A note on the words: churrasco is the Brazilian word for meat grilled over charcoal on long skewers, and rodizio is the fixed-price service style that usually goes with it, in which waiters carry those skewers from table to table and carve until diners say stop. Samba is the Brazilian dance and its music, and a churrascaria is simply a restaurant that serves churrasco. Wagyu is Japanese beef and kuroge is the black-haired breed; wasabina is a peppery Japanese mustard green, related to wasabi in name and in bite. Nomihodai, translated here as all-you-can-drink, is a fixed-price arrangement that includes unlimited drinks for a set stretch of time.
RIO GRANDE GRILL Roppongi on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. This time, back to “RIO GRANDE GRILL Roppongi” after a long absence! I used to come here often for the lunchtime salad buffet. It had been a while, but the interior has barely changed — how nostalgic! I had heard there is a samba show on Thursday evenings. I asked a member of staff on the way in whether there was samba tonight, and was told yes, from eight o’clock! Lucky. Something to look forward to as well as the food.
[Dinner Churrasco] Fifteen kinds of churrasco including kuroge wagyu beef, plus a Brazilian food and salad buffet (dessert included) — 6,270 yen
Standard All-You-Can-Drink Plan — 2,200 yen
Premium All-You-Can-Drink — 3,850 yen
The basic all-you-can-eat churrasco comes with the buffet — salads, fried things, desserts and so on — plus all the meat you can eat! Although “all you can eat” mostly means one of each cut as they bring it around, with a few seconds at the end, so working through the lot once may be about the right amount. ^^
The lineup does not feel like it has changed much.
Somehow I remember them topping things up furiously the moment a tray started to run low, but in the evening leftovers would be awkward, so perhaps they are adjusting the quantities!
The first round of salad looked like this.
If anything, I have always thought of the salad rather than the meat as the main event here.
This mustard and chili sauce on the right — that is the good stuff.
For the meat there is skirt steak, loin, rump and plenty more, it seems.
Though with that much on offer, there is surely no eating all of it. ^^
Since we went with the premium all-you-can-drink this time, a few rather nicer wines appear to have been added.
The first round: sausage and chicken.
Skirt steak, I think.
Rump, or something around there, perhaps.
And so it goes: meat keeps coming, and you keep answering yes or no to each one.
Toward the end I was thoroughly stuffed, so I called a halt on the meat and fetched a closing salad.
Wasabina and onion, to freshen things up.
And, finish!
Rio Grande after all this time — I am full! Partway through there was the samba show, with two dancers who performed in samba costume in all this cold. ^^ The whole restaurant got into it, and at the end they even posed for photos with us, so it was a lovely experience as well. With churrasco, if you are eating a decent amount of salad alongside, you get quite full in the second half. Incidentally, Rio Grande’s lunch, where you can eat the same salad buffet as in the evening, is a real bargain, so I recommend lunch!
RIO GRANDE GRILL Roppongi (Brazilian Cuisine / Roppongi Station, Nogizaka Station, Azabu-juban Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
