Fazenda Rodizio Bar and Grill, Leeds city centre

After a few drinks in The Hop, we had a table booked at Fazenda for an early dinner on Saturday. On the website it says “a unique dining experience - we are proud to bring you all the tradition behind the unique and original Brazilian way of serving meat”. Walking through the doors, we were invited to have a drink at the bar before being shown to our table. Fazenda serves a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio.

We were seated in a booth, where we were told about the “Fazenda experience”. Basically, you get a card rather like a beer mat that is red on one side, green on the other. When you want meat, you turn the card to green and a server arrives with a large skewer of meat and proceeds to cut some off. Each diner is given a pair of tongs for taking the meat from the server. All sorts of choices appear - rump steak, ribs, lamb, pork, chicken and some salmon served from a trolley. When you want the meat to stop coming, you turn the card to red.

In addition to all this meat, there is a buffet with a huge choice of salads, including cous cous, coleslaw and potato. There are quite a few appetizer items as well, including sushi rolls (which I was not expecting but was very pleased to see!) The servers also brought other sides to the table including chips, cheese bread and empanadas.


The buffet!


For pudding, R had the Toffee pancakes, which looked great.

The place became busy pretty quickly, even though it was still early. I believe this would be a great place to go in a large group, as you would avoid the problem of waiting for everyone to be served, while your food goes cold, which seems to happen in some restaurants.

The Fazenda eating experience is not really me, though. I think I am a bit underwhelmed with buffets, as I have had my fill of those on our many trips to Vegas. I am also not a massive meat-eater. I eat meat often, but my eyes are never automatically drawn to steaks on a normal menu, and I don’t believe that lots of meat makes a meal that memorable.

In addition, I found it quite interesting that certain meats were coming thick and fast to the table, but there was no filet mignon to be seen, despite it being on the menu. After a few visits to our table with other meats, one of the servers quite abruptly asked us what we were waiting for. We said the filet, and finally it arrived.

Despite this, I am glad we went and tried it – I had seen it reviewed in a few places and it sounded like an interesting experience. It is definitely suitable for a more committed carnivore than for me.