After nearly 12 hours of standing on my feet, and having a crap ass lunch, we were all ready for a real dinner. And there is no better way to put food in your belly than to do all-you-can-stuff brazilian style churrascaria. We tried to go to Texas De Brazil last year and there was a ridiculous wait. It was later in the evening so the wait was far less. So we finally made it.
They bring out warm pao de quiejo which is the brazilian style cheese bread. For whatever reason, these suckers are always good, even though all they are is slightly cheese flavored bread.
They also bring out fried bananas, which is normally one of my most favorite brazilian dishes of all time. These ones were only ok. One of these bowls, the bananas were just kinda warmed up. There was no frying. They were just warm bananas with cinnamon and sugar on it. I mean it was still good, but not really quite fried bananas. Not enough fryingto be called fried.
Even though this is a meat brought out on swords and sliced in front of you kind of place, I actually don’t prefer that stuff. I prefer the feijoada and the other items on the salad bar. I love me some feijoada and could eat this every day. It’s not the national dish of brazil just for no reason.
I love all the random things on the salad bar… all kinds of veggies, meats, cheeses, etc. You’ll always find beets. And there’s always lots of differently prepared tomatoes. Cured meats? You betcha. I thoroughly enjoyed this manchego cheese, even though we know that’s spanish. I did eat some of the meat… I particularly enjoyed the pork ribs. Nobody tried the sausage, the sausage slinger must feel bad with all the constant rejection. The chicken options were meh. But it’s always a good time at a churrascaria!

It’s hard to believe, but I’m not allowed to say that I’ve never eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe anymore. When a team dinner calls, you must go eat. We were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel, so the cafe at the CityWalk was just a quick walk away. It’s pretty ginormous. In fact, it’s the largest Hard Rock Cafe in the world. Wow. Yes, there’s music memorabilia everywhere. There are even these pretty cool stained glass windows. There’s also some kind of convertible that’s spinning around above the bar. It’s a spectacle.
I wasn’t up for drinking that night so I got a smoothie of some kind. It came in a giant glass and it was quite enjoyable.
Here’s M’s hickory-smoked pulled-pork sandwich. He got his with the Hickory BBQ sauce and not the carolina vinegar-based kind. The sandwich is topped with marinated slaw and also served with seasoned fries, ranch beans and fresh coleslaw. This was pretty decent. The best things were the beans!
I got the anti-cobb salad.  Basically, it was a bunch of fruit on top of lettuce, and I loved it! It was a bunch of mixed greens topped with dried cranberries, fresh Granny Smith apple slices, fresh strawberries, diced grilled chicken breast, fresh orange segments, avocado, and mango served with a tangerine balsamic dressing. This was a spectacular salad! I loved all the fruit and the dressing was just awesome. And you got a heap of protein with the grilled chicken so it wasn’t just fruit only. I really did love it so, I could have eaten this every day! Our server did a great job putting up with us. And for such a large party and a large restaurant, the food came out pretty quick. The kitchen and staff must be massive!

Instead of heading into the city, I decided to spend my last night in the burbs and ended up busting a gut at BCD Tofu House in Edmonds. I’ve been to one before in LA, so I knew what to expect. I ordered a spicy pickled crab & tofu combo. I got a whole bunch of banchan, including this entire grilled fish. It’s impossible to go hungry here. This banchan wasn’t particularly amazing, but it was just fine.
Here’s the crab. Typically, it’s one of my favorite korean dishes of all time. Here, it was only ok. The crab didn’t taste that fresh and the flavor was only so-so. But heck, there was tons of it! And most of the crab was claws, which a lot of you probably prefer.
Here’s my little steaming cauldron of soondubu! Yum! I think there was beef and seafood in this. It just seemed to have a little bit of everything. It was also ok.
They have the “purple” rice here, which is cool. The rice comes out in its own little cauldron, but when the server comes out, she transports the rice into a metal bowl and then leaves the leftovers in the cauldron with you. Then she fills the cauldron with hot water.
Then you can mix up the water with the leftover rice and also eat that. It’s actually probably my favorite part of such a soondubu meal, even though it’s probably the most boring! This place is pretty small, and there’s only one server working in the whole place. Despite this, the service was quite fine and the food came out quickly.