Restaurant Review: Porcão
by bobby on Oct.15, 2007, under grub
Churrascaria’s are what I hope heaven will be like. Since I probably won’t enter the gates upstairs, I’ll have to continue to visit this carnivore’s paradise on Park Avenue and 25th street. The only reason I had been trying to go to Porcão in NYC is because Malik, the Firefighter and I had gone to the one in Rio two summers ago. I was curious as to how the food at the NYC location would fare compared to the mother ship in Rio. Some of the reviews I had read online didn’t give Porcão much of a chance. Well, I did. And I’m glad I did – it was a fantastic experience.
A group of six was not let down by the non-stop beef action brought on by flipping the “I want to eat” card to it’s green side. We saw at least ten different cuts of beef along with a couple of varieties of chicken – all in about a 15 minute span. It got to the point where I wasn’t able to eat my food as fast as it was landing on my plate. That’s when I realized, I need to flip the card to red after each serving of fresh carved meat, devour it, then flip the card back to green when I’m ready for more. The salad bar wasn’t fantastic, but then again, why would you go there to eat salad? They supplied each table with several side dishes – fries, fried banana’s, mashed potatoes. Nothing spectacular there. The beef. The beef was all fantastic. Some might find it to be a bit salty, however, with enough water, it was fine for me. The prime rib with cheese was phenomenal, the shish kebab’s were also very tasty. The skirt steak was extremely flavorful and the sirloin was decent. Everything else is just a blur.
What was the damage? $50/head plus drinks and dessert. We left no room for dessert, although the cart was very inviting. The service was good, although at times it seemed like a couple of the meat waiters became impatient with the novices. The atmosphere wasn’t spectacular – not even on a Saturday night. The bottom line is, we were never left waiting for food, it was tasty and we had a great time. If you want a taste of Rio or if you just like meat, drop by Porcão – you’ll be in heaven.
