DINNER AT PAMPA BRAZILIAN STEAKHOUSE - Stephen Avenue

Located on 10th Avenue SW, it was an easy place to find. I was a bit worried that I couldn't spot it right away but the burning torches out front gave it away. I really wanted to come here for the Big Taste because it was a good deal. Sadly, I wasn't able to try any of the restaurants during the Big Taste. I didn't realize this, but some of the street parking are only available after 6pm on weekdays and Saturday. My friend had made reservations for 5:30pm last Friday. I was a bit late looking for parking. I knew that there was a parkade under the restaurant, but I couldn't seem to find the sign or the entrance to it. I found it later while I was walking by - just drive down the back of the building and there is a little sign. Anyways, my friend told me to risk it and park outside the restaurant but that was after I found a parking spot. As I was walking to the restaurant, I spotted several cars parking on the street, and some people sitting in their cars in case the parking authority drove by or their car is towed.

Anyways, upon entering, I snuck by the hostess since she was busy chatting, and I knew where my friend and her husband were sitting as I was walking by the window. My friend and her husband already started without me since I was about 15 minutes late. As I sat down, the person in charge of our section kindly explained everything to me - the plates by the salad and side bar, the red and green circle for yes and no for meat, and the servers with big skewers coming around. They also bring special cheddar buns to the table as you sit down. They are airy, cheesy, and wonderful, and can always ask for more when the person comes by to check on you.

The restaurant is very spacious for a downtown restaurant and modern. You can fit a lot people in, they have a separate room for big parties. You can also see the meat rotating over the charcoal burners. I was really hungry and didn't remember to take pictures of all the meats!

Dinner $44.95

The salad and side bar had a variety of stuff. There were salads, cheeses, vegetables - raw, cooked, pickled - ham, beef stroganoff, garlic rice, potatoes, etc. I wasn't going to fill my plate with sides since the star and the reason for eating here was the MEAT. This is what I got for sides plus garlic rice during my second round. I was curious of what type of rice they have since I have fond memories of the coconut rice at Bolero. The garlic rice was okay. I could only taste a little bit of garlic.

No time for meat pictures. The servers kept on coming because the restaurant was just starting to get busy. There was suppose to be eleven different types of meat. Chicken did not come out while I was eating so I didn't get to try it. My friends got chicken drumsticks before I got there. I also skipped the lamb since I'm not really into gamey meat except for duck which I love. I will probably be eating lamb when I go back to visit Ireland soon. All the meat I had were delicious. My favourite were the Parmesan pork loin and their special house Picanha (beef rump steak) that the server was trying to sell to us which wasn't that hard. Most of the meats were tender. I had a couple dry pieces since I think it was first cut of the meat after it had been rotating. During our pig-out, the drink cart came around offering to make their specialty drink, Caipirinha. I'm not a drinker but it was very tempting, and since I was driving, I couldn't.

I don't think I ate $45 worth of meat. I was too full for eating too fast. If the meat skewers came out gradually, I think I would have eaten more. After we stopped eating, we had a little break for catching up. The person in charge of our table gave us enough of a break where our stomach settle leaving some room for dessert - very sneaky. He took a while getting the dessert display. Having the dessert display is a good idea, people eat with their eyes and everything on the tray looked tempting. I was going to say no but they all sound yummy, and I caved along with my friend.

Passion Fruit Mousse $9

This is a wonderful dessert. It was very good. The mousse was all passion fruit favour with a nice mixed berry compote. The mousse had a crunchy element of a meringue puff. The mousse sat on some sort of cake and was mushy as it was soaking up the compote. My friend had the papaya ice cream and she loved it.

Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse
521 10 AVE SW
587-354-3441