Barbacoa

This Barbacoa location along Rua Dr. Renato is a well known steak house and rodizio featuring that classic AYCE experience. In social media, influencers often glamorized many of its cuts and servings, and it looked very tasty. We visited this restaurant about 10 minutes before it opened, and we waited in line in the lounge. The only way to make reservations, allegedly, is through WhatsApp. The host said that we were fine as we were only the 5th walk-in party, so there will for sure be seating for us once they opened. Keep in mind that there are several Barbacoa locations, but the one we went to here is the only AYCE churrascaria one of their locations.

Ambiance & Service

Once they opened, they eventually called our ticket number, and seated us in a 4 seater. What’s interesting about this place is that they have a side table near tables to hold the spit or board of meat in front and not take up space on the diners’ table. In addition, spare places were underneath this table, so they quickly replenish or swapped plates as food came in.

Unlike some of the other previous restaurants we’ve been to in our short stay in Sao Paulo, this one had many foreigners from outside, so you will hear a lot more English spoken compared to other Sao Paulo restaurants. When we left the restaurant at around 6:30 PM local time, there was a huge amount of people waiting outside for a table.

Food

The rodizio per person costs R$263. So this is bordering some churrascaria prices in the U.S., including that of Fogo De Chão.

Once we sat down, the provided many sides of pastels, breads, farofa, vinaigrette, and hot sauce. The pastels were decent, but the cheese bread was definitely underwhelming. They were not airy, and some felt they were left out in the open for a bit too long.

Funny enough, we had just a few pieces of the basket, and they took it away and swapped for a fuller basket.

The salad plate was similar to other Brazilian churrascarias. You have a line of cold cuts, greens, and sushi to pull from. The strategy here is to not get greedy and overload your plate. If you nibble on things along with the meat, you’ll have more room for the meat. The restaurants of course want you to get full off the cheaper stuff. The salad bar was all pretty fresh with quality in mind. There was however not much that stood out to me except for the caviar dollop that you can put on top of your seared tuna.

The first cut of meat that came by was actually from a grilled plate. What was interesting about this rodizio was they had way more prepared skillets or plates of meat than other restaurants I’ve been to in the US. I actually kind of enjoyed this experience over pulling off the skewers because there were some notably different cuts of meats and presentations.

For this particular meat, the quality was decent. The meat had some decent flavors, but my first thought was that it was under seasoned.

Similar to the previous cut, this was one that also came off a board. This one was much more rare, but again, there was a lack of season, and the flavors were a bit muted.

Something that this place is known for over social media is their meat topped with melted cheese crust. The cheese crust on top of the meat was actually pretty decent, but you can tell the meat itself was not great and rather grainy. One might think that the cheese is meant to complement bad cuts of meat. My partner didn’t like it, but I thought it was OK.

Here they passed by with a board of pork with crispy chicharrone skin. With this portion, they give you a wedge of lime. Surprisingly, this was actually my favorite meat option of the night. The pork was beautifully tender, and the chicharrone had that nice crispy crack sound when you hit it. Like the beef options, there wasn’t as much season here, but pork I feel is one of those things where it absorbs the air and fires around it much more than beef.

In the back of the plate, you can see the melted cheese crust meat, and to the right of that is actually a gorgonzola cheese crusted beef. The gorgonzola cheese crusted beef was actually pretty terrible, possibly because they left it on, and it completely overpowered the meat.

If you want to see a place that uses gorgonzola cheese crusts right, check out Carne Mare’s gorgonzola cured steak in NYC. They use the cheese to marinate the steak, then scrub it off instead of keeping it on prior to serving.

The mini picanha came on a spit, and they gave me the whole piece. This was actually cooked very nicely and had some nice flavors, but again as you can tell from the picture, the outside doesn’t have much seasoning on it. Luckily, the inside was medium and not over cooked too much.

The sausage tastes very similar to the stuff we get here in the states, so I was surprised there wasn’t anything that stood out to me.

The special picanha was apparently a special cut of picanha. For me, I felt this was less fatty and more chewy than normal picanha cuts.

Lastly, we ordered the special cut with caviar. Apparently in this restaurant, you have to request this to happen for some reason. As you can tell when they serve it, it’s not very attractive. The meat right away looks completely overcooked. On top of the steak, they add what appears to be the same caviar that you can get in the salad bar. When you bite into it, my first thought was it tasted like a very dense seaweed flavor wrapped around the textures of a grainy, well-done meat. This capped the night with a feeling of social media has tricked us again!

Overall Impression

Barbacoa was unfortunately a churrascaria that I have no desire to go back to. Compared to the other one I’ve been to Brazil, Sal E Brasa, this pales in comparison. I think the price of the food here is quite expensive for what you get, and worst of all is the cook on the meats mostly is not great. The next time I visit Sao Paulo, I’ll look for a different churrascaria to try out.

Yelp & Google Jabs

Don’t forget the gorgonzola one and the caviar,the buffet it’s also amazing, Includes great quality products.

This Floridian Elitist definitely hasn’t had good steak before, so there may be a lack of awareness.

On a scale of 1 - 10, this one broke the scale. If you’re in São Paulo…don’t pass up the chance to go!!

I think many of the Elitists come from U.S. cities where Brazilian steak are not prolific, so they don’t have many options to compare to.

Best Authentic Brazilian restaurant in Sao Paulo and possibly in Brazil.

This Yelper comment I thought was amusing because it’s as if they were expecting Brazilian restaurants in Brazil to not be authentic.

Revisions

1. Mar 13, 2026 - Initial revision.