’t go wrong with the $ 20 value at this Brazilian meats palace.
Skip the salad bar except for your greens of choice as you’ll need the ruffage with your meats. The meats were grilled great with plenty of variety from beef pork and lamb. A bit salty as by the time you get home you’ll down a gallon of water. Standouts are the lamb and beef short ribs. Tender and delish. A note only on weekends do they have the cheese bread and do ask for the apps basket which is free and not on the menu of maduro yuca fries and either the cheese bread or veggie panninis. Nice mixed sagria and caprihas as well.
Not exactly a date night kind of place but great for groups as was with our group of 18.

A night of firsts this was. My first Brazilian steakhouse experience; my first UYE (and this is my first UYE review); my first encounter with bacon wrapped fish (wth!!! but not bad though, allegedly)… but a lot of things about this particular night (luckily) had many similarities with many a memorable night, lost in time, involving Unilocalers: though there was no drinking on my end or from my guest (big surprise!) there were plenty of gluttonous eating habits, adventurous eating habits, carnivorous eating habits, and other things not involving eating habits (i.e. chatting up good company, being surrounded by good company, and maybe even some unspoken competition with said good company as to who could eat the most… the latter might have been my own game I was playing, but whatevs…).
Meeting time: 7pm… was everyone on time? Nahh… but at least everyone who had signed up for the event DID show up huh? Again, nada. The cold weather must have scared the no shows away, as it was one of December’s colder nights… or perhaps a case of flakiness, as that’s been going around the last 20+ years of my life (buh zingg, I’m here all night), but for the Unilocalers who did brave the frostbitten wrath of NYC, I salute you, as you were all quite fantastic company.
But as a consequence of some tardiness from a number of our companion diners (J**L!!!), the servers of the slabs o’ meat did not start tending to our table until our numbers were made more whole. A blessing in disguise perhaps, as it allowed me to build up my hunger (I had but a slice of frittata earlier that day… serving as b’fast & lunch for this particular writer), and it also opened my mind to trying some of the offerings at the salad bar at this joint. Solid salad bar BTW… I should mention that I didn’t eat a salad here, rather 4 – 5 mushroom caps and some fish (both tasty). By the time I had finished my limited salad bar selection of edibles, the «Meatpocalypse» began.
As it was my first time indulging in such an experience, my overzealous-​ness (and hunger) had me wanting our servers to slice off bunches of meat right from the get go. However, as is customary at these places, modest cuts are served, not piles (though if you don’t keep the pace up, you will have piles eventually… the slower eaters, much respect to you all, can attest to that). Luckily for me, more level heads (and experienced ones at that… in relation to Brazilian churrascaria) assured me that gastronomical experiences such as this one are not full blown sprints, but rather marathons… an ironic analogy considering the healthy lifestyle one must live in order to participate in such cardiovascular exercising events, which serves as a stark contrast to the kind of night we Unilocalers (+ guests) were about to partake in.
The first offerings were sausages. First came the pork, then the chicken, then the beef. «Sir would you like one?» they’d ask, «Hellz yeah!» would be my quick reply. I went in guns blazing on the food, while some more strategic eaters (R*N… ahem) based their eating schedule on past churrascaria experiences… to quote such a strategist, «I’m waiting for the steak.» Such culinary maturity was impressive, and is such a thing to aspire to… I say this now, removed from this UYE, allowing for some perspective to simmer during the interim between now and then… but, in that one moment, when I saw food, I attacked indiscriminately.
And the sausage offerings were mad tasty (super juicy links), but they of course didn’t hold a candle (in terms of quality cut meat) to some of the latter cuts that were brought out. Some chicken wings came out, and some chicken thighs (yum), and then the port ribs, and then a bevy of bacon wrapped things (chicken, beef, and fish!!!), then the flank/​skirt steak, to the lamb shank, and then some pork, tenderloin, and some yada yada more beef/​steak options. All were heavily seasoned in a very good way, and to my memory nothing was dried out and were all quite juicy (even you pork tenderloin), so good job to the people working the grills.
The standouts were the lamb and the pork tenderloin. The lamb had the perfect amount of cumin seasoning… and with the tenderness and still pink finish, damn damn damn, just kept me wanting more. The pork tenderloin was a huge surprise. To me, this is a notoriously difficult piece of meat to keep tender and juicy… it’s really easy to dry this thing out. The pork tenderloin in this case however, was well seasoned and, though it was really lean, was still moist and tender. Well done Rio Grande Churrascaria.
A tip of the hat to our fearless leader Jando… wait! Thanks Ron (not Jando… we still love you though) for putting this Queens UYE together, and congrats for pretty much out eating everbody; it was an impressively gluttonous display. Though this was muh first of UYE… if they’re all like this, I’m positive I’ll be going to more.

Might as well pop the cherry. Ron thanks for hosting an awesome event. I was a little taken aback that there was a a Brazilian churrascaria in LIC inside of a Holiday Inn none the less, but I was gladly proven wrong about my doubts. The restaurant is a bar on the first floor and the meat paradise in the basement. We mostly arrived at 7 on the dot except for Jill, Jill is always late, something about the train or her imaginary friend that she was waiting on, who knows. The restaurant itself is a decent sized restaurant and it fit our group of 17 pretty comfortably. The prepared station has salads and a few hot items. I thought the fish and the Alfredo penne was pretty good.
So the restaurant works like this, you have a peg that has a red and green side. The red means no mas and the green means mas por favor. The onslaught of meat range from top sirloin, lamb, pork sausage, chicken sausage, bacon wrapped pork, bacon wrapped fish, bacon wrapped chicken, bacon wrapped beef, short ribs, pork loin, pork ribs etc. The lamb and top sirloin were my fav, the short ribs were great but had a huge hunk of fat, the bacon wrapped items and the ribs were salty. My only complaint was majority of the beef was cooked to practically well done, but the flavors were still good. The red sangria was refreshing but could be a little boozier. Shoutout to Ron and Josh for doing their part to show a respectable eating face and making a decent sized dent. And Kevin for over ordering and under finishing lol