Libra Brazilian Steakhouse

I can not say enough about this place. The owners are great people. They are always around greeting and making sure things are tasting right.
There is one server who is exceptional. LEO i believe is his name. HE serves these great balls.
When ever we sit down he puts his balls on the table right away. They taste so yummy. They are so juicy. I can never get enough of his balls.
Then the meats. He usually starts with his brazilian sausage. So tender, so juicy, just right. Also is the brazilian meat special. Its so salty and sweet at the same time.
The salad bar is always fresh and the service is right on.
A must try for lunch or dinner in Culver City.
Again, try Leo’s Balls. They are the best and most cheesiest balls in town.

First of all I recommend making reservations. I came on a thursday night around 8 and we were quoted an hour. There’s a parking structure behind the restaurant that has the first 2 hours free than $ 1 per hour after that
This place is completely worth the wait… the décor inside is very classy… they have a wall lined with wine and all the tables have white table clothes… BUT it is a casual place. When you sit down you are given two paper circles (1 per person). When the circle is on the red side it means stop serving me… when it’s on green it means more.
Hit the salad bar because it’s so delicious. All the meats are amazing except the filet mignon. They completely overcook this… but everything is else is perfectly cooked and seasoned… try everything! Sometimes we would turn our circles to red and the server would serve the table next to us, announce the name and bam! our circles are green again. Also the chicken hearts are perfect here… though I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Don’t be afraid to ask for a more generous serving when they bring the meat to your table.
The Brazilian beer (Xingu) $ 4.50 however is not my taste. It’s hard to describe, but it taste odd.
A dinner for 2 will be $ 89.90 but they do have groupons on the place where you can buy $ 50 for $ 25
I highly recommend this place & don’t forget to buy the groupon first

Good experience here. The meat came around consistently. It was all very salty but I didn’t mind, it was tasty and incredibly tender. And omg, the roasted pineapple was incredible. I asked for like 6 more pieces when it came around again.
The salad bar had lots of variety, including things like meats and cheeses, marinated mushrooms, potato salad, and hot foods like beans, rice, even chicken. If you can’t make the $ 45 price tag on dinner you can get just the salad bar for $ 35 and be completely stuffed. We had a Groupon, which made the cost a little easier. I also had a caipirinha ($ 12)… if you’ve never had one it’s like a margarita crossed with a mojito.
Bring your appetite!

For my first time ever having Brazillian BBQ, I was nervous/​excited for all the meat I was expecting to eat. My girlfriend treated me out to a date and kept me eating light all day to save room for this place. It’s a good thing she did because I really needed all the extra space to keep up with the large selection of BBQ they have here.
We were the first customers there so we had first dibs on the fresh meat. I think I tried about 10 different cuts of meat including: brisket, tri-​tip, garlic chicken, lamb, and filet mignon. They were all very delicious. My favorite had to be the garlic beef and lamb. I had to get about 2 or 3 turns of them each.
Be careful with the buffet/​salad section because there is a large selection that had some really good stuff and could easily fill you up before the BBQ even comes out. Oh, that cheese bread too. so tasty and addicting.
It’s a pretty classy restaurant located in downtown Culver City. a really good date spot. There’s a lot of good happy hours nearby to grab a drink before or after the Brazillian festivity. I’m already looking forward to the next visit.

Love this place! I finally found a groupon for this restaurant and I was super excited to go. I have friends who go to this restaurant pretty regularly so this time it was my turn.
I love the modern and clean décor! It’s classy without being too snobby. My boyfriend and I were the first customers there and we were attended to immediately. I ordered a red sangria, which I highly recommend. It was fruity, light, and flavorful.
The buffet food was sooo good! I wanted to try everything but I knew the never ending meats would keep me satiated. All the meats were juicy and tender! Maybe it was the fact it was super fresh since we were the first ones to be served, but I enjoyed every single one of them. I’m pretty picky about my meat cuts and I had a difficult time saying no to any of them. I even tried the chicken hearts and it was delicious!
I definitely will be back for dinner again! If you haven’t tried churrascaria this is the place to start!

