Chamas Churrascaria

I ate hear about nine years ago and since then they moved to a smaller and more intimate location. They really improved the atmosphere with the lighting and seating arrangement. They offset the buffet and the new layout helps to make it feel like the upscale experience you are paying for. If they had a live band that would have made the whole night. Ok the food. Yum. The meat was tasty and you get as much as you want. The sides on the buffet could have been a meal in and of it self. The staff were friendly and helpful. I think I enjoyed this meal better than the last time I was here.

My God, this place is awesome! I’ve never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this place has spoiled me for sure! It was a constant parade of meat, if you’re on a diet (unless it the Adkins diet) stay far away from this place! I have never had so much meat in my life. Most of it was really good, I loved the lamb the best. But there was some meat that was overcooked. The chicken was so overcooked I couldn’t eat it, but there were so many other choices it didn’t matter. The salad bar was excellent too! Many more choices than just salad by the way. Things like shrimp and smoked salmon were on it. I tried many things I’ve never eaten before. I know this place is a bit expensive (selling cans of soda for $ 3 is a bit ridiculous), but I found it to be very worth it.

Even for $ 30 during Restaurant Week, we wouldn’t go back.
Service: Just ok. Never got an idea about how many meats they had so we didn’t know when they were done. During one round of water, they only only refilled my husband’s glass and moved to the next table. Mine was empty and I didn’t have any other glasses, it was just odd. Toward the end of the meal they kept offering to take our plates. It wasn’t near closing and it wasn’t full, we don’t know why they were rushing us. The meat carvers completely ignored the red/​green card system.
Food: Some of the meats were good, nothing great enough to come back for. The salad bar wasn’t very good. There were some items I couldn’t eat and if it weren’t for the cloth napkin I didn’t think would get replaced, I would have spit them out. Nasty marinade or brine flavor on things and very salty.
Atmosphere: Cramped. We were sitting near the salad bar at a table that could seat 4. We sat in an L next to each other instead of the across the table from each other. If we had tried to sit across from each other, one of us would be sitting so close to the wall we’d have to slide into the chair like a booth or one of us would be practically sitting in the salad bar.
Overall Brasa is better. They aren’t worth the money either, but the salad bar is better and there is more room.

This is a non-​chain version of Fogo or Texas de Brazil. Compared to those places, Chamas:
–has comparable food. The meats are about the same, maybe slightly lower quality. The salad/​sides/​soup bar at the chains are more extensive and higher quality
–ambiance is better as it is a smaller restaurant
–service was slightly better.
The price makes this a place to only go on rare occasions. Dinner for two with one drink each came out to $ 120, including tip.

The food is good. All of the meats were cooked perfectly and tender. The buffet left something to be desired. All of the items on the buffet were cold, except for the soup, beans, and rice. A warm item on the buffet would have been nice.
My main complaint was with the service. In order to get meat, the customer has to indicate, by flipping a card, if they want meat or not. The servers come to the table even if you indicate you do not want meat. In addition to the meat carvers, there was only one main waitress. She was so scattered that she did not remember if she was suppose to bring you something or not. For example, she said she would bring me a clean plate; 10 minutes later, no clean plate. She also said she would bring additional plantains. The plantains never came.
All in all, a decent place to eat. If they made a few changes to the buffet and staff it would get 5 stars.

My husband and I went here for our Christmas dinner, and couldn’t be more satisfied! Such a great deal and wide variety of food options. Definitely want to go back!

I visited Chamas during Restaurant Week with a group and we had a good meal, but I felt the restaurant was overpriced and very cramped. I didn’t like the food or the ambiance as much as at Brasa. The squash salad on the bar was good, but the set up and presentation of the bar is awful. It’s L-​shaped and difficult to maneuver around, as it’s right by tables, with diners and servers whizzing by. In terms of meat, most of it seemed overcooked. I liked the pork the best. The caipirinhas were good, although my first out of 2 was too strong. Our waitress was really nice, but she didn’t come around as often as we needed her. Our cheese roll basket was never refilled. I will make the drive to Brasa next time.

The reason why I could never go vegetarian– their meat.
My favorites? Top sirloin, filet mignon, their juicy chicken wrapped in bacon, and garlic steak.
The best part? I got to eat as much as my stomach could handle without skimping on quality!
Some of the meats were a bit too rare that I felt like they could come back to life (especially their lamb haha)
The appetizers they offer aren’t that spectacular but I promise they make up for it with their meat!
Service was pretty good! My only complaint is that sometimes the meat would come out very slowly… So slowly that we’d have to wait…
One of our servers told us the ribeye would come out shortly. Some of us got excited and decided to wait on it. It ended up coming out ~1 hour later. And by that point, we were feeling all the food in our stomach so we couldn’t appreciate the ribeye as much…
It is a pricey place but I’d recommend everyone just giving this place a go! It’s a great place for groups and a fun experience :)
Oh but make sure you make reservations, this place fills up very quickly~

The meat was delicious and came non-​stop even though the restaurant was fairly busy. They have about 10 different types of meat from bacon wrapped chicken, top sirloin, to flank steak and pork ribs. The garlic steak and pork ribs are absolutely delicious.
Also the service here is excellent. Your waitress and all of the other employees are very friendly and always willing to help.

