Chama Gaúcha

FOOD

Chama Gaúcha’s beef selection starts with picanha, the house’s top-sirloin specialty. It arrives on the skewer for tableside carving, which lets you ask about doneness as the serving is cut. Chama describes its beef as Midwest corn-fed USDA Prime, aged for at least 45 days. That sourcing statement applies to the beef; the rotation also contains lamb, pork and chicken, each with its own preparation.

Ribeye is seasoned simply with sea salt, leaving the cut itself at the center of the discussion. Filet mignon offers the leaner tenderloin option, with a bacon-wrapped version also available. These make a useful comparison within the same meal: the ribeye’s marbling, the filet’s lean cut and the added bacon each bring a different reason to accept the next serving. You can ask for a return visit from a favorite.

Fraldinha, listed as bottom sirloin, expands the beef selection beyond those familiar steakhouse cuts. Costela adds beef ribs, with the Chicago and San Antonio pages describing a slow-cooked preparation. The ribs give the meal a different texture and shape from the thinner slices carved off a skewer. Together, picanha, fraldinha and costela make the Brazilian character of the menu particularly clear.

Lamb is listed as cordeiro, and the current central menu specifies Colorado lamb. The broader menu’s pork, or porco, is seasoned with lemon pepper and sea salt. Linguica supplies a separate pork preparation in sausage form. These choices let you move through several meats without treating every serving as another variation of steak; they also make the simpler seasonings worth noticing.

Chicken comes as marinated legs or bacon-wrapped breast. The legs carry their seasoning before grilling, while the wrapped breast brings bacon into the bite, much as it does with the filet. It’s useful to distinguish those preparations when a gaucho approaches: chicken here is more than a single unspecified skewer. The current rotation is the place to ask about a favorite cut rather than assuming every pass will include it.

The salad bar is included with the Full Experience, and it has a different job from the tableside meat service. Seasonal vegetables, imported Spanish and Italian cheeses and charcuterie make up part of the operator’s spread of more than thirty choices. You serve yourself here. Cheese and cured meat can form an opening course, while vegetables give the grilled cuts company later in the meal. The exact seasonal assortment can change.

Hot side dishes come to the table as part of the churrasco experience. Garlic mashed potatoes provide a soft accompaniment, and fried polenta adds a crisp cornmeal preparation. Caramelized bananas bring sweetness alongside the savory meat. Pão de queijo completes the group: Brazilian cheese bread made with tapioca flour. These are included accompaniments, so the full dinner extends beyond the carving rotation and trips to the salad counter.

The dessert menu offers Brazilian flan, papaya cream and several cakes. Flan pairs custard with caramelized sugar; papaya cream blends the fruit with ice cream and crème de cassis. Chocolate Temptation combines cake, hazelnut cream and chocolate glaze. These sit on the separate dessert menu, while the advertised Full Experience specifically covers the unlimited meats, salad bar and classic sides.