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Brazilian Steakhouse Lunch vs Dinner Experience
The star of the show when you visit a Brazilian steakhouse is the dinner menu, where everything – the meats, the hot items, the salad area – is on full display. But we all know you aren’t always going to make it down for dinner. Sometimes, it’s great to stop by for lunch instead.
Whether it’s business meetings over a midday meal, a lunch out with the family on vacation, or just the urge for some great Brazilian barbecue in the middle of the day, our lunch menu is going to be the perfect option for you.
The question is, what’s the difference between the lunch menu and the dinner experience at a place like Texas de Brazil, or any other Brazilian steakhouse?
There’s not actually one single answer here. For one thing, there’s no fixed traditions or Brazilian culture that informs whether or not lunch is available. Or rather, there are, but those traditions are very different than American culture.
In Brazil, lunch is usually the biggest and most substantial meal of the day. Dinner is a bit more of an afterthought, eaten a little later and meant as much for socializing and relaxing than for sustenance. This is in contrast to American culture, where dinner is usually the biggest and most central meal, and lunch is more of a quick break in the middle of the workday to boost energy and sate hunger.
Since Texas de Brazil is mostly in America, let’s talk about what we offer for lunch as one of the best Brazilian steakhouses you’ll find.
We can’t speak for our competitors, but we can certainly speak for ourselves. Read on for a complete breakdown of the differences between lunch and dinner at your favorite Brazilian steakhouse, Texas de Brazil.
Table of Contents
Keeping it Simple
If you want a quick breakdown and you don’t want to read this whole post, we’ll give you the short version here.
Lunch isn’t available at every Texas de Brazil location. Where it is available, it may only be available on Fridays or on weekends.
Where lunch is available, it may be at a cheaper price and with a slightly limited menu selection. In locations where it’s full price, it’s generally the full menu as well.
The specific details of pricing and menu depend on the location, so use our location finder or call your local restaurant to ask directly.
Good enough? Awesome, we’d love to have you. Want more details? Keep on reading, and we’ll give you all you could possibly want to know, and more.
Lunch vs. Dinner: The Price
One of the main things you probably want to know is the price.
Generally speaking, the price of the lunch menu is lower than the price of the normal dinner menu. It’s usually comparable to the salad area only menu, or a little lower. There are reasons for this, which we’ll get into in a moment.
This isn’t always the case, though. There are two other options.
One is that the lunch menu may be the same price as the dinner menu. This is more often the case in situations where the restaurant is open for longer hours and expects more crowds, so they have full service throughout the day instead of partial service during lunch and full service during dinner. This tends to be the case in some of our most popular locations.
You might also find that some locations offer lunch only on weekends, or that weekend lunches are full price. More on why that is a little later as well.
The other might be a bit of a disappointment: some of our locations don’t have a lunch menu at all. Depending on how popular and busy our restaurants are, some of them don’t open until 4-5 pm for dinner and are only available for the full dinner menu.
What about the salad-only option? Texas de Brazil offers a salad area-only option for our vegetarian, vegan, or diet-conscious patrons, which is somewhat cheaper than the full menu.
In locations where lunch is available and cheaper than the full dinner menu, the salad area-only option is also available and cheaper, proportionally. For example, our location in Birmingham offers a normal dinner for $56 and salad-only for $34, but for lunch, the full lunch menu is $32 and the salad-only option is $24.
The specific prices vary from location to location, so make sure to find your nearest Texas de Brazil location and call them to ask about their hours and pricing directly.
Lunch vs. Dinner: The Selection
The dinner experience at Texas de Brazil is something to behold.
When you arrive, you’re taken to your tables, and if necessary, we’ll explain how everything works. The short version is, you’re given a card, where one side is red and one side is green. Our servers (called gauchos) take skewers of meat around the dining room, looking for anyone with a green card. If your card is green, they’ll offer you some of whichever meat they have.
Want the meat? Take some! Want to pass on something you don’t care for, like the spicy meats or the non-beef options? Politely pass and wait for the next gaucho to come by with something else.
This method of serving is called Rodizio, and it’s a Brazilian tradition that goes back many years.
This is the main method for getting meat at a Brazilian steakhouse. If you want anything from the hot bar or the salad area, they’re always available; all you need to do is walk over. Beverages, cocktails, and specialty items are also available in a more traditional menu, to order and add to your bill.
Since our Brazilian steakhouse is a continuous dining experience, you’re free to hang out and eat as much as you like, however long you like. We certainly ask that you be polite to other diners and consider not lingering too much if the restaurant is busy, but at the end of the day, it’s fully your choice.
How does the lunch experience differ?
There are, again, a few possibilities here.
