Today I met a group of friends at Texas de Brazil for Sunday brunch. Earlier this year I bought a VIP card, entitling me and my friends to 12 half-off dinners (or brunches), not valid Friday and Saturday night and holidays. I was getting worried the expiration date (9/29/11) would hit before I got to use any of my 12 stamps, but today we got a group in there. Sunday brunch is similar to dinner at TdB, except there are a couple less meats, and the salad bar has brunch items. In particular, it had bacon, eggs, sausage, and au gratin potatoes. Here’s a pic of my salad plate. I want to do a critical review of what I did right and wrong at TdB today. I’ve been there a number of times, and every time I learn more what works and what doesn’t.
What I did right:
1) Unlimited mimosa: For $3 more you can get unlimited mimosas (champagne + orange juice). Normally they serve them in champagne flutes, but the servers recognized us and just went with the wine glasses. They knew if they didn’t, they’d be refilling us constantly. I think I had 7 wine glasses of mimosa for 3 bucks. Can’t beat that.
2) Bacon. Clearly bacon is the centerpiece of the plate pictured above. My only regret is that I should have taken one more piece. Maybe two more.
3) Au gratin potatoes. These are the best potatoes in the world. If I had a constant stream of these potatoes for free I would wear an “I ♥ Cubicles” shirt. I would go to karaoke at the Monkey. I would cheer for Bruce Pearl. I would move to Cordov… well, let’s not go that far. I do love these potatoes, though, and the au gratin sauce is excellent for dipping the bacon.
4) Lobster bisque. Pictured at top. Also excellent for dipping the bacon, the cheeses, and pretty much everything.
5) The jalapeno. You’ve always got to get one jalapeno. This is a roll of the dice. Maybe it’s hot, maybe it’s not. You can eat it with your fingers or fork and knife. Either way is fine.
6) I didn’t waste any plate space on salad. Yes, they have it, lettuce, croutons, dressing and all that. It’s a waste of valuable plate real estate. Skip it and leave room for more worthy choices, like more bacon.
7) Chocolate mousse (not shown). Get a BIG bowl of this after you get done with the meats. Sometimes they have fruit salad instead; recommendation still stands.
What I did wrong:
1) Mozzarella ball. Should’ve gotten two.
2) Didn’t get asparagus, which was on the salad bar. Helps you metabolize alcohol faster. Given that I had ~7 mimosas, I needed asparagus.
3) The sausage. This was a “banger” as the Irish call it. Not bad but I would have done better to skip it and get another piece of bacon instead.
4) A few more shrimp than I needed. Don’t get me wrong, the sauteed shrimp on the salad bar are top-notch. If I’d gotten three less, though, there would’ve been room for another piece of bacon.
After I finished my salad bar plate, I turned my indicator green and the servers started coming around with meat. Recommendation here: The house sirloin. Try everything once, but try the house sirloin, or picanha as they call it in Brazil, two or three times. I didn’t take pics of the meat, because meat isn’t that pretty.
As always, an unforgettable meal. It’s not an every-week thing, but if you haven’t been to TdB for brunch, you need to go at least once. I tweeted that I’m going to form a band called the Meatles and sing about their meats. The restaurant retweeted it. That made me happy.
Only downside is that I got in trouble with the Saucer waitresses, who follow me on Twitter. They knew I was there and were very displeased that I didn’t bring leftovers.
A second recommendation: If you normally order meat medium well or well done, consider backing it up to medium rare or at least medium. It’s all you can eat, so if you don’t like it, just ask for a clean plate. If you give it a chance, I think you’ll find medium rare/medium has a lot more flavor than medium well/well done.
Pretty much a perfect Sunday Fun Day. Next Sunday will be nothing like it, but will be close to perfect too, because it will be Bardog’s 3rd birthday alley party.
(Edited to add: A couple of people ordered dessert. My friend Moody’s cheesecake arrived while she was outside smoking, and I snapped a pic.)