I’m giving this a 5 not just b/​c of the food, but for a $ 22.95 all you can eat weekday lunch! I’m not going to lie… I have the luxury of going to a weekday lunch this summer whereas most gainfully employed people do not have that luxury.
But even if you don’t come on the weekday, it’s $ 29.95 for weekend lunch and I believe about $ 40.95 for a weekend dinner… if I remember correctly? Either way, compared to Fogo de Chao, the prices are much better unless you go during Fogo’s restaurant week.
Besides price though, let’s talk about the food. I believe they have a much wider selection of meats than Fogo does — at least for lunch. When I went to Fogo for lunch on restaurant week, they had 6 cuts of meet compared to Libra’s 12 cuts. Libra also has this awesome grilled pineapple with cinnamon that is awesome. It’s got this spicy sweet thing going on that I dig. Plus, it’s a nice palette cleanser from all the meat. As for the meats itself, I would say they are on par with fogo. I will say though that Fogo’s house cut special is probably the best thing. Overall — not much of a difference. Where you can really tell the difference though is in the salad bar.
Now I know what you’re thinking, «who gives a crap about the salad bar, I just want the meet.» Don’t count the salad bar out at Libra… it’s soooooo good and a MUCH wider selection than Fogo. I’m guessing Libra and Fogo want you to fill up on the Salad bar instead of the meats, so it’s a delicate balance of getting the good stuff but not going crazy over it. I tend to go towards the pickled onions and tomatoes that is listed as going well with the meats. Also, the creamed spinach and corn is awesome as well as the beef stroganoff. I’m telling you. lots of options. Just take your time, breathe, and enjoy, and don’t die.

AYCE (All You Can Eat) BRAZILIAN Churrascaria offering a GREAT EXPERIENCE in Culver City! We came on a Wednesday evening and braved some pretty tough traffic & slow city lights to get to Libra (meaning pound in weight, not the Zodiac sign). Definitely allow for extra travel time. The area it’s located in is HOPPIN’! Unless you live in the area, best 2 options for parking: 1) on Cardiff St. there’s structure parking with 1^st 2 hrs free; 2) if you pass Libra on Main St. & turn right on Culver Blvd. there is a Public Valet Service ($ 6.50) immediately on right, in front of Public School 310 restaurant. The staff we interacted with were so pleasant and very helpful. Jefferson seemed to take point for our table, and made our visit even more enjoyable. My young squires were really entertained by him! Cool bloke. Pleasant surprise when we were told it was «dineLA» week, so we could have the lunch menu (11 meat choices) & price @ dinner (which normally has 4 additional meat choices).
A churrascaria signature cut is usually «Picanha» and it was prepared just right here… tasty & tender. Its the whole reason we visit churrascarias! Suffice it to say, the gauchos and gaucha dropped that cut on my plate more than any other meat selection. Other cuts we enjoyed were the bacon wrapped chicken, garlic picanha, smoked sausage, garlic chicken, and the Cinnamon coated grilled pineapple, which was perfect to wash the grease down. There is a good sized salad bar to help distract you from the various meats flying around. This isn’t the place for roughage, though. That’s Souplantation. Here, it’s all about being a carnivore! However, me mum could not stay away from the caramelized bananas, those were a delightful evil!
We left the premises completely satisfied with our Libra experience. There was no holding back on the meats here. If your indicator card was flipped to green, the gauchos & gaucha kept coming. There was always a variety of meats being rotated & offered to the table. Weren’t stuck with just continuous offerings of sausage & chicken hearts. This was a great food find servin’ yum and look forward to returning!

Pretty authentic Brasilian Churrascaria! Picanha and chicken hearts were my favorite items there. I’ve never had chicken hearts so tender and flavorful in any Churrascarias before! Even the ones in Brasil are not this good! Great job!
The place was packed with huge parties celebrating graduation so it was extremely loud that night.
The salad bar was good but the hearts of palm had a funky taste.
We had a late dinner since my flight didn’t get in til 8pm. By the time we got to the restaurant, it appear that the salad bar was closing, some items were almost out and it didn’t get re-​filled.
My sister lives close to Libra so she goes there often, this was our first time there and it was pretty good. I will def. go back at an earlier time. I’m sure it will be great when everything is extra fresh!