The first is the bad news: some locations simply don’t offer lunch at all. The experience is pretty different if there’s no experience at all!
For those that do have a lunch menu, there are a couple of variations.
The first is a limited menu. In locations where the lunch menu is cheaper, it’s generally because the selection is more limited. Some of the fanciest cuts might not be available, or might be in short supply. Certainly not everything will be available. Some of the hot bar items won’t be done yet, and maybe some of the salad area items won’t be ready either.
What kinds of items are usually unavailable if you come for lunch at a branch with a lower price point for the menu?
- You probably won’t be able to get your hands on the prime filet mignon and certain other high-end beef cuts. Our signature picanha is usually still available, as are the more typical cuts of beef.
- Bacon-wrapped cuts like bacon-wrapped chicken and pork are usually available for lunch as well as dinner.
- Lamb is usually reserved for dinner, which includes the lamb chops and the leg of lamb. Lamb picanha may or may not be on offer, but usually not.
- Certain soups are generally dinner menu options, like the lobster bisque.
- Some sides are also not available during lunch, like au gratin potatoes. Important Brazilian staples like farofa and feijoada are usually still available.
The exact selections and details will, of course, vary. It can vary by location, but also by season. The general idea is that some of the more premium items are only available for the premium price, whether that price is the dinner menu or whether lunch is also at that price. The location and demand determine the menu as much as anything else.
To make up for this, some locations will offer some complimentary items for lunch. They might be options normally worth an extra charge, or they might be small side perks to visiting for lunch that you can’t get at dinner. This, as well, depends on the location and is often up to the discretion of the manager of the location.
The third is that the lunch experience might be identical to the dinner experience. This is usually the case if it’s a full-price menu; the price reflects what we have on offer, so if we’re charging you full price, we’re giving you the full experience.
Even if the menu is limited, the overall experience is still the same. You still get the red and green card, you still have gauchos coming through to offer you their skewers, and you still have to order desserts and drinks from those specific menus.
Lunch vs. Dinner: The Timing
Above, we mentioned that you’re generally free to be leisurely and enjoy your meal when you visit Texas de Brazil. That’s generally true, but there are limits. Since many of our restaurants close at 9-10 pm, you certainly can’t stay after closing time. We’ll unfortunately have to ask you to leave at that point.
For the restaurants that offer lunch, you’ll usually see hours listed as something like 11 am to 3 pm on weekdays, and 12 pm to 4 pm on weekends.
It’s noteworthy that there’s a gap between the end of the lunch hours and the start of dinner hours, at least when there’s a price change involved.
For example, if you come visit us in a location that offers a cheaper lunch menu on Friday, you’ll usually have until about 3 pm to finish your meal and head on with your afternoon. We temporarily close until 4 pm or 5 pm (again, depending on location), which allows us to clean and set up for the dinner crowd, reset the salad area and other settings, and generally prepare for that rush.
This is also a moment where you’ll usually be asked to leave. Maybe not right away, at the manager’s discretion, but certainly before the dinner rush starts. This helps prevent the few unscrupulous individuals from trying to get in for a cheaper lunch price and linger for dinner. You certainly wouldn’t do that, but now and then someone tries it, and we have to turn them out disappointed.
The exception to this is, for example, when a branch has a weekend lunch at full price. If lunch is from 12 pm to 4 pm and dinner is from 4 pm to 10 pm, there’s no gap there. But, since everything is full price – and usually full menu service as well – there’s no problem with coming a little earlier and staying a little later. It is, generally speaking, the same experience no matter what time of day it is.
Finding Your Local Details
This whole post has been full of a lot of reminders of one thing: every location is different. Some locations don’t offer lunch at all. Some offer a limited lunch menu. Some offer a limited lunch menu with a few freebies to help make it more worthwhile. Some offer the full dinner menu at lunchtime and throughout the evening.
There’s only one way to know for sure what’s available, and that’s to check with your local Texas de Brazil location yourself.
The best way, then, is to check our locations page and find the location nearest to you. When you visit the page for that location, you’ll see a block with information. For example, our Dallas location offers early dining on weekends and a lunch menu on Fridays, but is otherwise a dinner-only restaurant. In contrast, our Cincinnati location does not offer lunch at all.
You can also simply call your local restaurant as well, and ask them what they have on offer and when their hours are available. We’re always happy to help and encourage you to visit whenever you get the chance. As an added bonus, while you’re on the phone, you can easily make a reservation. Reservations aren’t required, but they can be very helpful if your location is busy or popular.
No matter where or when you decide to visit, as long as we’re open, we’re sure you’re going to have a great experience. We’re also happy to answer any questions you might have, whether it’s here on our blog, on our FAQ, or by calling your nearest location. We’d love to hear from you!
