Rio Brazilian
Review of the Rio Brazilian Steak House, 7325 Currell Blvd, Woodbury, MN 55125

Friday nights we go out to eat. We have for the last ten years plus. We like trying new restaurants thus we go to 45+ restaurants a year. One of the problems in doing so is periodically we run out of new restaurants we want to go to.

This week we simply had no new restaurants we wanted to go to. SO I posted we were looking for a new restaurant to try, in the east metro foodie group. We had a handful of suggestions, Rio Brazilian Steak House in Woodbury looked like a good choice. So we looked up the place, website and tried to get reservations.

Well Rio does not take reservations, which we have found in lesser restaurants. Maybe you like to wait in lines like the entrance of Perkins on a Sunday morning. But it's Friday we want to have some wine and good food as we deflate from the week. As it was we were immediately seated.

Of the 45ish restaurants we go to a year, we rarely find 3-4 bad ones. It's simply the different levels of good. And Rio Brazilian Steak House of Woodbury is in keeping with everything we have found. Is it an OK restaurant, YES. Is it a great restaurant, NO. But the cost of a meal here is not much more than the Great restaurants around town. And we were disappointed.

E made a reference it was like eating at Old Country Buffet for those that remember it. The food was good but not great. It is also an All You Can Eat place but at Rio Brazilian Steak House they deliver the food hot to you. I liked the variety at Old Country at Rio they have NINETEEN different types of Meats they BRING TO YOUR TABLE. These include: Pork Sausage, Chicken Wings, Chicken Wing Root, Pork Ribs, Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breasts, Bacon Wrapped Shrimp, Tri-Tip Steak, Picanha Steak, Top Sirloin Steak, Strip Loin Steak, Lamb Steak, Salmon, Short Beef Rib, Chuck Eye Steak, Denver Steak, Rib Eye Steak, Lamb Loin Chops, Roasted Pineapple, Roasted Banana.

Just like Fogo de Chao there are people walking around with meat on a skewer. You have a card with Red/Green sides so the servers know where to stop. The difference between Fogo & Rio kind of ends there. Fogo meats are much better.

At both restaurants you also start with a salad bar. At Fogo you hear all the time, I would have been happy with Fogos fantastic salad bar, which is not lacking anything, restocked regular and in a word is incredible. In a word Rio's salad bar is needy.

I took some cooked shrimp and it was kind of tasteless. E told me to go back for some shrimp sauce and there simply was none. Not that it was empty it simply did not exist. 

Rio's salad bar had four hot foods plus tomato soup: including: rice, mashed potatoes, a pasta dish and a fourth one we forgot. Fogo has dozens of hot & cold foods. Fogo's buffet was continually restocked. At Rio some items were empty.

The restaurant décor at Rio can best be described as a Denny's or other fast sit down restaurants. 

We ordered our usual wines. E had ONE California Cab Sav to choose from. I had a Merlot also from CA. They were fine. For those that know a bit about wine, the guy on the date next to us tried to impress his new date with a $28 bottle of Apothic. I think we saw that on sale for $3 last week at Total Wine. Hey the guy was trying his hardest… we wish him luck.. LOL

The servers were nice and trying their best to get us the food as fast & hot as possible. For a sit down place we can't think of anywhere you get served food faster.

But sadly the poor Federal Express guy that sat down next to us as we were leaving at 7:30 felt a bit different. Many of us in our area were paying for our bill, so no one was walking around with meat in our area. 

The Fed Ex guy clearly had a long day and was sitting there as we were paying and no one would bring food to him. He asked nicely to be moved where the food guys were, but the waitress said she'd send someone over. Move the poor hard working hungry guy to THE FOOD! We hope he finally got fed.

One of the toughest part of the night was when the bill came. The bill was $104 plus tip for two of us. Which for the quality of food we thought was high. But we got ice cream included!

Those people that read our weekly reviews know most weeks our bill is about $100 at some of the greatest restaurants in the Twin Cities. And Rio is not in that class. But Rio is $40 each plus drinks. There was no real way to decrease our bill. 

At most restaurants we'll split a $8 salad and app and even entrée'. But we are not going out to get stuffed. We simply want some interesting food to go with our wine. Food at great restaurants, are simply works of art. Rio food is to fill a needy stomach.

You know what they have to offer, if that is what you want then go there. It is simply not the interesting food we look forward to.

Contact us dennis@TheMNWineClub.com