Churrasco’s | 1520 Lake Pointe Parkway, Sugar Land | (832) 532-5300 | Mon.-Thu. 11:00a-9:30p | Fri. 11:00a-10:30p | Sat. 11:30a-10:30p | Sun. Brunch 10:30a-3:00p

Long ago, before we had kids, we lived inside the Loop.  And when we lived inside the Loop, we really enjoyed eating at Churrasco’s.  After moving out to Fort Bend County, we didn’t get many opportunities to eat at Churrasco’s, until they opened a Sugar Land location a couple of years ago.  We recently had a chance to introduce our kids to the restaurant, and we had a nice meal.

The Place

Churrasco’s is located at the intersection of Highway 59 and Highway 6, in the Whole Foods shopping center.  The window tables feature a nice view of the lake behind the restaurant.  I find the restaurant to be a little loud — the bare floors, hard woods, and high ceiling don’t do anything to dampen the noise.  And the dining room is really just one giant room, with not much to break up the space, which also adds to the noise level.

The Menu

While we browsed the menu, we snacked on plaintain chips with chimichurri sauce and a red sauce.  The red sauce is slightly sweet and not spicy like Tex-Mex salsa.

Plantain chips and dips

Appetizer choices include ceviche, taquitos, and beef carpaccio.  We chose the empanadas.  We got one of each type — beef, ham and cheese, shrimp, and chicken.  They were all tasty, but the beef was my favorite.

Empanadas

Cross-section of ham and cheese empanada

The childrens’ menu items are $7 each, and choices are plaintain-crusted chicken or shrimp, quesadillas, or steak Churrasco.  My kids love steak, so they both chose that, especially after hearing my husband’s and my glowing recommendation of the steak.  For those unfamiliar with it, the Churrasco — the restaurant’s namesake dish — is a chargrilled center cut beef tenderloin that is amazingly tender and flavorful.  The kids’ version is served with french fries.

Kids’ Steak Churrasco

I normally get the Pollo Encamisado, a plantain-crusted chicken breast.  But I was feeling like something a bit lighter, so I went with the Pampas Salad.  The salad features grilled vegetables, cotija cheese, and grilled beef tenderloin, with a cilantro dressing.  I’m not a big fan of the deconstructed salad.  I would have preferred that the ingredients have been chopped and tossed together.  But the veggies were all fresh and the potatoes, zuchinni, peppers and carrots were all nicely grilled.  I would have liked a little more dressing.  The serving size was remarkably small for an entree salad.

Pampas Salad

My husband also chose the Churrasco steak.  His came with a fried yuca cake, which is similar in texture to polenta.  The steak is also served with chimichurri sauce, which adds bold flavor to the meat.  Additionally, we were served a plate of rice and grilled veggies for the table to share.

Churrasco

Grilled veggies

For dessert, we had wanted the flan, but they were out.  So we chose the chocolate tres leches instead.  Tres leches is the signature dessert at Churrasco’s.  I have a texture issue with tres leches, so I don’t enjoy it.  But my husband and the kids thought it was good with a nice chocolatey flavor.

Chocolate tres leches

Final Thoughts

We enjoyed our dinner at Churrasco’s.  It is a little on the expensive side, so it’s not someplace we’ll always want to go with the kids, but I enjoyed introducing them to a slightly different menu and flavor profile than they are used to.

Also, we ended up visiting Churrasco’s on a whim when the restaurant where we had originally planned to eat had an unusually long wait.  As a result, we weren’t necessarily as dressed up as we otherwise might have been.  My husband was wearing a baseball cap, and our hostess informed us when we reached our table that baseball caps are not allowed in the dining room.  That was not a problem, and my husband was able to cure his hat-head with a quick trip to the restroom to splash water on his hair.  Nevertheless, I wish the hostess had said something to us before we were seated.

The service was good.  Our drinks never seemed to get empty, and the timing of our meal seemed just about right.

Have you eaten at Churrasco’s?  What did you think?