I went here last night for dinner with the gf and it was a pretty mixed bag. Definitely overpriced by Durham standards (considering the epic Chimas in Washington DC was 6 bucks more and MUCH BETTER). It was clear they tried to bring out some of their very worst, most overcooked pieces of meat before bringing anything worth having.
Towards the end of the meal (when of course we were getting full), it got much better – the lamb and flank steak were both very good, as was the sirloin, when it was served medium rare.
The ambience also certainly lacks as well – it connects directly (and by that I mean there is a sheet hanging up in the space between and they share a bathroom), with the loud Italian place next door.
I may give it a shot for restaurant week or something of the like, as I live a block away, but I was quite disappointed with this trip there.

Love it for times of Celebration. Love how so much to choose from on my low carb way if eatting. Great service

A group of 8 of us went to Chamas for lunch during triangle restaurant week and we loved it (even the vegetarian). We had no problems with making a reservation for the same day. The restaurant was very clean. The bathroom was clean. The salad bar was kept stocked. Our waitress checked on us frequently. We tried every single meat that was offered and we found that all the meats were cooked perfectly. The sirloin was the best followed by the chicken as a close second. One thing I noticed was that they didn’t clear old plates quickly enough. Most of the time my friends took it into their own hands to clear plates off the table to make room for new ones. It also seems like the waiters don’t have a clear rotation of how to serve the meat between tables. I noticed that our table would get skipped for certain meats and it would be a while before it would get to us. My friend also asked to try a specific meat that the waiter said he would send to our table but it never made it. I also noticed even when the meat was at our table some waiters would ask everyone if they wanted a meat while others would only ask two people then move on to the next table. I was skipped over on several meats that I wanted because of this. The meat, however, tasted amazing and I still consider the service to be fairly good for how busy it was. I will definitely be going back and I recommend trying Chamas.

The interior has a nice ambiance to it and the salad bar was amazing. It’s weird saying that a salad bar was amazing but it was so good it is worth mentioning. The salad bar was filled with what looked like fresh ingredients and food. The wine pairing with the meat was good, helped slice through the coating of meat fat after a bite or two.
Was a nice place if you want to enjoy different variations of meat surrounded by dimish lights.

You can read my first review for more details, but after a disappointing experience on my third restaurant week venture for lunch, it mandated an update. It seems like every year they keep cutting back on the TRW lunch offerings. Last year they at least had the garlic steak, but alas no more. Now we’re stuck with either pork, chicken, bacon-​wrapped meats and top sirloin. Still a good value at $ 15, but I doubt I’m gonna make it an annual restaurant week tradition anymore. While I’m a little grumpy Chamas hasn’t kept me spoiled like the first year, if you like the brazilian steakhouse experience, Chamas fills the niche reasonably well.

I’m debating between 1 – 2 stars.
Went for lunch for restaurant week with a bunch of classmates.
I have been to two brazillian steakhouses in the past, including Fogo De Chao so i definitely found myself comparing this place to the others
First off, I liked the salad bar. pretty standard. and I didn’t mind filling myself with the salad bar since it was only $ 15 for restaurant week.
For the steak. the meat was super slow to come out and go around.
My main issue was with the guy who was going around with the meat. He seemed super grumpy and had an attitude. When one classmate asked him what the meat was, he didn’t respond and just waited with a face «so do you want it or not?»
and when i asked for a less rare piece he got annoyed.
at Fogo, the server would ask us if we wanted medium or medium rare and cut us slices depending on our preference. this guy did NONE of that PLUS he had an attitude problem. maybe because it was restaurant week he didn’t care as much?
Then, as more people came in to dine for lunch, our meat just never came… then the waitress asked halfway through if we were ready for dessert. umm NO? we only had like three pieces of meat!
Meat wise.
I liked the sirloin the best, but each time was different aka super rare and bloody or super well done and tough
I personally did not like the bacon wrapped filet. it was super tough
The sausage and chicken were surprisingly super good!
also, my friend said the server spilled meat-​juice all over her. i don’t know if he apologized or not.
for $ 15, definitely worth it for the food, but the service was AWFUL. again, don’t know it he was just annoyed it was restaurant week. but would DEFINITELY not be going back.

