Brazzaz: Chicago's Brazilian Steakhouse

Deep in the heart of Chicago you will find a quaint little restaurant on North Dearborn Street called Brazzaz. The Brazilian style steakhouse will not only offer you a delicious array of main dishes, but will also make you feel as if you were the only table in the restaurant. Let me take you through an experience that will soon make you feel as though you were there.

When you first walk in the surroundings look as though it was built with dark cherry wood shining faintly with dimmed lightly all around. As you walk straight ahead you are greet by two young women who have smiling faces, warm personalities, and will accompany you to your seat in their establishment. Within three minutes a gentlemen comes to the table asking if this is your first time experiencing Brazzaz and everything it has to offer. After curiously telling him it is he continues to explain how the restaurant works, where it came from and how our dinner is going to be presented. I notice while he is talking he places a small coaster at the edge of the table with one side red and the other green. It's only a matter of time before he explains what exactly that if for.

"What I am going to do is go ahead and retrieve your drinks for this evening and while I am away please make your way up to the seafood and salad bar. Help yourself to whatever you like and when you return your drinks will be here". So as we made our way up to the salad bar it was evident we may not need the main course at all. Unbelievable items were left for us to enjoy such as shrimp cocktail, calamari, crab, and even fresh sushi. If you make your way to the other end there is mushroom and truffle risotto and the weekly fish special served warm. I pretty sure my mouth was watering before I even grabbed my plate. Mix all this together with various cheeses, finger sandwiches, and of course salad then you have yourself the ultimate salad bar. Which I wanted to try a little bit of everything so I did and as we made our way back to our seats our server was standing next to our table patiently waiting for our return.

As we sat down as he continued to explain what was going to happen next. "When you are finished with your appetizers and are ready for your main course, please take the coaster you see here with the red side and turn it over to the green. I will be back to make sure your drinks are to your liking occasionally and continue to serve you throughout the evening". So he ventured off to his other tables and as we enjoyed ourselves and the delicious food (I recommend trying the mushroom and truffle risotto) we let our food settle for about ten minutes and then turned the coaster of to green.

Within a couple minutes servers were coming by one by one with large skews with a fabulous assortment of filet mignon, coulette, top sirloin, beef ribs, bottom sirloin, rack of lamb, leg of lamb, new york strip, pork tenderloin, chicken, shrimp, and even lobster. It is quite frankly some of the best steaks I have ever tasted and I absolutely love steak. The coulette was probably more tender than the rest, but that is not leaving anything to chance from the others as there wasn't one piece from the main course that should be discredited.

We did have a little fun while we were there to as the gentlemen would come by with their skews and offer us a portion in which we couldn't refuse, but occasionally, lol, we would turn the coaster back over to red, then green, then red just to see how the process worked. It was flawless, and was quite enjoyable to say the least. I believe we were a little under dressed as we looked around the room which meant we had that big "Tourists" sign stamped on our foreheads, but no matter it was still amazing. Expect a $48.50 price tag if you venture out for dinner which may sound steep, but for all the elegant foods you are eating it is inexpensive to say the least and I would recommend it to anyone.