Carnivore Brazilian Churrascaria (VivoCity)

How time flies! Our first dinner at Carnivore was five years ago, when we foolishly filled up on salad and didn’t try much of the meats since the passadores came around too late. Ironically, it’s the salad bar that enticed me back again. I really miss Ponderosa!

Churrascaria is Portuguese for a Brazilian barbecue restaurant, where knife-welding passadores go from table to table carving rotisserie-roasted meats from large skewers. In this rodízio-style restaurant, diners are given colored cards to indicate if they want more meat or not.

We arrived early for the dinner buffet on Friday ($47++) and promptly made a beeline for the salad bar after getting a table. The artichoke dish I was looking for wasn’t available anymore. Nonetheless, it’s well-stocked with hot and cold salads as well as appetizers. I counted 17 in total, not to mention there were 10 dips to please every palate.

There’s also a gigantic bowl of mixed salad (cabbage, carrot and lettuce) alongside alfalfa sprouts, olives and silver onions. Olive oil, vinaigrette and ground pepper were thoughtfully provided to spice up any DIY salad.

The spread was delectable, except the coleslaw and beetroot salad which were too sour.

We hadn’t even started eating when passadores began making rounds (pork, chicken and fish) and this time we didn’t miss much, only a few beef items!

The variety was generally tender and deeply-flavored. A couple of cuts were a tad dry (especially the fish) but there’s nothing the dips couldn’t help. My favorites were chimichurri, pineapple sauce, onion sauce and farofa. The molho campanha was too vinegary and the salsa salu, while interesting, was kinda bland.

Shortly into our meal we were presented with cheese bread. Served piping hot, the crispy shell was very dense, enveloping a molten centre of salty melted cheese.

I tend to avoid pineapple due to a traumatic childhood experience. The mere sight would send my salivary glands into overdrive as I recall the extreme sourness of an unripe fruit, so raw it cuts the sides of the mouth. However I became curious about the roasted honey pineapple when a passadore went around with two golden fleshy fruits on a skewer.

I was prepared to dump the slices on my makan kaki’s plate but ended up getting a few more during the second round. They were just too darn sweet, tender and juicy! An excellent complement to the meats as the sweetness helped temper the heaviness.

The meal certainly was hearty and we finished up with some fruits before we got overstuffed. Service was obliging and friendly, and our water (with lemon!) was constantly refilled and dirty plates cleared.

Note: Weekend dinner buffet $47++. UOB cards offer 15% discount till 30 December 2012.

The restaurant has a nice view of Sentosa - or at least the lights at night.  The restaurant is cheery enough and the tables are placed at respectable distances from each other.

I am always very excited about the idea of being able to eat all the meat I can - but really the food at Churrascaria is at best average.

They have a salad bar with a respectable spread of hot and cold salads and appetizers.  If you take a little of everything, it is almost certain you wont have space for the meats!  I only wished that the wait staff would have paid a little more attention to clearing up spills and refilling the salad bar.  It is not really attractive nor inviting to see spills and bits of food that dont belong on the service bar!

The Meats:

Beef: They offered various cuts.  But really I couldn't tell.  The cuts I got were chewy - sure sign of being over grilled.  Also the meat tasted bland - lacking the robust taste of cow!

Chicken: All I can say is that the chicken died in vain.  It is very hard to mess up chicken!

Sausages:  I loved sausages - but I did not love theirs.

Ham: Not!

Lamb: Was probably the best thing I had that night.

Beef with Bacon: How can you go wrong with bacon?  It provided flavor that the meat lacked.

Our knife-welding passadors were neither particularly friendly or fun.  In fact, we happened to chance upon a bunch who made us feel as if they didnt care to be there. (and I dont blame them - it must be really tiring carrying a spear of meat around and then having to carve the stuff at every table)  We were either given tiny morsels and made to feel like greedy sods when we asked for more; or we had the passadors who were in amazing race mode to discharge as much meat on a plate as possible.  They were also not particularly informative about the meats that they were serving.

If you are not particularly fussed about the quality of your food, and you are really into NS hungry levels - eager to do a Man vs Food challenge, then Churrascaria could be an excellent choice since you can eat all you want! (p/s there are no restrooms at the premises and it is quite a walk to the nearest one.  You have been warned.)

To be fair, our waiter was not that bad.  We were a table of 12 and had brought along a cake which they helped serve.  So we were quite grateful for that touch.

I prided myself as a meat eater,  enjoying beef, pork, lamb, fish etc but I just could not cope with the large amounts of tasty meats served at Carnivore.

Ambience:  It is a cheerful place set on the water front, facing Sentosa,  one could easily enjoy having a drink outside but not for me - opting for aircon comfort.  Mainly 4 seater tables, but they gave us a 2 seater to quietly enjoy our meats.

Food:  The name sounds great, but it actually describes the people who step into it,  not the owners.  Firstly there is a great looking DIY buffet of salads and soups.  Some truly Brazilian stuff, others localised.  I tried the Feijoda, black beans mushed up - didn't look good but has the beany taste that I like.  Next I had the Ratatouile  which is fish soup........  in a meat restaurant?  This soup is made famous by the cartoon of the same name.  Tasty but not my kind of soup.  Had a salad with fabulous dressing, the cole slaw and some potatoes.  On to the meats. (look at the photos)

Fish - tasty but had a strong fishy taste,  not my preference.  Large sharp knife against your chest - not safe but the handler had perfected knife control.

Pork - tasty, but a tad dry

Sausages - great stuff, had more of it

Beef rump - firm butt of the cattle

Beef neck - my all time favourite - had 3 helpings of it,  soft, fatty and full of flavour,  my mouth waters as I am writing this report.

Ham - so so, processed meat.

Pineapple - balances the grease that I've just eaten.

