Santos, I Drive Area

I had a buffet lunch at this eponymous Brazilian restaurant on Kirkman (the Wet 'n Wild side). It's owner/chef is Ailton Santos. The meal far exceeded expectations. I had originally come down for an Indian meal at a restaurant I saw in Bite magazine called Shamiana. Watching Michael Cook's History of India on PBS had put me in the mood. Unfortunately for me, (as the office park manager related) it has been closed for years. Nice job Bite. So I audibled and decided to retry Santos to knock it off my list. I tried to try it a few months ago, but, they closed at 9pm. And I thought Brazilians start then. I'm glad I persisted. The buffet only cost $11. The other Brazilian buffets are two to three times that. Now the place is a little rattier, but, choose here if you don't care about faux ambience. That's for the faux rich anyway. The buffet had a cold, salad area. I ignored that. It had a hot area. I tried half of that. And it had a churasscaria window. I was force fed that. In the hot area they had rice, beans, etc and ribs, chicken in a creamy tomato sauce, chicken in a yellow sauce, and beef stroganoff as well as a left over type stew called fajouado, etc. I tried the ribs, the chicken and the beef. The ribs were tasty (no rub or sauce) and delicate. The chicken and the beef weren't over cooked (rare for a buffet) and I think shared a similar sauce base. I think the three sauces started with a roux and cream and then sour or sweet or nothing was added to develop the three options. All were good. Who knew Brazilians knew stroganoff? After changing plates, I ventured to the meat window just to sample a sausage. The man acted like Sam the Butcher giving Alice the meat. He gave we two sausages (a tad overcooked), three strips of sirloin, two top pieces and four pieces of top sirloin. So much for my recently unimpacted colon (thanks to yesterday's ass curdling meal from Thai Thani). I felt I had to finish to be polite. Thankfully, it was mostly medium-ish and had good flavor. In addition to the food, the service was good. Plates were bused and soda refilled lickety split. I chatted up the owner nad his wife and they were amiable. You could see they really care about putting out a good product. The place seats about sixty. It was about 3/4 full of countrymen. I'll bet this is the call for real Brazilian ex-pats. As I said, it's not a looker, but, they recently invested in a new, big sign out front so you can tell it is in operation and it's clean. Like most places that are run or cater to a foreign clientele, they eschew American Express. I recommend the value here over all other Brazilian restaurants in the area. Great find.

*2/27/2016 - I think they are just remodeling, but, they knocked the old structure down and it is not serving now.