Dine at Carnivore @ Chijmes
I had a great dinner with my uncle and his friend, cousin and sister in one of the restaurants in Chijmes; Carnivore, as the name suggests is definitely not a place for vegetarians. This Brazilian churrascaria is for serious meat lovers. This restaurants offers a variety of meat grilled on skewers; ranging from beef to chicken heart.
I understand that there’s this Brazil Churrascaria in Sixth Avenue, which opened in 1994, was the first to introduce this cuisine here while Las Pampas El Restaurante y la Barra in Club Street, which opened two years ago, also offers churrascaria as well as other South American fare.
The style of eating, which comes from a Portuguese word that means barbecue, apparently has its origins among the wandering cowboys of Brazil, for whom dinner is often a grilled slab of meat which they eat by the fire under the stars.
But in Carnivore, we sat in a comfortable restaurant and the meat is grilled in a kitchen and brought to our table in skewers. We started off with a buffet of appetisers which I think includes Brazilian specialities. Once you fill up your plate with the appetisers, the waiters come with the meat. And they come fast and furious.
Carnivore has an easy system to signal to the waiters that we are ready for our meat. Each diner is given a round disc with one side in green and the other in red. Green (”Sim, Por Favor!” which means “Yes, please” or bring on the meat) and red (”Nao, Obrigado”, meaning, No, Thanks or in other words, I surrender). You can see the disc in one of the photos.
Flip it to show the green side, and the passadors - waiters bearing a skewer of meat which he slices over your plate with a razor-sharp knife - will come in throngs. And trust me, they will keep coming unless you flip back to the red side.
Each night, there are at least 15 different types of meat that include chicken, pork, fish and beef in various cuts. I can manage to try beef in various cuts (around 4 of them), chicken, drumlets, chicken heart (eww.. but believe me, they taste like chicken), pork, lamb chop, ham, fish and err… I think that’s all. I was quite full by then. My favourite is the beef rump, which is the most tender.
In between the meats, a passador will also come over with a grilled pineapple, which provides a welcome reprieve from the meats. But we had the pineapple at the end of our meals. My cousin also ordered for a bottle of red wine, which went along well with our sumptuous meal. The ambience there is perfect for a great Brazillian dinner. The $29 +++ per person is worth the money (I don’t think I’ll be eating that often, not good for stomach is eat too much meat although it’s good if I plan to grow fatter. Haha)
CARNIVORE - A BRAZIL CHURRASCARIA
30 Victoria Street, #01-29A, Tel: 6334-9332
Opening hours: 6 to 10pm (Sun to Thu), 6 to 10.30pm (Fri, Sat and eve of public holidays)Â
Popularity: 3% [?]