Churrascaria Braza

Finally put out of its misery — Braza is closed for good. It was truly a shame to watch this place flush itself down the toilet of existence.

I’ll leave it to you to read all the other reviews but it is definitely not worth the price. I went here two years ago and was blown away by the quality of the meats, the fantastic ‘salad’ bar with shrimp and some amazing platters of antipasto type dishes.
When served amazing complimentary side dishes were brought to the table.
When I saw a Groupon for here I jumped at it. WOW was it a disappointment now. I will say the service was friendly, quick and attentive but the salad bar was missing ½ the items it had from my last visit, no side dishes served, and most of the meats were tough without much flavor, the selection of meats was smaller also.
This trip was on a Friday night around 7pm and only ¼ of the tables were filled. It’s obvious the place is on it’s decline with that amount of customers on a Friday.
Yes I did fill my tummy by if not for the Groupon the bill would have been $ 95 for two with drinks, tax and tip. I expect to be blown away for that price.
So sad as the prior experience was so worth it. Please be forewarned.

This place is not Brazilian or even close… the food is more South American oriented. In general I have not been impressed when visiting in the past. I tried the new one last night before dinner beacuse it was the grand opening and we wanted an ethnic flavor so we visited Braza on the Plaza (Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford). It was awful. First there was no coat check, paid $ 15.00 to get in the door, $ 8.00 for a Long Island ice tea and over $ 10.00 for an app of five pieces of «salgados» that were the size of marbles. Empanadas, Cochinhas and Quibi are supposed to be larger and fresh tasting. My girlfriend thought that the food was of poor quality and I have to agree. I didn’t want to agree because lets face it, I’m always on the side of my Portuguese speaking world! ugh! Do I think this over priced and low quality place will survive in downtown? I think not. Service was no the best and unorganized.

I logged in to Unilocal sure that I had previously reviewed Braza. Sadly Braza used to be one of my family’s favorite restaurants in Hartford. Our first visit was 2 or 3 years ago and it was a wonderfully decadent experience. We were bombarded with tasty meats and a couple of seafood offerings. We left sated and happy. We’ve recommended Braza to several friends. Our past positive experience caused my husband and I to rack up on 3 Groupons to Braza eagerly anticipating our return.
Well imagine my dismay when we returned to Braza this month to find a noisy, dirty place with no ambiance and terrible service. Despite the drastic change in atmosphere we were still hopeful that we would have a good dining experience. Well things started to go downhill when we asked whether we could order sides. We were told that you could not order sides (except Yucca fries) and that the buffet was the only option. Well the buffet looked disgusting. Most of the trays were half empty and the options available left a lot to be desired. I ended up making a salad.
We were offered about 5 different meat options in all. Gone were the days of being bombarded with meat, instead we kept looking around wondering when someone would be back to offer us a small sliver of something. The same things were offered multiple times and none of it was cooked well. Most of the meats were fatty. At the end of the night we were presented with a bill for $ 87 which did not yet include the mandatory gratuity of 19% if I remember correctly. For $ 100 we could have had a nice dinner for two at Morton’s. Instead we left hungry, grumpy and slightly embarrassed, hoping against hope that none of our friends had actually taken us up on the recommendation to eat here. It has become a sad, trashy experience. We have another $ 50 Groupon that expires on February 19^th. I think we’re going to go ahead and count the $ 25 we paid for it as a loss. It’s a waste of everyone’s time to return here. What a travesty this place has become.

Since my original review, as I understand it Braza has gone through one if not two ownership changes and a price increase. The quality standards put forth by the original owners unfortunately have not withstood the changes. Although good, I can’t get past thinking how great this restaurant used to be. A wide array of succulent meats cooked to perfection are now average and hit or miss. Some of the steaks were cooked perfectly while others were overcooked and dry. The assortment of sides on the table were no longer as plentiful and much blander. If I hadn’t eaten here before in it’s glory days I might have rated it four stars on this visit. The difference is just that noticeable and you could even see it in the crowd. Back in the day there was a line to get in the door on the weekends. We visited on a Saturday night and there were several empty tables throughout the night.
Being that it’s the only Churrascaria around as far as I know, I think they’ve enjoyed some freedom from competition that has allowed them to rest on their laurels. I’d like to see some competition raise the bar of quality back to its original stature. All in all this place is still pretty good. If you’ve never been to a Churrascaria, you should definitely try it, as it is a fun experience in itself and Braza won’t disappoint. But for those that had visited from the beginning, it’s just not the same.

