Last night we enjoyed an outing to the Texas de Brazil restaurant. This is not what I would normally call my kind of restaurant: although I find salad bars, buffets, and all-you-can-eat establishments appealing for their wide variety and options, the high price and the encouragement of overeating make them generally unattractive to me. However, our friends had two-for-one coupons, which brought the $45-per-person price down from the outrageous to the merely ridiculous-but-acceptable-for-a-special-occasion. So we celebrated Father's Day one day late.
Was it Brazil? No. The theme was Brazilian, with the churrasco-style grilled meats brought to the table on huge skewers, but the salad bar included sushi, and while the bar had suco de maracujá it was not sem açúcar, so I was not able to indulge in my favorite Brazilian drink.
Was it delicious? Yes. The first meat to come by our table was the filet mignon, which was so good that we never had more than a taste of any of the other meats. The salad bar, bread, and side dish offerings could have kept me happy (and overstuffed) without any meat at all.
Was it worth $45/person? No. Half that? Yes, for a special occasion. Porter pronounced it one of the best restaurant meals he's had in a long time—and with his travel schedule, he gets a lot of restaurant experience.
Did we overeat? Yes, but it could have been worse. I calculate that if I had stopped five bites sooner I would not have been wishing we'd parked the car further away....When I told this story to Janet, she laughed, as apparently $45/person is not unreasonable for a restaurant meal in Basel. It may not be unusual, but I would still call it unreasonable. And may I also mention that the servers continually returned to keep my glass filled with and cold, delicious ice water -- tap water -- at no extra charge?
On the other hand, one could buy an awful lot of restaurant meals for the cost savings between a college education in Switzerland and one here.
