All-You-Can-Eat Brazilian Churrascaria in Rio de Janeiro

In churrascarias, servers come to the table with knives and a skewer, on which are speared various kinds of quality cuts of meat, most commonly local cuts of beef, pork, chicken and sometimes exotic meats. While not as popular, there are other rodízio style restaurants in Brazil, which serve different foods including pasta, pizza and sushi.

Most rodízio courses are served off the cooking spit, and are sliced or plated right at the table. Sometimes they are accompanied with fried potatoes, fried bananas, collard greens, black beans, and rice (served buffet style).

In many restaurants, the diner is provided with a colored card, red on one side and green on the other. Accordingly, the servers will only bring more meat if the card is flipped to the green side. In this type of restaurant waiters carry hot skewers of cooked meat around the dining room and diners signal to the server with a green card side up if they are interested in a particular cut. The meat is then sliced right off the skewer. Once again the diner is welcome to eat as much as they desire and place the card red side up when full.

Often these restaurants also have buffets with side dishes such as salads, collard greens, black beans and rice, fried potatoes and more. Or, the waiter might bring a small selection of side dishes right to the table