I was excited when my mother offered to take the kids for a night and my partner and I went out for a nice adult dinner. One of the first places that popped to mind was Braza!
I have been to Braza two times before and was very happy with the quality of the food — but that was a few years ago. Before tonight I would have given it 4 to 5 stars.
This time the food was overcooked — all the meat was overcooked! The salad bar was bland and uninspired. The best part of the meal was — sadly — the potatoes.
Sadly I will be crossing Braza off my list of go to places.

Did we all go to the same restaurant? I had so much trepidation after reading all of the horrible, horrible reviews of this place but my sister, brother-​in law, and I decided to make our own opinion and headed over there last night. I could not have been MORE delighted with our experience! Our server, Jacob, was very nice and extremely attentive, bringing out bread and fresh drinks before we were even finished with our last. He anticipated our needs, made great recommendations about the delicious dessert menu, and was an overall friendly and chatty guy. He was a top notch server.
The meat was delicious, varied, and cooked with skill. The prime rib, pork ribs, and citrus pork were so good! The servers were discrete and pleasant. The only meat we tried that wasn’t PERFECTLY cooked were the steak tips, a tad overdone, so their flavor didn’t show through– but in an endless parade of meats, its hard to complain that one choice out of ten wasn’t completely perfect.
The sides were also very tasty, I loved the yellow rice, white beans, and fried plantains. My brother-​in-​law was a huge fan of the cold seafood salads, and we all loved the portobello mushroom and pepper vinegar salad. Unfortunately they were out of the shrimp (we did think 7pm on a Friday night was a little early to be out of one of their most popular draws) so we didn’t get a chance to try them, and that is the only reason I am giving by rating 4 and not 5 stars.
Another word about the desserts– they were AMAZING. Try to save room! We had 3 different ones, the flan, the «milk cake» and the fried chocolate filled doughnuts. Holy cow, they were so good! We were full but couldn’t help not shoving that last spoonful in.
My brother-​in-​law also had a mojito that he said was very good and very strong.
Overall we had a really fantastic dining experience and I think that maybe it is time for everyone to give Braza another shot. There’s ample parking behind the building so don’t park next door!

After buying a Groupon deal here and THEN reading all the Unilocal reviews, I approached the first visit here with my share of doubts.
I will add as a qualifier that I went here on a Tuesday at 4:15pm right after they opened. I was very pleased with the salad bar, quick service, and plentiful selection of meats, all cooked exactly how they should be. Overall it was a good dinner and though a bit pricey, I would recommend it to anyone wishing to try something new.

I’ll be honest here, I was somewhat disappointed with this place. Here’s what I think of when I dream of a Brazilian BBQ place:
Succulent meats falling off the skewers with fanciful dude waiters coming around every five minutes with more food. A luxurious salad bar with the greens, olives, peppers, and other tasty veggies and breads. Bananas and honey for dessert and a pleasantly full feeling afterwards. All in all, lots of tasty variety. Also, there’s a salt shaker-​type device where one side is green and one side is red. When the green side is up the waiters bring you magical meats, but when the red side is up they stop (or come way less frequently).
Yeah, except for the red light /​green light device, this place isn’t like that (at least not for lunch anyways). There were only a few different types of meats, the salad bar was crappy, and I was sad. We were all sad. The worst part of it was, that not even a magical wizard could make them make more dishes to increase the variety of food available. The individual dishes were pretty good, but there were too few of them for it to be awesome. Anyways, I would recommend skipping it and going… somewhere else because it would be good for like a $ 5 pulled pork sandwich or something, but it’s not worth the ful price for the limited buffet. :(

My husband and I had high expectations for this restaurant, but sadly, the restaurant quality is poor and we will not be returning. Thank goodness we bought a Groupon for this place as I would have been pissed to pay full price.
My utensils were dirty when we sat down. They had a band playing which would have been nice, except it was way too loud and it was hard to have a conversation.
The salad bar was nothing exciting. Sadly, the meat quality and preparation was poor. The meat was overcooked on most of the cuts. We had one good cut (the NY strip) — at least the first time they came through with the skewer. The second time it was completely overcooked. The only thing that was fairly tasty was the chicken wing.
I would not recommend this place at all.