Overall stick to the beef, pork n sausages,  they are all great but I am averse to chicken to I highly recommend the beef, especially the neck part !

Value:  Great value at about $25 per head

Service:  Friendly real Brazilian staff....  where are my PRC waiters?

We had a team building event which ended with a dinner at Carnivore. The meal had started off with complications on the no. of seats we had required to the no. of seats provided for. Yes, we made a mistake and calculated that we needed lesser, however, we needed an extra 4 more seats. But the point was, I didn't like the mgr's attitude. We understood that there were difficulty because of the lack of space but each time we suggested a solution (including just squeezing chairs between us), it was like turn down and the way he answered was "there is really no more seats and really no more space." That was it. It was frustrating as we had 17 people there, would he had rather turn all 17 people out just because there wasn't seats for 4 pax? After 15 mins, he eventually bugged and shifted us.

But after that, things got abit better. The other hiccups on services were (a) Ask for mustard twice...had to wait 20mins. (b) Asked for extra bbq chicken thighs...that took almost 30 mins.

Food in generally was on average. Obviously there were only around the max 15 types of different grills served.

Food:

Mutton - was tender and great

Beef - overcooked

Beef steak - was okay

Beef with bacon roll - I liked this

Ham - Dry

Fish - this was my fav. Fragrant and moist

Chicken with bacon roll - so so

Chicken Thigh - Juicy and tender

Sausages - disappointing...lack of flavour

Pineapple - batch 1 was good. Batch 2 was abit dry

Can't remember what else they had. But overall, if you are a BIG meat eater and want a variety...pls come here.  

Not a cheap meal..might come here again with my husband but definately not with kids.

I would sum it up as average or maybe slightly a notch above average. Service was good, the servers and wait staff were attentive.

Group dinner for 4 on a Sunday evening. There's a selection of salad, rice, pasta, and fruits. The staff were very accomodating regarding our request for pasta with no meat. The meatless pasta was good.

They say they have 40 varieties of meat but all in all maybe there were only 15 or so. The servers came to your table with a big skewer and a knife and slice a portion of the meat. We liked the fish, and the caramelized pineapple. One note about the caramelized pineapple, the first serving it was a bit sweet, on the second time the server came around the pineapple had a tangy taste. They'll also cut to the core of the pineapple. Some of the chicken were a bit too dry.

 

The place is tidy. The video shown on the TV is a commercial in a loop. Maybe they should put something else on the TV. Music sounds OK.

If you're really really hungry it doesn't hurt to get the buffet here. You'll definitely get filled up.

This is a restaurant that the meat lovers will go wild in. They offer a variety of meats, grilled brazilian style with a skewer. The chefs carry the skewers of meat around the restaurant and cut them right in front of you. Though it can be frightening when you see them carrying the knife and slicing the meats right onto your plate. But i think there has been no incidences that they accidentally cut the diners using these knifes:)

Food wise, it definitely presented Singaporeans another way of eating. Something different is offered here considering that they claimed that they hailed from Brazil.

It can get pretty heavy (the meats) when you keep eating them, anyway, its a buffet so you can eat all you want. Guess most Singaporeans will just stuff themselves with these meats until they feel sick about it. There is also a table serving small bites and salads and other stuff. I find their BBQ Pineapple pretty refeshing. 

Diners can choose to dine outside (without the Aircon) too, overlooking Sentosa and the sea. This is pretty romantic.

Overall, a fine experience. Slightly above average but not vey good.

I have tried the food in Carnivore. Well served by the guys with nice cuts and food.

But nothing fancy after finished one round of serving.

I had a craving for some churrascaria recently and decided to venture to VivoCity to fulfill that need.

Starting with the greens, there was nothing much to shout about as many of it looked like it has seen better days.

On the meat, it was mixed. Many of the portions were tough, as expected as churrascaria tends to be of lower quality meats. The three things that did stand out was the fish, which was juicy and succulent, the medium-rare tenderloin and the pineapple which had a nice caramel taste oozing out of it. Other than that, the other cuts will probably give you a tough time on your teeth.

On the service side, I found the service pretty friendly and efficient, but that by itself is insufficient for me to justify a return.

Came to this place for a weekday lunch. Our group consist 6 adults and a 5 years old skinny little child. We ask whether the child is chargeable since there are 6 paying adults, the place is pretty empty during lunch hour and the child is skinny and not eating much. But the manager insist that he is chargeable without feeling the least apologetic.

We went ahead as some of us are really hungry. The table of dishes is normal and nothing fantastic. The meat were serve and slice in front of us, but the variety seems to be too little for a Brazilian Churrascaria, what makes things worst is that most of the meat are overcooked. The variety is already limited, yet after 2 hours and we decide to leave, they bring out the fish and ask us whether we want any...

I tried better place, better food, better service and this place is definitely out for me.

After being seated outdoors near the river at the VivoCity Churrascaria, my date and I took turns checking out the buffet. I'm not the biggest fan of buffets and it was alright. The food was generally fresh, the mushroom soup was nice and there was a variety of sauces/seasonings to try with the meat. We enjoyed a nice bottle of red wine near the water as the sun set and there was a nice breeze.

A number of waiters came by with their sticks-o-meat, offering sirloin, bacon wrapped chicken, bratwurst, some sort of pork and even chicken hearts. My favorite was the chicken hearts (my first time trying them) Although I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the heart or just the tasty way it was cooked. Either way, it was delicious. My date was a big fan of the bacon wrapped chicken.

The waitstaff was polite and helpful, tracking down more of whatever you wanted to eat, even having the chef grill more pineapple - delicious.

Overall it was a decent meal, lovely, peaceful atmosphere right up until the German restaurant's band two doors down struck up and we were treated to a rousing chorus of Oktoberfest songs. Luckily, I knew them and could sing along:)