We went there for lunch during the Triangle Restaurant week, for $ 15.
Service was good and attentive, all meat was OK: Chicken, pork, filet mignon, and sirloin (Lamb is for Dinner only). I tasted every part of the meat, and although I finished the 5 different types of meat on my plate, none of them made me to ask for more.
In conclusion, if you are not fussy with food and have a huge appetite this might be the place for you, but I rater spend this money and get a smaller but tastier piece of meat in another restaurant.

I really like Brazilian steakhouses and buffets style places in general because it gives you lots of options in terms of food. I would say that Chamas is pretty average in terms of the food but unfortunately their prices are just too high for me to come normally to this place (I think it’s something like $ 25 lunch/​$ 40 dinner) for meat and the buffet. And judging by the reviews below that said the same thing, maybe it’s time for the restaurant to rethink their pricing a little. That said, the two times I’ve been here were both during Triangle Restaurant Week when lunch is a much more reasonable $ 15.
The buffet has a pretty decent selection of salad, pasta, and other cold appetizers, but it’s probably not worth it to come to Chamas just for the buffet bar. In terms of their meats, they only have the cheaper meats available for lunch (so sadly no lamb or filet mignon) but they do have chicken, steak, pork, and sausages available. They’re all pretty good with the slight tendency to be overcooked at times, however definitely be prepared to have all your meat completely covered in salt.
Service is a little spotty as some have mentioned below, but its decent enough. Even though it’s not the best, I’ll probably be back next year for TRW.

I had lunch here during Restaurant Triangle Week a while back. Overall a good solid package but nothing truly outstanding. I liked the different selections of meat, from the chicken to the garlic steak, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay regular prices for it.
The location within Brightleaf suits the restaurant well, gives it a sort of charm that’s hard to come by.
The sides are good and can either be a complement or a distraction to the meal. I like their cheesy bread (it’s not anything like cheesy bread you’d get from delivery, this one has cheese baked right inside). Tasty rice and beans.
Go here and say you’ve been to a Brazilian churrasqueria. I would wait for RTW though.

I’ve always wanted to go to a brazilian steakhouse at some point in life, so when my parents came to visit at Duke a few days ago, I decided to make a reservation at Chamas for the three of us — it also happened to be in the middle of triangle area restaurant week ($ 30 per person), so I was very excited about this opportunity.
I supposed I had an okay experience. Three of us got very full, and we enjoyed our visit. My dad (he’s very picky) really loved the bacon-​wrapped filet mignon, and I liked the garlic steak and ribs. We weren’t the biggest fans of other meats though, but that wasn’t a problem because we had enough of the food we liked. However, I was pretty disappointed by the salad bar they had. My mom doesn’t eat meat so that was the only thing she could eat from — one of the reasons I had settled on the brazillian steak house was because I had heard that the salad bar was amazing and thought she would be provided with many options, but it was pretty shabby compared to salad bar pictures of other brazillian restaurants I had looked into in the past. She did get full by the end of the meal, but I had simply expected the bar to have so many more options. On the other hand, I felt that even with the restaurant week discount, it was very very expensive, and I was also really disappointed that they charged extra money for desserts.
As much as I enjoyed my meal here, I think it could have definitely been better. Maybe next year for triangle area restaurant week again, but probably not at any other time.

«So… much… meat…»
Always wanted to try this place, and had the opportunity to have lunch here at a reasonable price thanks to Triangle Restaurant Week (TRW). It’s NOT cheap– regular lunch price is $ 20, and dinner is significantly more (can’t remember the exact amount). However, it is an amazing all-​the-​meat-​you-​can-​eat adventure.
The salad bar was pretty good, but no better than that– some reviewers said it’s worth going just for that, but I couldn’t disagree more. It had standard veggies and a few hot foods including some nice creations (including a really tasty warm pasta in pomodoro sauce), but it would not be worth the $ 10 pricetag to have that alone for lunch. Other reviewers mentioned things like mussels, salmon, etc., but none of that was on the bar when we went– perhaps reserved for dinner? Also, a true vegetarian may have a heart attack when the huge swords of meat are sliced tableside for their dining partners.
As for those meats, I tried the chicken (excellent!), garlic steak (very good), lamb (outstanding!), sirloin (good), and flank steak (meh). I really appreciated the attention that the gauchos paid to us, too– when my friend Bob R mentioned that I was waiting for the lamb, the gaucho went to the back and promptly came back with lamb for me, and even grabbed the mint sauce off the buffet for me to serve.
In contrast to other reviews, we didn’t feel the service was slow, given that the gaucho was always at someone’s table, but the restaurant was rather empty, so it’s possible that crowds slow down the meal a lot.
Overall, I’d have to say I’m a fan. It’s not a place I could eat often, in part for the price and in part for the sheer volume of meat. But it was excellent, in quality, quantity, and service. As Bob R said, you have to be sure to tip well when your server is walking around with swords!