Very poor value. The food is not bad, its just not worth $ 30 a plate. The beef is mostly bland and low quality. The service was mediocre and the cleanliness was sub-​par. The floor had that slimy film that caused my date to take short careful steps in her heels. At the time we went, the bar had been closed and they could not serve alcohol. They didn’t provide a reason why.
A Brazilian steak house can be a very fun experience in addition to delicious food. If you are looking for Brazilian, look for a different restaurant.

The once proud Braza still delivers decent meat selection but falls well short on staff attentativeness, parking and overall service. Located 5 minutes from route 84 in Hartford, Braza does not provide enough culinary compensation for their extremely poor service.
Myself and a group of my friends had made it a tradition to do a holiday dinner at Braza. 3 – 4 years ago we were treated great, had exemplary service and experienced a great meal. Today you can count on service that takes for ever unless you are a relative of the owner.
My wife made reservations with the owner, who told us when arrived that she didn’t. After a 10 minute conversation about the context, the owner finally realized that she did call and make a reservation. We waiting 90 minutes to get seated, which seemly was just another location to play the waiting game at a dirty table. We asked for table cloths and the person that seated us said out right, no.
The salad bar items were nothing special. The daughter of the owner was just ‘chilling’ ahead of us in line and wouldn’t move to let us by. Finally, two and a half hours after arriving for the reservation we started receiving meat. Most of which tasted like it was washed soaked in sea water and I has fairly fatty. Still, all things considered the meat was the highlight of the meal. The meat servers were actually the only people we would consider competent.
We needed to beg our ‘waitress’ for water and or drinks. At one point she asked ‘are there any other drink requests because it is going to take a while’. I am not sure of to many restaurants openly discuss their incompetency. The parking is always impossible. Any one of the multiple frustrations are not worth the quality of food, put all of the incompetence together and you have a restaurant never worth visiting.

I have been to many a brazilian steakhouses in my day. From Fogo De Chao, Brazzaz, Texas De Brazil and many others, none have disappointed more than Braza. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to my worst enemy.
We should have known from the disheveled look of the restaurant when we pulled up, half of the neon letter were out so the name of the restaurant just appeared as «ZA»
It was friday night at 8:00 and the place was ½ empty, that should have been our second clue. But we had a groupon so we weren’t turning back.
We were sat and after looking at the drink menu we ordered a pitcher of sangria and went to the salad bar in search of some parmesan cheese, maybe a little proscuitto, and perhaps some asparagus spears drizzled with olive oil.
When we got to the salad bar, we were very disappointed, there were no cheeses, meats. actually the salad bar was rather bare. Lettuce, stuffed grape leaves (which are greek, not brazilian), carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, an assortment of pre-​mixed salads that all looked pretty gross and shrimp cocktail.
My wife was brave enough to try the orzo salad, which had some weird flavors, mint, currants, just didnt mix well. The only thing that really sat well with me was the shrimp cocktail, there were pre-​peeled and steamed, so I pounded a good 15 – 20 shrimp.
The sangria was delivered while were wear eating our «salads», and was a decent amount for $ 28, we got probably 8 – 10 glasses.
The hot sides were also disappointing as nothing was labeled, there were sauteed plaintains that were soggy from sitting in a steam bath, something that looked like shepherd’s pie, yellow & white rice, black beans & refried beans, something that looked like curried fish, and a grain dish that I couldnt tell what it was, looked like a bunch of bread crumbs. Everything we tried from the hot sides were mediocre.
Next came the unlimited round of meat. First was sirloin, which was bland, and way overcooked. The pork sausage & chicken sausage were oversalted to the point of being inedible. The New York strip was decent, although the first piece we got was way overcooked (seemed to be a common theme). Prime rib was overcooked and underseasoned. The parmesan pork was bland. The 2 chicken dishes (chicken w/​bacon & chicken wings) were undercooked and raw near the bone and the skin was like knawing on rubber. The pork ribs had incredible flavor and was about the only thing I enjoyed, except when I asked for a 2^nd round of them, the 2^nd round was way oversalted.
About ½ way through the meal we noticed that nobody had brought any bread (cheese popovers), or yuca fries to the table, when we asked for them we were told they were out.
My wife said not to bother, but they ended up cooking bread for us anyways, in which the fire alarm went off twice while we were there (we suspected somebody burnt our bread). It finally showed up about ½ hour later.
We skipped dessert for fear of it being as horrible as the meal, I feel as if our service was compromised because we were using a groupon. I wont be back at Braza anytime soon, and trust me, it wont be on my own dime.

