6671 Fallsview Blvd. (at Main St), Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Web: CopaCabana
Phone: 905-354-8775
Rating:
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Brazilian Canada Churrascaria Niagara Falls
As a rule, we prefer not to publish reviews without having the photography to illustrate what we're talking about, but this brief look at Niagara Falls' new Brazilian churrascaria, CopaCabana, will for now be poor in the visual department. For some readers, photos might be unnecessary - we could start and end this piece with the phrase "all you can eat steak" - but as long-time fans of Brazilian steakhouses, we feel compelled to weigh in more on what could eventually be a major blip on the area's dining radar.
The Story: Let's start with a couple of definitions: rodizio and churrascaria. Rodizio is a style of restaurant service whereby you pay a set price for a meal, sit down at a table, and say yes or no to dishes brought over in rotation by a series of waiters. A churrascaria is a Brazilian steak restaurant specializing in barbecued (think charred) foods, where those rodizio waiters arrive at your table with skewers and/or carts full of meat, then cut pieces off to place on your plate. As the customer, you sit with a pair of tongs, fork, and knife, taking pieces of meat from your server, loading them on your plate, eating, and repeating. You can pause the meal with a colored flip card or wooden shaker - red means stop coming over with food, green means go - and end the meal whenever you're full.
Churrascarias are, though not the United States' fastest-growing style of buffet restaurant, certainly the most compelling new concept to show up here in years. We've visited a number of the best-known chains, including the mighty Fogo de Chao, Manhattan's famous Churrascaria Plataforma, another chain called Texas de Brazil, and quite a few one-location restaurants in both Northern and Southern California. There is no doubt whatsoever in our minds: Fogo de Chao is the best of these places by a wide margin, with stellar service, outstanding meat quality, and a gourmet salad bar that would make most diners' heads spin. Plataforma? Hugely overrated, with spotty service, less impressive meats, and oh yeah, a huge charge for a bottle of champagne we never ordered. Texas de Brazil? Fine, but not outstanding. Other places are generally in Texas de Brazil's league, sometimes a little better, sometimes a little less so.
By the standards of the genre's heavy hitters, CopaCabana is generally good, not great, yet by local standards, the experience may be nothing less than a shock to the systems of carnivores. After a trip to the salad bar, which has a nice but not huge collection of fresh, light fare items such as cheeses, pasta, fruits and vegetables, you sit at the table and enjoy the procession of meats. CopaCapana claims to have 15 different ones, ranging from various cuts of beef to lamb, pork, turkey, and chicken, served in either thin shavings, small kabob, ribs, or sausages. There's also an extensive and expensive bar, which offers both traditional Brazilian drinks such as caipirinha - an almost gasoline-like variation on rum made with sugarcane alcohol - and a full assortment of other cocktails and wines.
Highs: There are two big highs to CopaCabana - the quantity of food, and the entertainment. If you're not shy when the waiters come by, you can continue to use your tongs to pull as much meat from their skewers as you desire, and the assortment of options is quite satisfying. We tried a little of everything that came out during our visit, including many of the churrascaria stock-in-trade items: filet mignon wrapped in bacon, a special cut of top sirloin known as picanha, little sausages, chicken, lamb, and tri-tip. Most of the items were moist, savory, and grilled to various degrees of doneness on the skewers; we believe it impossible for anyone to leave the place hungry, and even dined with a satisfied vegetarian.
Even having visited perhaps a dozen churrascarias in the past, we were surprised at one element of CopaCapana's setting - there was live entertainment, which seemed to take place every 30-45 minutes on a stage area surrounded by seating. Two times, a group of scantily-clad samba dancers came out; on a third, we saw a demonstration of the Brazilian dance/martial art Capoeira. While views of the stage performances ranged from "what's going on" to "wow" based on the location of one's table, the samba dancers came out into the crowd for fun. While the loud music and dancing energy of these presentations took a bit away from the quiet enjoyment typically afforded in a Brazilian restaurant, they were definitely memorable; some people will really love them.
Lows: Depending on one's perspective, the quality of CopaCabana's food may be perceived as anything from "pretty good" to "great." Having visited many churrascarias in the past, we'd lean heavily towards the former side, which needs to be put in some perspective. The meats, in Brazilian tradition, are generally salted and grilled extensively over an open flame - the resulting taste is delicious, but not for low sodium dieters, nor for those who expect full control over the rareness of meat. Some pieces arrive red or pink, others gray. That's just the way most of these restaurants work, and though we've seen some do better, we're fine with it.
However CopaCabana seems to use a couple of standard tricks - very meager default serving sizes and cheap dish throttling, whereby you'll be lucky to see the best cuts twice, and some items once - perhaps to cut down on diner expenses. Unlike the typical buffet, where you can walk up to a server or a big dish of food and keep loading more onto your plate until you're satisfied, rodizio restaurants depend on a waiter to carry any of the main fifteen items directly to you, and then have enough on hand to satisfy your and your table's needs. If there isn't enough filet mignon circulating around after the last table's requests, you might wind up being offered tri-tip three or four times instead. While almost all of the meats tasted pretty good, the idea of shelling out for all you can eat chicken or parmesan encrusted pork loin isn't as much of a draw as getting top sirloin, filet, and lamb, yet the latter items don't compare in quality or quantity to what you'd see at a truly great churrascaria such as Fogo.
Another component of the experience is service. There were little signs during our meal that our waiters, while generally polite, hadn't been trained in the finer gaucho art of friendly, "let me do more for you" attitude found in servers at other Brazilian steakhouses. Similarly, the front seating staff made little effort to seat our group promptly despite a number of empty tables scattered around the floor.
The only other issue is pricing: expect to pay $50 per person for your meal, as well as a mandatory parking fee, and crazy prices for the drinks. Dessert is not included in the price of the meal, and free side dishes commonly offered at similar restaurants are either not available here, or nothing special. The raw number sounds high, and is, since diners could eat - and better - at Fogo de Chao in Beverly Hills for the same price, or have some cash left over after eating at many of its competitors. In our view, CopaCabana is overpriced for the quality of the food you get.
The Verdict: If you haven't experienced a churrascaria before, CopaCabana is unquestionably worth at least one visit, if only to introduce you to a brilliant form of cooking and dining that can easily become addictive. That said, relatively high prices, inconsistent service, and a party-style environment may detract from certain customers' experience, and unfortunately, CopaCabana has little incentive to improve given that it's the only restaurant of its type in town. We'd recommend CopaCabana to big pocketed diners who value brief spurts of entertainment as much as small doses of a wide variety of meats and salad bar items; those looking for greater quantities or lower prices would do better to look elsewhere.
