Rodizio – The Better Buffet

Imagine an all you can eat restaurant where the food comes to you. No need to get any exercise going to and from the buffet line. Just sit back and let the wait staff offer you a selection of wonderful options for your dining pleasure. Welcome to rodizio!

Some people might be familiar with the term rodizio in reference to the Brazilian Churrasqueira. There are some of these types of restaurants around the US where meats are prepared Brazilian style and brought to your table on a skewer where the waiter slices off a piece that is to your liking.

I’m not a big meat eater so I don’t frequent churrasco-type restaurants. However, I could not contain my excitement when I found out that this rodizio style of service is also very popular for pizza. Some pizza restaurants specialize in rodizio and others have specific nights where they offer this type of service.

First I need to explain that the pizza in Brazil is different than the pizza that a lot of us are used to. Most have no tomato sauce. You can find some options with a very thin layer, but it is nothing like the rich or sweet sauce you would find on pizza in the states. I really missed this at first, but I’ve learned to like the pizza in Brazil and appreciate the difference. There is really only one crust – thin. I love ‘traditional’ and thick crust, and although I don’t get it often, true Chicago style is my favorite, but again, I’m appreciating the difference.

The flavor options here are great and I’m definitely going to miss what we’ve discovered. Overall, with a few exceptions, I think the options here are healthier than most we would get in the US. I say this considering that the most healthy option there being cheese or veggie. Some of my favorites here are Arugula and Sun-dried tomato (rúcula e tomate seco), garlic (alho) and 4 or 5 cheese (quatro ou cinco queijos). There are also some great dessert options which kind of blow the healthier theory out of the water, but everything in moderation.

So, back to the idea of rodizio. I’m convinced that this is a healthier way to try a different variety of foods, unlike the traditional buffet in the US. I am not a fan at all of US buffets and feel they encourage overeating.
Here is why I think rodizio is the healthier way to go:

1. You get one piece at a time. True, you can eat a lot of pieces over the course of the dinner, but there is none of that standing up at the buffet and deciding how many pieces to take and overloading your plate.

2. You eat more slowly. Sometimes there is a lull in getting the pizzas out to the servers so you are forced to sit and RELAX. You also begin to register how full you are while you wait.

3. You can’t get away with sneaking extra trips up to the buffet. I think when most of us head to a buffet we tune everyone else out. We go up as many times as we want and fill our plates as high as we can get them. Now, I don’t think guilt should be associated with enjoying good food, but guilt should be involved in gluttony. So when you have a series of 5 servers bringing you a different pizza every few minutes you have a little tinge of a conscience if they’ve already served you 5 or 6 pieces (the pieces are small). It just causes you to keep in check how much you are consuming.

4. There is less of chance for people to act like they are at home in their own kitchen. We all know by now that I’m a bit of germ freak (it is getting better though). We have also seen those little things we’d rather ignore at a buffet - a random sneeze, someone coughing in their hand and grabbing the serving spoon, a kid grabbing something off the buffet with their hands. With rodizio you’ve got one person handing out the food and not a line of people touching and talking over it. This is my kind of service.

I think it would be a great thing for rodizio style to come to the US. This is definitely one of the positive experiences I’ve had while in Brazil. It could be because I like pizza so much, or maybe that I’m a germ freak, but even so, I’m a huge fan of rodizio.