Alright, for the uninitiated, Braza is basically an all-​you-​can-​eat meat hall. They give you a puck with a red side and a green side and so long as you have the green side showing waiters come by and periodically drop over cooked meats on your plate.
I didn’t get a great vibe from this place. The waitstaff were cold, items on the buffet bar were only so-​so, and the price was much higher than I would have liked quality considered. I guess the all-​you-​can-​eat thing drives up the price and urges the owner to buy lower quality meats. Unless you plan on eating five pounds of meat you’re paying quite a markup, and this meat isn’t really worth eating.
I don’t really like how you have no control over the meats you get either. Say you take a break and have the puck on red as they pass you by with a rack of something tasty looking. You probably won’t be there by the time that type of meat comes by again. The puck is rendered pointless because you may as well just leave it green and turn down what you don’t want. I would compare eating here to playing the lottery, except you never really win anything… Kind of a disappointment lottery where the prize is a really tough cut instead of a slightly tough one.
This place is one of those that exist not because they’re great, but because there aren’t a lot of Brazilian barbecues around. If you’re looking for a more affordable BBBQ with better meats and no over priced all-​you-​can-​eat scheme, try looking on Park Street.

I heard about this restaurant through Groupon and finally decided to go. All I can say is thank goodness I did not pay full price for this experience. I had read mixed reviews about this place, one of which was that they serve their meat *too* rare which is great for me because I love my beef that way. I have been to another Brazilian steak house in Houston called Fogo De Chao which I am absolutely in love with, so I was excited to see what this place had to offer.
I was disappointed on so many levels. There was literally one waitress for the entire floor. We were going to order some of the «delicious» drinks that they advertise, but the waitress was so bogged down that we ordered a bottle of wine instead so we wouldn’t have to keep flagging her down all night. The salad bar was neither good nor bad, pretty standard (I did not see any peel and eat shrimp either). Their most egregious offense, however, was that even though we specified that we like our meats medium-​rare, they consistently brought us cuts that were far beyond well done. The flavors were good, but every bite was so chewy that eating the meat soon became more trouble than it was worth. The only thing that wasn’t overdone was one of the things that should be cooked all the way, the chicken. It was still red inside!
Another disappointment was that the website promises family style servings of a whole list of things of which we only got one: the cheese bread. It was good but we got one basket of that and then I guess they ran out and started serving round balls of bread that were rock hard on the outside and essentially raw dough on the inside.
The hot bar was not even worth commenting on. I went there because I nibbled on each type of meat but wasn’t enthused enough to order seconds of any. What I found over there was either over-​salted or completely flavorless. Blah.
I will not be returning to Churrascaria Braza and for $ 30/​person I would recommend that anyone who values their money should stay away.

