Sunday 5 July 2009

Brazil

Amber Grill Rodizio
47 Station Road
Willesden Junction
020 8963 1588

We felt guilty. Using my Taste London card, the all-you-can-eat deal at Amber Grill costs less than a tenner. It seems unlikely they made any money from us. We did, after all, eat a lot of meat.

Amber Grill is a churrascaria, a restaurant at which customers are served meat from the churrasco barbecue until they surrender; flip the coloured chip on your table and the man walking round with the knife and the skewer will stop pestering you. This style of service is called rodizio. It's a system that favours the hungry.

We helped ourselves to a buffet laden with fried plantain, black beans, potatoes, olives, pasta and salad. But we were careful not to overindulge; we needed room for the meat, which fell to our plates with such regularity we couldn't eat quickly enough. The steak was mostly excellent. Some of the thinner, rare-cooked slices were meltingly good; other slices couldn't be chewed enough. The pork was wonderfully juicy with a thick edge of crackling.

It's not the best location and the restaurant feels a little bare, but Amber Grill offers good food and great value for money.

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