"The Ultimate Eating Experience " probably sounds a bit pretentious. How can one person ever say that they have had the ultimate in any experience, especially something like eating that is so much a matter of taste - (so to speak ! ). Well, read on and judge for yourselves.!
1 Location.
Yes it is a bit of a journey, I know. To get there - from London, say - will mean an eleven hour flight to Sao Pauloin Brazil. The journey from there to Sao Jose dos Campos would then take a further 4 hours on horseback, if you want to fit in with the whole South American barbecue theme. You could do it in an hour and for free if you know a local missionary eager for a chat in English, and if you have good pastoral counselling skills. But come on, if you've paid your flight for this eating task, hire a limo and arrive in style...there is a good motorway connection all the way north from Sao Paulo... and if you are coming south from Rio, allow a couple of hours.! Your limo driver will know this restaurant, and if you choose to let him dine with you, the restaurant staff will take the car keys, and park it round the back nice and safely. If it is his first visit, tell him to look for a road called Jorge Zarur, and you'll spot the place a mile away.!
2 The Setting
Sao Jose is a rapidly growing city with a population of around 700,000. It's financial quarter and business areas are modern and high tech. This restaurant is in that general area, on the
corner of a main road and a dual carriageway. The result is a feeling of a wide open space in the city, but frankly not terribly chic.! This is not a riverside setting, where you gaze at little punts gliding along the surface of the water.! This is not a countryside location with cattle feeding themselves nearby, ready for the restaurant owner's kitchen in a few week's time. But, this is a place in which we have come to eat - do your sightseeing some other place and some other time.!
3 The Interior.
The website gives a very good impression of the feel and dimensions of a restaurant that is both enormous and yet intimate. It claims to seat 500 people at a time for this grill/barbecue/churrasco experience. And before you roll your eyes in sceptical fashion, a friend had her wedding reception there. ! The family took over the whole place and invited 700 guests.! Tables are arranged to seat various numbers of folk - we were treating our hosts, so there were 7 of us, and we were taken to a table seating 8; others around us varied from 2 to 14 - so whatever your numbers they will seat you accordingly. Seats are padded armchair style, total comfort for the endurance event that beckons you.
4 The Beginning
Before our seats were even warm, the first waiter arrived with cocktails for everyone. These non-alcoholic ones were in a choice of coconut, strawberry or mint flavours.
A more senior steward is explaining the procedure, just in case this was a brand new experience for anyone. The cloth napkins were placed respectfully on our laps, drinks orders were taken, and we caught our breath before the treats began.
5 The Starters
At this stage, you are in buffet mode. Up at the salad bar, you are made aware of the phenomenal nature of the place. This is a salad bar like none other. There are officially 40 different types of salad dish. Not them all, but here are a few samples : String bean, Carrot, Cauliflower, Beans, Supreme White Beans, Octopus, Mussels, Beetroot, Eggs, Tomato, Broccoli, Lettuce (5 varieties) Rucula, Watercress, Asparagus, Palmito, Dry Tomato Cheese, Eggplant Fries, AND Sushi and Sashimi.!! There are also 14 varieties of mayonnaise and 12 types of sauces. Add to that more than a dozen cheeses, plus hams, cold meats, quails eggs etc and it was simply not possible to have a little of everything - you would have to go back for more.
6 The Meat
Each table has its own special device for notifying the busy meat servers, that you would like some more. A little disc shows a green side or a red side - a stop or go sign, sort of.! Leave it at green and a series of visitors to the table will serve you their own selection of meat. Another nice touch, is that each diner has a pair of tongs, to lift the meat on to their own plate once it has been carved for them. I know you are asking what kind of meat there is - and I am typing as fast as I can while salivating all over the keyboard.! Waiters come to the table with meat, carve it at your seat from mammoth skewers brought hot from the grill, and you eat it hot and fresh. The day we were there, we had a choice of 28 different meats ! Salmon and an unidentified, but gorgeous fish, arrived at my seat first, and I took both. Then there was chicken, lamb, pork and beef, together with ox, partridge, sausage, hearts, and burgers. Saying beef, is too simplistic - there was fillet, sirloin, rump, rib, Brazilian hump, garlic sirloin and a couple of other local cuts. Saying pork is too simple - there was roast sucking pork, wild boar, belly and rib. Do you get the picture!!?? And while some carveries in this country limit you to a choice of one or two meats, this restaurant knows no such limits.! Every meat is offered and supplied on demand. You can have has many slices as you like. And a flip of that coloured disk will have all 28 waiters rushing back to the table to supply you all over again.
7 The Sides
You do not need to order sides. They also arrive at the table as soon as an empty space is spotted. Plantains, bread, corn on the cob, polenta, and of course, you can go back to the "salad" table at any time.
8 The Desserts
These cost extra !! - I'll give you a rough costing later. But it is a good move, since normal people have by this time recognized that they have already grossly over-eaten and risk bursting trousers or even acquiring new medical conditions if they eat any more.! We all said that we could not eat a dessert - we knew that enough was enough. But then the trolley arrived !
There are about 30 different desserts to choose from - though, once again, the word 'choose' is only a technical term - you can have all 30 if you want.! It was suggested to me that I could not leave the country without trying a passionfruit cream. There was not any on the trolley, but the waiter offered to go and get one made, and it arrived very promptly. Others in the party had sussed that another trolley was on the go with fresh fruit.! So that waiter was summoned for the healthy option.!! Well, sort of healthy. You selected your fruit, it was prepared in front of your eyes, tossed in the pan with generous quantities of alcohol - anything you wanted - and then dramatically flambéed, and served with ice-cream - in whatever flavour and quantities you fancied.!
9 The Coffee
Small, dark, Brazilian espresso – nothing more to add.!
10 Costs.
Giving exact costs is a bit difficult. We know what the final bill was and how to translate that from Brazilian currency to British. But the bill in Portuguese was well beyond our ability to decipher exactly. So I have no idea what was charged for the drinks we had – all of which were refilled on a couple of occasions. I have no idea of the add-on charge for the desserts – if you do go and find out, please let me know.! And I am not sure whether coffee came as part of the package, or as an add on extra,. What does it matter?! The cost per head was just £14, inclusive of service charge!
See what I meant when I said this was - "The Ultimate Eating Experience "
Finally :- Website with pics :- http://www.villadaldeia.com.br/ Toilets : First class - free perfumes, mouthwashes etc included Service - impeccable
Pictures of Villa d'Aldeia, Brazil
Flameed fresh strawberries and ice-cream dessert
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Wow....Why are these places on the other side of the world....why can't they have them here in old Blighty? grrr if only...........on second thoughts no, I'd be as big as a house lol x
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