I had high expectations when a group of us from work went to Churrascaria Braza for dinner recently. I had never been to a Brazilian restaurant, but what carnivore doesn’t like the idea of a constant parade of servers bringing you meat … a parade that doesn’t stop unless you say so?
Braza was built inside an old theater, but the inside décor is all Brazil. The lighting in the main dining room is subdued and the noise level was somewhat loud even though the restaurant was only half-​filled, probably due to the abundance of tilework used in the decorating and also the presence of two television sets on the back wall near the bar (one was playing what I’m assumed was a Brazilian soap opera). Delicious cheese-​filled bread was served first and was a hit with all.
We were there for the ‘Rodizio’ dinner service and our server explained the rules. Several color-​coded wood blocks were on the table — green-​side up means ‘Bring on the meat!’, red-​side up means ‘No thanks, I’m full’. Also, we had to visit the salad bar at least once, even if only to put a single leaf of lettuce on our plates. No greens, no meat, so off to the salad bar we went. This was pretty much a standard restaurant salad bar, with a few added touches like peel & eat shrimp (mostly depleted when I went past). The salad offerings were OK, nothing special. Braza also offered a second buffet with hot items, but I elected to eat my salad first.
We barely had started eating our salads when the servers began visiting the table with the skewers of meat. Larger steaks were sliced by the server and we were instructed to grab the serving with tongs each of us were given with our utensils. Smaller pieces of meat were simply slid off the skewer onto our plates. Servers would come by every few minutes with a new offering. The waiter was attentive to our group and keep the drinks coming all evening.
The variety of offerings was impressive, but my enjoyment of the various meats was mixed. Pieces tended to be small and I felt at times as if I was eating an endless succession of hors d’oeuvres. My favorites were the parmesan-​crusted pork loin, the New York strip steak, pork wrapped in bacon, chicken sausages and especially the teriyaki steak tips. Pork ribs were a disappointment, though — the flavor was nice, but the ribs were cold by the time we were served. The salmon was unremarkable and the chicken wings I passed on were pronounced undercooked and disappointing by one of my co-​workers. Grilled pineapple slices with cinnamon were delicious and outshined some of the meats. Once we turned our wooden blocks over to red to stop the parade of meat, the dinner was completed with a serving of a tangy lemon sorbet.
A word to the wise — if your server asks you if you prefer ‘rare’ meat, say no unless you like your beef *really* rare. I didn’t, and much of the night was served meat that was often rare to the point of being purple.
I can’t say I was disappointed by Churrascaria Braza, but I wasn’t blown away, either. I might go back if the opportunity presented itself, but to be honest there are several eateries in nearby West Hartford that I would likely return to first.

The first B-​day club night out. What else do three brothers do at a place that constantly serves you meat. We ate until we exploded! We should have known it was going to happen because as we walked in there was a guy outside with his back to the wall leaning back holding his stomach. I asked him if the place was any good and he responded with «I’m so full I should have called an ambulance to pick me up» that say’s it all.
The cuts of meat were really good also. This is a once every 3 – 4 yr. place so see you guys in 2013!!!

I’m from Boston, and I was meeting up here with a group of old friends. A few of them are regulars here, but I had never been. We had a few drinks on the patio while waiting for our whole group to arrive. Very good vibe!
Food was great. Fresh sides, flavorful perfectly cooked meats, good drinks (sangria was delicious). Fixed price menu is nice, you really get your money worth with how frequently they come around with the different selections of meat. We ate until we were about to explode.
The new owner came to our table too, seems friendly and eager to please.

Went this weekend (April 2010) and must say– AMAZING! I heard its under new ownership, so those of you who had complaints, you must give it another try.
Not my first Churrascaria experience, but certainly the best! A plethora of perfectly cooked meats seasoned to perfection, delicious sides, great service, and great atmosphere. We left absolutely stuffed, they could have rolled us out of there! Try the white sangria and the tres leches for dessert– TO DIE FOR!
Wonderful experience, will be going again when I am in the area!

This place falls into the category of churrascaria that manages to turn an ostensibly affordable meal into a nightmare for your accountant. The slow service, and the near refusal to serve premium cuts of meat, ensure that you’ll be tempted to 1) order many refills on beverage (from the suspiciously fast-​moving waitress) and 2) return to the salad bar for non-​premium items.
If you think a caipirinha is something special (and one can be nice), I’d advise learning to make them at home. I don’t know where else they can be had in Hartford, but their perfect accompaniment is not fatty, questionably cooked meats.