Orland Park’s Texas de Brazil knocks it out of the park

Texas de Brazil opens a new restaurant in Orland Park and it sizzles with perfect meat selections. It’s one of the best restaurants to enjoy a great family meal with the family for lunch or dinner. And it has a phenomenal salad bar which could be your main meal if you want.

By Ray Hanania

One of my absolute favorite dining experiences is Texas de Brazile, the churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse) restaurtants that offer a wide selection of meats and a fantastic salad bar at three Chicagoland locations.

We would often make the one-hour drive north to the Texas de Brazil restaurant at the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg where we would enjoy their great service and their phenomenal menu.

But last month, Texas de Brazil opened one in the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago in Or;land Park and now it’s just minutes away. And we can’t get enough.

The Orland Park location for Texas de Brazil is in the Orland Park Shopping Mall and you can enter through the west entrance. The entrance to the restaurant is outside of the mall so you don’t have to worry about the Mall being opened or closed.

If you have never been to a Texas de Brazil, or the other churrascaria steakhouses like Fogo de Chao or Chama Gaucha that are in the Chicagoland area, here is how they work.

Texas de Brazil offers an extensive salad bar and a meal that focuses on a variety of freshly cooked meats along with condiments such as mashed potatoes, and sugered plantain desserts. Customers will go to the salad bar buffet — it is very extensive and always fresh — and fill their plates with the many selections that range from Tabouli and Couscous to freshly grilled asparagus, grilled garlic cloves, marinated artichokes, roasted jalepenos, sushi California rolls, smoked salman or shrimp, pineapple carpaccio, or many of the typcal salad items like olives, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.

You could just go there fo rthe salad if you wanted. It is that good and it’s filling. And it is buffet style so you eat until you are full.

I don’t think I have ever left a Texas de Brazil hungry or not completely full.

But the best part are the freshly grilled meats that are brought out to diners by gauchos (waiters) who carry a skewers of each meat one at a time and slice fresh cuts and place them on your plate. each skjewer is filled with one type of meat selection, freshly cooked and just off the grill. The gaucho walks up, slices part of the meat and places it on your plate or you use special meat tweezers to take the slice yourself.

The meat menu includes lamb chops, sirloin, filet, shrimp, variously cooked chickens, sausage, pork and that is just half the menu.

It’s a great way to eat because every slice is fresh, hot and tasty.

You could easily be overwhelmed by the restaurant gives you little coasters, Red meaning “No” and Green meaning “Yes.” The gauchos come to your table when they see the Green coasters and leave you alone when the coasters are turned over and are red.

Texas de Brazil is one of the better restraurants in Chicagoland in Orland Park at the Mall at 856 Orland Square Drive. They also have one restaurant downtown in Chicago and one in the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg.

Take the family and enjoy. And ignore some of the Yelp whiners who complain about everything. I assure you, this is one of the best restaurant experiences you can have.

Texas de Brazil restaurant in Orland Park

Being served at the table by one of the restaurant gauchos at Texas de Brazil

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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