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FAQ: How Long Does a Brazilian BBQ Dinner Take?
The rodizio style of continuous dining found in Brazilian churrascarias is a novel experience for many Americans, and it’s part of why we decided to bring our traditional BBQ culture to the States in the first place. Since it’s something different, something most of our guests have never experienced before, you likely have a lot of questions. While we’re happy to answer them when you’re here to eat, we’ll also help prepare you before you even stop by.
One of the most common questions we receive is how long it takes to enjoy a succulent Brazilian meal at your nearest Texas de Brazil. Let’s talk about all the details you might want to know!
Table of Contents
How Long Does a Brazilian BBQ Dinner Take?
As long as you want it to take!
That’s not helpful, of course. On average, most people who come to eat at Texas de Brazil are generally going to be here enjoying their food for around one and a half to two hours. Most people recommend planning for about two hours for a standard meal.
Of course, you can pile up your plate and eat in one session, feed your kids as you go, and move on with your day in an hour if you like. Or, you can pace yourself, and you can try different meats as they come around, take a couple of trips to the hot bar or the salad area, and sip at a cocktail or two while you’re at it.
There’s no time pressure here!
Well, not really, we should say.
We’re not going to send gauchos by to ask you if you’re ready for your bill every five minutes. We won’t pressure you to free up your seat. We will, however, politely ask you to leave if we’re in the process of closing up the restaurant for the night and it’s time to go home. While the rodizio style continuous dining experience is technically “all you can eat,” we’re not a 24-hour restaurant, so there is an end point for your meal.
The larger your party, the more likely you are to take longer, as well. Larger groups tend to do more talking and spend more time trying different foods, and that takes time. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! We know that many larger groups end up spending around three hours on their meals, and that’s perfectly fine, too.
How Long Does Filling an Order Take?
It all depends!
One thing you might not be prepared for is how immediately food is ready for you when you first arrive at Texas de Brazil.
Because of the rodizio style, every meat we have on offer is already on the skewers and over the fire in our grill. Foods in the hot bar and the salad area are laid out similarly to a buffet and are refreshed as they run low throughout the day and on a schedule to ensure only the freshest and most delicious items are available, no matter when you arrive.
This often surprises some people. You arrive, you have the rodizio serving style explained to you, you settle in, and you might have a gaucho by offering you a cut of petit filet or a few chicken drumettes before you would have even had a chance to glimpse at the menu in a more traditional restaurant.
So, the timing can vary.
For the salad area and hot bar, the items are already waiting for you to go see what’s on offer, add some to your plate, and settle in to eat.
For the meats, our gauchos are constantly in the process of cooking, so there’s always something ready and circulating in the dining room for you to try. However, if there’s a meat you want but that hasn’t circled yet, you may have to ask about it. Some meats run out quickly, and our gauchos need to cook more; others might be more seasonal, or we ran out for the day. You will usually have the opportunity to try everything available on the menu in the span of an hour unless we’ve run out of something.
For drinks, it generally only takes a minute or so for our bartenders to mix up whatever variety of caipirinha or other cocktail you might want or pour you whatever else we have on offer (alcoholic or non). Water, of course, is refreshed as you need it.
For items like desserts that need to be made to order, you can expect a bit more of a wait, depending on what it is you’re ordering. A slice of carrot cake or Brazilian cheesecake can be out in a few moments. Something like a crème brulee or a bananas foster that requires cooking will take a little longer.
How Long Will You Wait to Be Seated?
The biggest wait for most people enjoying Brazilian barbecue is the wait to get in.
Sometimes, when you arrive, there will be space, and you’ll be seated immediately. You can get right to your meal in a matter of just a few minutes.
Most of the time, our restaurants are popular enough and busy enough that you’ll have a short wait on your hands. Despite the length of dining, there’s still a reasonable amount of turnover in diners, and many people end up waiting around ten to fifteen minutes before a table opens up for them.
On some occasions, if it’s a busy time on a busy night, you may find yourself waiting even longer. We’ve had guests wait almost an hour on especially busy days. This is where the option to make a reservation really comes in handy, and seeing people get in before you because they made a reservation is likely to make you a believer in reservations for next time.
In very rare cases, the wait could be even longer. After all, like we’ve said, we don’t pressure people to leave. The longer the line, the more pressure they may feel from their fellow guests – and it is, truthfully, more respectful to finish up and leave when you’re done instead of lingering if it’s really busy – but it’s not pressure we put on our diners.