DON’T EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER EAT HERE!
If I can rate this place with less than one star, I would.
Just left. Service was HORRIBLE!!! Paid money to be ignored the whole time. They didn’t honor the dineLA menu, and never came by to properly apologize for the appalling service. Our server never came by to see if what we complained about was resolved in a satisfactory manner… Never coming back here.
We decided to try out the place because my friend saw it on the Dine LA list. The deal included the salad bar, hot food bar, polentas and cheese breads at the table, Brazilian BBQ, then dessert.
When we arrived, we were promptly seated. The hostess said the server would be with us soon. In the meantime, my friend and I went to the salad bar to grab some veggies before the meat started coming around. The selection at the salad and hot food bar was decent.
The server came by, poured us some water, then left.
We flipped the little token to show green. We were looking forward to some good Brazilian BBQ.
We waited…
And waited…
And waited…
We asked our server for some bread (they hadn’t brought us any. We were told that they JUST came out of the oven and that he would bring them pronto.
Then we waited.
Finally, my friend just grabbed some plates off the salad bar (the wait staff is supposed to bring a clean plate for you to use for the meat once you’re ready).
Then we waited some more.
One server came by with some sirloin.
Then another 10 minutes of just sitting there as all the other servers passed by out table without stopped for even so much as an, «Excus-​»
Our waiter didn’t even come by to ask if we needed more water… food…
Finally, my friend called the hostess and complained that we’ve been looked over, the polenta (which we asked for a while ago) never arrived, and that we’ve been sitting at the table COMPLETELY ignored by their staff… left alone to watch everybody else stuff their faces with food that we also are entitled to.
She didn’t apologize — just said that she would get our waiter.
He didn’t come by for a while.
He brought some polenta (SUPER FRIED and greasy), placed it rather harshly on the table, and simply said, «Here. The meat will come by, ok?»
No apologies.
No, «How can we make this a better experience for you?»
Nothing. He didn’t check on us for the rest of the night.
It wasn’t until another 15 minutes had passed that someone FINALLY came to our table with meat. By then, we were pissed and not hungry anymore.
When we asked for the check, the hostess STILL didn’t apologize, dropped off the check, and never spoke to us again.
For ANY restaurant to truly flourish, I believe great service is a MUST. This place obviously didn’t get the memo. I’ve never had a bad Dine LA experience. They must not have reviewed this place thoroughly before they allowed them to participate.

I enjoyed my meal here, but I think for the full $ 45 price tag for dinner it’s just okay. They have the usual selection of meat that you’ll find at a Brazilian steakhouse, but I have had better picanha and some of the meats were under-​done.
My friend and I skipped the salad bar altogether and opted to save as much room as possible for the meat.
The outstanding: the ribeye, the skirt steak, the roasted pineapple. Also those little rolls that the meal comes with are heavenly!
The pretty good: the filet, the bacon-​wrapped chicken. Our sangria was pretty good as well!
The just okay: the picanha, the garlic chicken. Too bad as these came highly recommended from our server.
Our service was great, although we never saw the lamb chops or the chicken hearts, both of which we were told were excellent. But our regular server came by a couple times to check on us and (to my amuseument) re-​fold my sweater draped over the back of a chair.
Overall this was a nice experience, but I’d only come back during a Restaurant Week of some sort to up the value for the money here.

