Courses and styles of service
Churrasco rodízio
Brazilian all-you-can-eat barbecue service: waiters circle the room with skewers of grilled meat and carve at your table until you say stop.
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Churrasco is Brazilian barbecue, meat cooked on long skewers over embers. Rodízio is the way it is served in a churrascaria. You pay one price, and servers bring skewer after skewer of different cuts to your table, slicing a little onto your plate each time, for as long as you want.
What it is
The word rodízio means rotation. The meat rotates through the dining room. Servers called passadores carry skewers of beef, pork, lamb, chicken and sausage straight from the grill and carve thin slices at the table. The prized cut is picanha, the cap of the rump with its layer of fat, bent into a curve on the skewer. Chicken hearts, garlic beef and grilled pineapple with cinnamon are regulars. A large buffet of salads, rice, beans and side dishes stands to one side.
Where it comes from
Churrasco comes from the gaúchos, the cattle herders of the southern plains shared by Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. They roasted large pieces of beef on stakes beside an open fire, seasoned only with coarse salt. The state of Rio Grande do Sul is the home of the tradition in Brazil. The rodízio system of service developed in southern Brazilian roadside restaurants in the mid twentieth century and spread along the highways to the rest of the country and then abroad.
How it works
Each diner has a small token or card, green on one side and red on the other. Green up tells the passadores to keep coming. Red up means pause. When a server arrives you may ask for a slice from the more or the less cooked part. You grip the edge of the slice with small tongs as it is cut. The fixed price covers meat and buffet. Drinks and desserts are extra.
How to do it
- Take only a little from the salad buffet. The meat is the meal.
- Turn your card to green when you are ready.
- Use the tongs to catch each slice as it is carved.
- Ask for picanha if it has not come round.
- Turn the card to red to rest or to finish.
Good manners
- Decline a skewer with a simple no, thank you. Nobody minds.
- Take one or two slices each time. More will come.
- Do not leave piles of uneaten meat on your plate.
What is eaten
ChurrascoGrilled meat, often beef, cooked over coals or on skewers in South America and Iberia
Pão de queijoCheese-filled rolls made with cassava flour, a breakfast and snack food from Brazil
FarofaToasted cassava flour mixture served as a side in BrazilAlso part of it, and being written: Picanha, Linguiça, Feijão tropeiro.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the Thali desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs vary from place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.