Be aware that all of these numbers and estimates vary a lot by location. A popular location in a place like Dallas or New York is going to have longer waits and shorter meals than a location in a smaller city elsewhere might. You might even consider calling ahead and asking about wait times, even if you aren’t able to make a reservation.
Is it Considered Rude in Brazilian Culture to Eat Too Quickly?
There are a few different ways to answer this question.
If you’re in Brazil and you’re sitting down to eat a meal with friends, family, or coworkers, there are a few cultural norms that might be worth knowing.
One of the most important does relate to timing, but it’s not so much about eating too quickly or too slowly. It’s more about matching the people around you. Brazilian meals, especially social meals, tend to be more about the people than the food. You’re there to socialize and enjoy your time with each other.
So, if you eat too fast, you make a few (possibly unintentional) signals to your hosts; you’re saying you’re hungry and they haven’t served you enough, or you’re in a hurry and would rather leave than enjoy their company.
On the flip side, if you eat too slowly, you have the added bit of rudeness in making others wait for you to finish before moving on, whether it’s to the next course or the next step in socialization.
Again, though, this is all for Brazil itself. While we’ve brought Brazilian food to America through Texas de Brazil, we aren’t trying to enforce Brazilian cultural norms in our restaurants.
That means you have something more reflective of American culture. Is it rude to eat too quickly? No, not really, though you may have to wait for your fellow diners to finish before you can move on. Is it rude to eat too slowly? Only if you’re holding up everyone else from doing whatever after-dinner entertainment they had planned.
As far as we’re concerned, you can stay as long as you like.
We may appreciate you moving on if it’s a particularly busy day, though. We’re not going to kick you out, but if you’re socializing and not really eating anything, maybe it’s time to move elsewhere, right?
What it all comes down to is pacing yourself. There will always be food available, so take your time. You don’t need to cover your plate all at once and work your way through it. In fact, it’s better to take meats as they come since they’ll be fresh and hot rather than cooling on your plate for however long it takes you to eat.
Is There a Limit to How Long You Can Stay?
Well, yes, sort of.
The hard limit is closing time. Most of our locations are open until 9 pm or 10 pm, depending on the day of the week, so when closing time is coming, it’s time to clear out. We do have to shut down the grills, clean everything up, and do everything related to closing, after all. When closing time is getting closer, we won’t be refreshing the salad area or putting new cuts on the grill, so your possible selection will get smaller and smaller as well.
As mentioned above, we aren’t likely to kick you out (unless you’re being rude or disruptive, of course), but if you’re not eating and just hanging out to socialize, our gauchos are likely to start skipping your table regardless. But then, if you’re not eating, they don’t need to swing by to offer food you aren’t taking, right?
There are rumors that some Brazilian steakhouses will put a sort of unofficial timer on tables; if you’re there too long, instead of filet mignon and picanha, you’re only offered chicken drumettes and flank steak. That might be true at other restaurants, but it’s not something we do.
Now, it might feel like we do that sometimes, but it’s more of a fact of schedules. We know more or less when the dinner crowds are coming in, and we put on more of the meats that are in high demand when they do. They’re popular, though, so they’re claimed quickly. The less popular cuts might linger longer, and some of them cook faster, so that just ends up being what’s available after a while, before the next rush and the next batch of prime meats.
We promise we’re not trying to drive you out. We want you to enjoy your meal and leave satisfied!
Do You Need a Reservation to Enjoy Brazilian BBQ?
Generally speaking, no, you don’t need a reservation.
A reservation will make sure you have a table waiting for your group when you arrive, and it’s highly recommended and encouraged if you have a large party because we’re often busy and don’t always have a significant number of tables open for a large group.
On days when we’re exceptionally busy, you may find yourself waiting a good amount of time to get a space if you don’t have a reservation. For that reason, we recommend making one if you’re able to do so.
As we’ve mentioned, this all can vary depending on the specific location, time of day, and even what day it is. There are some locations of Texas de Brazil where it’s nearly impossible to find a table without a reservation; others almost always have some open tables, particularly for small groups.
To make a reservation, you can call your nearest Texas de Brazil location, or you can make a reservation directly on our website through this menu.
Whether you make a reservation or not, we definitely look forward to seeing you! If you have any other questions, feel free to let us know or browse the rest of this blog to see if we’ve answered them elsewhere. We want you to have the best possible experience enjoying Brazilian barbecue, so we’re happy to help.