OVERRATED!
Oh my!!! where do i even begin!
Libra’s been on my bookmark for quite some time. Reviews make you wanna go. my friend took his girlfriend here for valentines and he said it was good. i can’t express how highly im disappointed!
there was a living social deal. so i figure i’ve always wanted to come here why not purchase the deal. after weeks of wanting to go and not being able to my boyfriend and i finally came. being as hungry as my boyfriend and i were this has to be one of the worst brazillian steakhouse we’ve been to!
rating scale for brazilian bbq.
1)texas de brazil [Florida]
2)m grill [ktown, los angeles]
3)Agora Churrascaria [irvine, ca]
4) porto alegre [pasadena, ca]
5) samba brazilian steakhouse [university city walk, ca]
6) libra brazilian steakhouse
honestly, a lot of the food was bland. a lot of the meat that was brought out was cooked well done. not quite sure if someone requested well done but we were so hungry we just took it even though we preferred medium well. chicken heart is the best thing here. caramelized banana is the 2^nd best item here. it is super delicious except when you eat a lot. it gets a little too sweet. huge salad bar which has a lot of items besides salad. cream corn was not sweet and was watered down. i love cream corn and it has to be one of the worst. they even have chicken adobo. correct me if i’m wrong but isn’t this a Filipino dish? i make better chicken adobo and i’m not even filipino. beef stew wasn’t bad. carrots in it were a little too hard.
it was pretty dead for a friday night. which i’m surprised because M grill is always freaking packed!
service was good. the meat took forever to come out. got full fast because of all of the waiting.
tips:
*indoor and outdoor seating.
*there’s a TV
*reservation offered.
*credit card and cash accepted.
*fairly intimate setting. lighting is dimmed.
*pricy!
*street parking or parking structure parking free for the first 2 hours. not ideal for a lowered car FYI. if you have a lowered car please park by the shopping center by ross, wing stop, etc. and walk over like we did.
honestly, 2 stars from me because i’ve honestly have had better. we were highly disappointed from our experience. but glad we came to find out for ourselves. as, i’ve reread many reviews from other Unilocalers. many of the comments/​complaints are the same except they gave libra more stars. overall, our stomachs were unsatisfied.

Once you get a taste of the fine dining, top notch salad bar, extraordinary selection of meats-you’ll never want to go to another Brazilian BBQ spot again.
I came here on a Groupon deal, and though the total was still expensive for two-​you get what you pay for.
My dining experience here was perfect. Excellent customer service, prompt host, beautiful inside décor, dim lights, cute Brazilian waiters, free cheese rolls (which are on point), meat that was bursting with flavor & an authentic salad bar like nothing I’ve seen before. Did I mention cute Brazilian waiters?
Don’t be surprised if you see a Hollywood star grubbing here.
If you see this deal on Groupon, don’t let it pass! If you can afford the luxury of eating here full price, then dinner here is a must.

Went to this place with a Groupon and still ended up paying a good chunk out of pocket. Overall the price was still almost as expensive as Fogo De Chao.
The place is nice and clean and in the heart of the growing mid Century City restaurant/​bar area.
The customer service was friendly, attentive, and helpful.
On to the food. They had a solid selection of various meats and cuts. I tried many of them and was satisfied, well done Libra. The buffet had a good selection of salads, cold cuts, and some other items.
The grilled pineapple was unique and really stands-​out.
The dessert was extra and is a la carte. Not a fan of that since the business model is like a buffet, pay for all you can eat.

A sister/​brother of M Grill!
This place is just as good as M Grill. but a bit better because it has more side dishes variety.
I really enjoy the meat quality here as well. the ambiance is nice and modern and very clean.
The staff was friendly and always served your food with a smile.
I will def. come back here. :) Another diamond in the rough, Mr. Ahn.

Came here for dineLA lunch! and I’m so glad i did! definitely a bargain for the price, they not only have the meats coming around but also a pretty decent self serve section with pretty good stuff! i really liked the creamed corn AMAZING (to be fair I’m a sucker for any creamed corn though) the mashed potatoes were pretty nasty though.
great selection of meat even without doing the $ 7 add on, the best part was that they kept coming around, I’ve been to many Brazilian steakhouses where you have to Wait in between each cut of meat and i HATE that, this place was great with that and kept me munching throughout the meal!
some of the cuts were a bit too salty for me but it really depends on what you like, great service as well and all servers were very nice! I will definitely be back if the opportunity arises!

What a belly busting food dining experience here! So much food but my stomach is not big enough! I’ve always been wanting to take my bf to an AYCE Brazilian place. Found a pretty good deal on Groupon and finally used it!
Reservations are a must because this place is popular and you could be stuck waiting for a table and drooling over all the meat floating from table to table. We were seated and greeted right away by who seems to be the owner/​manager. He quickly explained how everything went and also went ahead and brought us our waters. There’s a variety of food at the buffet — from salads, to cold pastas, to hot foods like rice and chicken adobo.
Oh the meat! The meat was delicious! Most are medium rare, a bit too bloody for me, unfortunately. :(I’m a medium-​well kind of gal. My favorite is the Brazilian sausage. My boyfriend and I even tried the chicken heart. It was interesting but I would never eat it again. My mind was overly conscious, knowing that I was eating a chicken’s heart. :X
Overall, we had a great dining experience! We would love to see them expand because the space seems a bit small. Great and attentive servers. It is a bit on the pricey side but glad we got a chance to come here.

