M Grill (Los Angeles, CA)

Restaurant: M Grill
Address: 3832 Wilshire Blvd., #202 Los Angeles, CA 90010
Phone: (213) 389-2770

Although I haven't been to M Grill in a while, I feel the need to cover it. I went to another brazilian restaurant, Cafe Brasil, tonight and I was utterly disappointed. That made me long for the great food I had at M Grill.

I have been to M Grill twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. It's primarily a place for fantastic grilled meats, or churrasco, which waiters bring around on large skewers and serve you as much as you can eat. Lunch is a great deal at $16.99 for the meats, a great salad bar and a "hot buffet," featuring great side dishes, including absolutely fantastic mashed yucca (tastes like ultra-smooth mashed potatoes with just the right amount of cheese mixed in), collard greens, and many other yummy items. Dinner is considerably more pricey ($30.99) for not much more (I think they add a few more meats to the menu). However, it's definitely still worth it for a nice night out with fantastic food.

But getting back to the meats, they do not disappoint. Sirloin, sausages, tri-tip, chicken, ribs, and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately I can't remember which were my favorites, I mean, how can one distinguish and remember when a seemingly endless parade of delicious meats continuously tease you into submission and entice you to take just "one more bite"? :)

Some words of strategy when dining at M Grill or any other Churrasco establishment:
1. Don't fill up on the side items. You'll be tempted, especially with the FANTASTIC cheese bread bisquits (I believe they are called Pão de Queijo), but hold firm and you'll be rewarded.
2. You'll quickly learn that you have favorite meats. Be careful not to miss some of the other meats, but only taste them. If they aren't as good as your favorites, eat no more. Don't get suckered into wasting valuable stomach space for sub-par meats. It's like eating at a pot luck dinner, your first duty is to sample widely. Your second duty is to load up on only the winners from then on.

I recommend M Grill highly and can't wait to go back.

Cafe Brasil (Los Angeles, CA)

Restaurant: Cafe Brasil
Address 1: 10831 Venice Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034
Tel: (310)837-8957
Address 2: 11736 W. Washington Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90066
Tel: (310)391-1216

According to some reviews I read before dining there, Cafe Brasil serves true Brazilian food. Now, let me just say right now that I have no idea what authentic Brazilian food tastes like. Honestly the closest I've come is those huge churrasco places (a GREAT one which is M Grill, which I've been to twice and which I love. Reviewed here).

We ordered two orders of beef steak churrasco ($14.95), an order of their special appetizer (four sauteed shrimp, $5.00) and two Pao De Queijo (Cheese bread biscuits made from yucca root flour, $0.90/each). With a couple of sodas and tax, it came out to $44.06. Not bad for two people right? Uh... no. What I failed to note was although Cafe Brasil has a cute, cozy outdoor seating area, you order at a counter and have to serve yourself. $44.06 from what essentially is a food stand, is highly overpriced. Or is it? How did everything taste?

The Pao De Queijo's were really tasty and reminded me of some even better ones from M Grill. These were good, but since they were pre-made and sitting for who-knows-how-long, the texture was a little doughy and they seemed much heavier than the light-as-air fluffy ones that I loved at M Grill.

The shrimp were really large and seasoned well, with a garlic butter sauce. They tasted pretty good, but they had somewhat of a stringy texture. Not sure if it was a function of them being rather large, or the cooking, but regardless, they had that chewy thing going on that made me question whether they were fully cooked or not.

The steak was decent, but when I tasted it alone, it almost seemed like it was barely salted and peppered, then cooked in a pan, not even on a grill. It honestly seemed pretty bland. However, condiments and sides to the rescue! The steaks come with white rice, which is nicely seasoned (it was definitely my wife's favorite part of the meal -- it tasted like it was salted and may have had some sort of lime/citrus juice on it), a salsa (made of tomato, onion, cilantro and parsley), black beans, fried plantains and a side salad. After pouring the beans on the rice and eating that, the salsa and the steak together, that's where it all seemed to come together. Taking a nibble of the plantain at the end of each bite also gave a slightly sweet, tangy taste to compliment the other parts.

There was not a whole lot of meat and because it was riddled with gristle, it seemed like even less.

In any case, I would say that I liked the food, but it was way overpriced, much like the reviews in Citysearch tended to indicate.

I will definitely skip this place next time and go back to M Grill.