Chapada Chophouse and Churrascaria

Rating: Thumbs Up from 7 out of 7
Chapada is a relatively new Brazilian Style Steak House at the corner of 21st & Tyler Road.  Six regular members of our group and a guest came this week.  Our experience can be summed up by the following quote "When we have money, I want the Chewbacca (Churrascaria)".  Another quote "This is pretty cool, I Like this place".  Yes, we are a witty group:)  Okay, now for the dish reviews -
I chose the small plate of Crab Cakes.  I wanted to save room for dessert (if they didn't have anything - Orange Leaf was across the intersection!).  This was a wise move on my part.  The two crab cakes were cooked perfectly with a proportionately large amount of crab and just barely enough bread to keep it intact.  It came with an Almond, Apple, Radish salad.  It sounds like a weird combination, but it worked.  I'm not a big salad dressing fan, but this one pulled everything together and the salad wasn't swimming in the stuff.  I'll save dessert until later.
One person chose the Ahi Tuna Small Plate.  This was several thinly sliced Sushimi grade tuna on a bed of spring lettuce.  The tuna was as good as expected and it also had a nice dressing on it.  She also got the Quail and Mushroom Soup.  This was a rich, creamy soup loaded with lots of quail and mushrooms.  Very tasty.
The next up was a Chicken and Sausage Sandwich.  Don't let the dull name fool you.  This is not an ordinary sandwich.  The sausage is a Brazilian sausage called "Linguica".  The sausage was really, really good.  It also had a cheese and pesto that brought the sandwich together.  We talked her into a side of sweet potato fries, of which she is not a fan.  She still is not a fan, but would order again to get the sauce that comes with them.  It was a creamy sauce that had a nice kick to it.  I love sweet potato fries and hers were cooked correctly: soft on the inside, crisp but not black on the outside.
Two people chose the Gourmet Food Bar.  From the menu it looks like a glorified salad bar, but that would be a wrong assumption.  There are lots of salads and salad ingredients, and soup, and lavosh pesto pie, and taquitos, and deviled eggs, and ....  Excellent food and well worth the $15 price.
Two brave souls ordered the meat fest otherwise known as the Churrascaria.  None of us could pronounce it correctly so we resorted to calling it the Chewbacca.  The waiters (?) come to the table with a sword full of meat hot off the grill and slice some for you.  On the beef, you can choose medium rare, medium, or medium well.  The closer to the handle, the rarer the meat.  Just as you finish, they come around with another selection.  There were many, many cuts of meat and a grilled pineapple.  Each selection seemed better than the last.  I got a small bite of the pork with a hint of cinnamon.  Oh My Gosh, it was sooo good and then came the bacon wrapped chicken.  It was so unbelievably good, they had to let everyone try.  That is when Dennis made his quote.  All this and you start with a plate of sides.
Three of us chose to get dessert - yes the three that had not gone the all you can eat direction.
One chose the Mango Cheesecake - the plating was spectacular and she said it tasted almost as good.  A very good choice.
Two of us chose the Cream Brulee Trio.  The three flavors are a Banana, a Raspberry, and a Coffee.  I generally hate banana flavored things and love coffee in any form, so I ate the banana first.  It was so good.  It tasted more like a Bananas Foster with that caramel and hint of bananas flavor.  The Raspberry was somewhat disappointing, it was pink and you could see the seeds but the raspberry flavor was missing except for the raspberry garnish.  It was just a nice creme brulee.  The coffee was very disappointing.  There was no coffee flavor whatsoever and it seemed to dull the creme brulee.  It was creamy and smooth, but very bland.  None of this kept me from eating the entire thing!  Both of us concurred that the banana dish was by far the best.  Next time, I'll go for a Martini instead.
The atmosphere is classy without being stuffy, but it would be nice to see the roasting pit.  They have a lot of interesting wines and drinks on the menu that we didn't try.  I do think the next trip will be for a their special appetizer times.  The waitstaff was friendly and one of the meat cutters was very funny and entertaining.  I had read several less than favorable reviews and so I was a bit apprehensive.  After a great experience, I went back to those reviews and looked at the dates.  They were all just after the opening, so I chalked it up to growing pains. 
We all expect to go back.

Next up:  River City Brewery.