A couple of weeks back, Cata mentioned visiting a recently opened Brazilian restaurant in town, Escobars. They’d started life in the Metrocentre a while ago before recently deciding to relocate to town, and she RAVED about the food. On the whole there’s not that many South American places in the North East so I thought I should go along with Sarah and seeing what all the fuss was about.

When we first got into the restaurant, we were introduced to the manager, Edwin. He led us around, explaining what we needed to do and where to grab plates from. Escobars is a rodizio restaurant, so the premise is that you help yourself to a selection of salad, rice and potatoes and the guys come along with different kinds of meat, cutting you off as much as you like. There’s rice with vegetables, meat that’s been slow cooked til it’s falling off the bone, spicy refried beans, salted potatoes, pasta and fresh salad. And it’s all you can eat!

Since me and Sarah aren’t the biggest eaters, we were pretty cautious on filling up on side dishes before we’d got to try any of the meat. So we decided to make up a couple of plates between us to accompany the meat. With a rodizio place, everyone gets a little card – one side is green and the other is red. When you’re ready to start, you flip the card to the green side, if you need a rest or you’re finished eating, then (you guessed it), you turn your card over to reveal the red side. So after we’d grabbed plates of side dishes, we flipped our cards over to green and waited for the meat parade to begin. Once you’re ready, the guys start filing out of the kitchen with chunks of meat in bowls or on skewers. They pause at your table and let you decide whether or not you’d like some and how big a portion you want.

What I loved about Escobars is that no one was trying to rush you in or out. You enjoy the food at your leisure, pausing for rest when you need to (and without anyone judging you for doing so). As we sipped on our Cuban beers, we enjoyed a range of spiced chorizo, chunks of peppered perfectly pink fillet steak, slabs of salty gammon, chicken, beef and black pudding. After spending around two hours (mainly talking), we finally had to admit defeat and let them know we couldn’t manage another bite!

The food was beautifully cooked and absolutely delicious. And it’s perfect if like me, you like to try a bit of everything. From chunks of steak, garlic infused beef, spicy sausages and gammon to hot chicken drumsticks, there was literally something for everyone’s tastes. Unless your a veggie, in which case your options are a little limited.