Texas De Brazil Restaurant is for serious eaters only. The fine dining establishment, located at level two, MovieTowne, Fiesta Plaza, is a must have experience and if you love to eat, that experience promises to be extra special. With over 50 hot and cold salad dishes to choose from, such as sushi, a variety of cheeses, including a 12-year-old Italian favourite called Grana Padano, smoked salmon, ciabatta bread, ozro pasta and an assortment of sauces and dressings, guests are guaranteed to leave satisfied, not to mention, full.
But perhaps the most exciting part of the entire dining experience is the fact that the customer has all the control.Once seated, diners are given small cards, green and red on either side, which signal to the servers, or "gauchos", whether or not they are ready to be served the restaurant's trademark meats including beef, lamb and pork.Green means yes, red means no.
Sizzling
What sets Texas de Brazil apart from similar restaurants? Director/operations manager, Ryan Chin told the T&T Guardian that it was its superior customer service, which he said always came with a smile and its emphasis on tasty, well done dishes."Everything is temperature controlled. We don't cut our meats in the kitchen, all meats are brought to our guests sizzling from the fire. We season all our meat with our traditional rock salt and everything is down to detail," he asserted.
Noting that children 12 and under "eat free" on Sundays, Chin said the restaurant, which also offers an assortment of deserts, wines, and high-end spirits-had very loyal customers, "as they enjoy the one on one attention they receive."He added, "President George Maxwell Richards is a regular. People are always curious to sample what we have to offer. The feedback has been really good. People say they didn't think that Trinidad was capable of such good service. And the thing is all of our employees have never worked in this business before but I decided to take a chance with them and I couldn't ask for a better staff."
Experience everything
Like most businesses in Trinidad, Chin said the state of emergency and the 11 pm-4 am curfew which was recently removed had negatively affected the restaurant which opened its doors to the public on June 8. "We lost as much as 40 per cent of revenue as a result of the SoE but we found a way to minimise the impact by pushing our lunch menu from 11.30 am-3 pm, which we always wanted to do. That kinda counteracted the fact that we had to close earlier at 9.30 instead of 10.30 pm. So, we still held our own." he revealed.
With prices ranging from $165 for the salad bar to $350 for a full dinner, Chin said the restaurant had "reasonable prices compared to the competition" as he wanted people to experience everything Texas de Brazil had to offer.He said: "We really do try to keep prices in a particular range. We not looking to break anybody pocket."