Almost Perfect.
Why the missing 5^th star? In the category of Brazillian, Steakhouses… I still have only 1 true love. FDC. but, in the category of Meat, Glorious Meat, this was a truely great meal.
we came in to do the first day of dineLA. lo and behold, getting here at 1145am, they had the early bird, for $ 4.05 less than dineLA!!! WHAT!!! $ 15.95 for the early bird lunch. that kids, is a steal. then again, i’ve discovered a lot of the menus on dineLA are actually more expensive than the normal menus of said restaurants. that kids, is stealing. but, that’s another story.
Libra is located conveniently on Main St in Downtown CC. they are open for a short period between 1130 – 1400 for lunch and then again for dinner. i think that’s a pretty genius idea. they have a nice little patio and plenty of room in their main dining room.
our server met us in a timely manner and was very courteous. the entire staff, bussers to meat cutters were gracious and friendly. the salad bar, granted we were the first people there, was clean and well stocked throughout our lunch. lots of pretty good options. fresh veggies, grilled veggies, cream of corn, a couple different cheeses, a couple different stews, rice and so on and so forth. oh, and carmalized bananas!
the meat selection and diversity was impressive. not just for $ 15.95 impressive, although that did apply in writing this review, but in general for steakhouses. we must’ve had at least 11 different cuts made available to us. from the ubiqutous Caiprinha to several kinds of sausages to chicken livers and tri-​tip and everything in between. the meat came out hot off the grill, and perfectly cooked, depending on where on the spit you wanted them to cut. medium rare and well done were able to be captured on your tongs from the same dude. the chicken options were juicy and tender. and the guys were turning and burning on running around, in and out with the meat. i never had to wait. the seasoning was great, not too much to offset the flavor of the meat or the flame. oh, and upon request, they have chimichurri available! i’m a big fan of chimichurri and this one was pretty good.
this was an overall great meal. and at the early bird price, it seriously CAN NOT be beat. i don’t know how it could be. i’m definitely returning to welcome back the meat sweats and food coma that i gave myself. 4.5 stars.

My roommates and I really wanted to take advantage of the DineLA going on, so after spending a few days pouring over the choices and narrowing it down to one that is four stars that offers lunch on Sunday’s, we agreed on this one.
The restaurant looks pretty nice, although I never would have expected it to be in the location that it is in. We parked at a parking structure a few minutes away (free parking for 2 hours) and because we had a reservation, we didn’t have to wait. We were quickly seated and taught what to do (green sign means you want more, red means NO haha). The salad bar had a nice variety — salad, creamed corn, mushrooms, cheese — but it didn’t taste very good. Also, if you plan to eat a lot of meat, I would suggest to not go too hard on the salad bar and save room for the meat.
The servers are already walking by with the meat, eyeing the tables for the green card. In like ten minutes, I had a whole bunch of meat on my plate (see the picture) which … really wasn’t a good idea, I realized by the end of the meal. One of the waiters even commented «wow, she has so much!» to another waiter. Yeah, I figured I should turn over my sign and start eating.
I really liked the skirt steak, filet mignon, top sirloin, and the ribeye. After looking at Libra’s website, I realized that I didn’t see some of the meats offered — like the prime rib, chicken hearts and lamb chop. Oh well, there was already so much. And because I had gotten so much at once, that meant I started stuffing myself pretty quickly. I got full pretty fast. :/​
I have to say that Picanha and rib-​eye (I think) were really dry. There was one really good meat that I thought they said was the Brazillian beef, but I didn’t see that on the website o_​O The chicken was good, too — very juicy and tender. I liked the pineapple with cinnamon, but because they had to constantly put the cinnamon on, we rarely got a slice. I liked that the waiters would ask us what cut we wanted — medium, medium rare. That was nice. I have to say that I did not like the sausages at all. I guess I’m more partial to the sweeter Taiwanese kinds, so these were too salty for me. A few of the meats were quite salty actually, but not too bad.
The cheese bread was pretty fluffy — almost like a cream puff but with cheese inside. I really really liked the candied walnuts. My table scarfed down so many, and we even asked them to replace the bowl in the salad bar. Only the second time around, it wasn’t that delicious. The creamed corn wasn’t as creamy as Lawry’s creamed corn, but it was all right. They gave us regular water, and it wasn’t until the end that we were given iced water.
Hmm, as for the dessert, I was able to try the flan and the coconut sorbet. I should have gotten the sorbet. I thought — because it was coconut — it wouldn’t taste too great, but it was light and fluffy! The flan was pretty dense. After eating so much food, I wasn’t in the mood for such a thick and sweet dessert (but I was up for Milk!) … and the consistency wasn’t that great. There were holes in the flan, which was odd … just too much. Anyway, after tax and tip I paid around $ 30, which really wasn’t too bad for what I got. I just wished I paced myself more!
Overall, good ambiance and service and they even give out lollipops next to the cashier. Haha, I took a few. :)
So lesson learned: don’t say yes to all the waiters when they dish out the meat. Take one or two, eat it … pause and digest, before eating more.

