Been to Brazil recently?
No need for a passport when you visit Papagaio restaurants. The Papagaio restaurant chain has been around for about 10 years, but their two new kosher branches are open only a few months. Visit the kosher Papagaio restaurants in the Azrieli Center and in the Arena Mall in Herzlia.

Papagaio is a South American meat restaurant with the emphasis on meat, meat and more meat, sizzling on the grill and brought to you in abundance. Meat lovers, take a look at the rotisseries on top of large gas fires at the cooking range near the entrance to the restaurant. It is impressive, even fun to watch. .

This is a restaurant with a lot of action. Waitresses are up and about between the tables carrying lovely looking trays laden with food and drinks. Grill men scurry about the restaurant wielding sword-length skewers of meat. There is bouncy South American background music and a houseful of guests. Not your quiet romantic hide-away, Papagaio is a hub of activity, as its name suggests.

Before you start the meal you will be offered cocktails. The waitress does not rattle off a list of drinks, she brings a display tray to your table, places it on a frame in the center, and you choose. These are alcoholic and non-alcoholic ice-cold sweet frothy fruit drinks. This is a very pleasant way of starting your meal and even though it will add a few shekels to your bill, we recommend that you indulge. The strawberry rum drink that I had was not very alcoholic and was a very pleasant opener to our dinner.

Now for the food. Papagaio specializes in Churrascaria, an "all you can eat" menu of meat or fish (NIS 125 meat, NIS 90 fish per person). There are smaller meals and standard one-plate dinners, but you have come to Papagaio for the variety, so go for it.

Your meal begins with bread served with vegetable dips. There is a cute Netilat Yadayim station not too far, so enjoy the bread. A tray of six marvelous vegetable dishes follows. There is a yummy sweet potato dish, and whole small aubergines in techina. There are onions cooked with garlic, a red pepper concoction, and others. You'll want more of everything, but don't do it! There is so much more to come.

And here it comes - two meat dishes to whet your pallet: barbequed chicken wings, and an attractive chopped meat dish. We had just tasted these when the waiters started the flow of grilled meat, brought to our table on sword-like skewers filled from top to bottom, fresh from the grill. You are invited to take as much meat as you want from the skewers and more whenever you want. But remember, there is always something else coming.

Officially there are 12 different meat choices in the Churrascarias dinner, but in practice there are more. The order is not pre-determined. It all depends on what comes off the grill when you get there. In our case, grilled chicken livers came first , followed by kebab. After that came barbecued chicken legs. So far everything was really very good.

Grilled chunks of white chicken meat in sweet sauce came next. Then came skewers of chorizo, spicy small piquant South American sausages. By this time I realized that, no matter how good they look, I must not take more than one small piece. More dishes kept coming. Be picky, you can afford to.

When they came with skewers of goose hearts, I passed. Organ meats are just not my style. I passed again on the Entrecote steak because it was well done and I prefer medium rare. A minute later they came again, this time with medium rare, just the way I like it. This was followed by sinta steak, also medium rare. They had learned how I like my meat.

If you need time to let the food settle before the next dish, flip the signal on your table to red. When you are ready for more, flip it to green. But you'll have to forgive the enthusiastic waiters. If they have a fresh batch of something that you haven't tried, they come over anyway. They keep track of which dishes you have not had yet. You can have as much of any as you want. If you want more just ask.

After the steak there was more steak, this time in garlic sauce - an extra, not part of the 12 dishes. Just when I thought this could not be topped, out came skewers of moulard. The meat was incredibly soft and buttery, and in my opinion, was the best dish of all.

"You have to try the ribs!" the waiter exclaimed as he brought out a rack of beef ribs, which he carved to order. I didn't think I could eat another thing but he knew a good customer when he saw one. The ribs were excellent, soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I should mention that in between the waiters kept offering more of the meats that I had already tried, but I was close to bursting and tried to take only the meats I had not tried yet. I don't think I left anything out, but I might have.

By this time I was ready to waddle back to the car, but I had to have a small second helping of moulard. The truth is that I could barely eat it. But it was delicious.

While I was making my way through the grill, my companion set out to prove that you don't have to be a carnivore to enjoyed Papagaio. While her fish was grilling, she enjoyed the vegetables and the salads, and the "tasting" of outstanding grilled salmon that was given out to like jewels to select tables. The whole grilled Denise served with green salad made a very lovely dinner with a dish of potatoes that were served separately.

Finally, six amazing looking desserts were place in the center of our table for us to choose from. We looked at the desserts with desire in our eyes, but had to pass. We could not eat another thing.

Papagaio is a meat lovers paradise, and an experience not to be missed. Come hungry.

Smachot:
Papagaio restaurant in the Arena Mall has two seating areas. One can be curtained off for private parties of up to about 50 people.

Cassiopeia simcha hall in the Arena Mall seats up to 700 guests. The hall faces the sea and a chupa can be set up on the outdoor balcony. The Papagaio restaurant menu is available for your simcha or you can arrange any other menu of choice with the Cassiopeia simcha planners.

www.Cassiopeia.co.il/