Today for a Christmas Eve lunch, a Brasilian friend and i thought that churrasco would be the best thing to eat. We would’ve normally went to M Grill since we’re both near Koreatown, but it isn’t open for Saturday lunches. However, its sister restaurant out in Culver City (Libra) is, so why not?
Ambience is nice and appropriate for the surrounding environs; clean and modern. The gaúcho waiters are the same friendly blokes that i would expect of any churrascaria worth its salt. Not sure how the serving time is during dinner, but i’d say that they were pretty good with bringing the meat courses at a nice, easy pace
The salad bar is also of a good quality. The veggies tasted pretty fresh and crisp. The only one concern i had was the preparation of the rice. It was seasoned ok but methinks it was slightly undercooked. It wasn’t tough to eat, but at the same time, it felt like a good 5~10 more minutes would’ve done some good
Now, onto the main event!
The meats were bloody (both literally and figuratively) brilliant! i didn’t taste one bad thing this afternoon. My definite favourites have to be the picanha and alcatra (top sirloin). The fraldinha and maminhas were great as well; not overdone and dry like some places. To me, if you can’t get those two right, the other cuts just won’t do. Picanha com alho (Garlic picanha) had a nice subtle garlic goodness; not overbearing and not too salty. Also enjoyed their lingüiça (Brasilian sausage)
Here’s a tip to eating more of the delicious meat: ask for their grilled cinnamon pineapple. According to scientists, there is a specific enzyme (bromelain) in pineapples that help break down the meat proteins. After having two slices of the pina, my stomach feels light and satisfied :)
i’d go visit again when time permits

I really wanted to give this place a 2 because they messed up on Flan — one of my favorite desserts ever.
Flan’s texture is supposed to be creamy (absolute favorite part), but the egg ingredient was overcooked, resulting in the flan to be too solid and honestly reminded me of a dome of scrambled eggs.
Brazilian establishment failing to make flan? Don’t make me cry!
I’m sad to say that even El Pollo Loco has better flan (try it, tis surprisingly true).
But this is a Brazilian steakhouse review, so…
The Good:
— Top Sirloin
— Filet Mignon
— Lamb chops
— Garlic beef — soft chunks of garlic planted in the beef. so yum!
— Smoked Sausage
— Cheese rolls, I can never resist.
Skip/​Passable:
— Pork Ribs
— Brazilian sausage — so dry and we struggled to swallow this lump (twss)
— Prime rib — how…
Picanha is my usual favorite. I love the fatty exterior of this cut, but I’ve had way better at any churrascaria.
I like how the Go & Stop cards also listed how you prefer your meat to be cooked. Although the waiter gave me the «medium-​rare» card, a lot of my meats were well done.
The friendly waiter promised to change our plates when needed. The plates never came, so we walked to the salad bar line a couple times to grab empty plates ourselves. Not a problem really, but he is our «waiter.»
Even though I gave it a 3, I probably won’t be back.
Go to Fogo de Chao for this price