…but they are tasty!
Dined at the Tabom Brazil, a Brazilian steak house in Itaewon the other day. It’s like a South American barbecue, with the meat cooked on skewers, rotisserie style. The bring various cuts of meat, seven in all, including beef, chicken, and pork. Hell, they even brought out some pineapple on a skewer. It was all quite delicious. Best thing of all, it’s all you can eat and they keep bringing it around until you beg for mercy.
It’s relatively pricey, at about W30,000 each. But we had a nice table overlooking the street and we left stuffed and satisfied. I’d call that good value for the money.
W30,000/person is a lot cheaper than Chima in Washington, DC (about $70/person). But maybe the comparison needs to be fleshed out. Chima is pretty high-end, and offers a full salad bar, a full dessert bar, and a never-ending flow of carbs to the table, along with the circulating meat-on-swords/skewers.
Does Tabom Brazil use the same method as Chima to indicate when to be served? At Chima, you’re given a disc that says “Yes, please” on one side and “No, thank you” on the other. The skewer guys pass by your seat, and if they see that you’ve got “Yes, please” flipped upward, they’ll stop and serve you as much as you want. If you’ve made the “No, thank you” visible, they pass you by until you’re finally ready for more action.
Your photo makes me hungry.
Kevin, yes it was a fair price, especially for beef in Korea. It was high in comparison with my usual fare here which consists mostly of dwaegi galbi or samgyapsal. But really, if you went to an Outback or something similar you’d pay about the same I suppose.
They did have a salad and soup bar, but I only had small portions so as not to fill up on anything other than meat. I didn’t notice at the time but there was no bread offering.
No, they didn’t use anything other than verbal communication. The brought out each of the seven meats individually and then periodically came by with various cuts. One guy at our table (the tall, skinny one of course) can put food away in copious amounts. He was the last man standing so to speak, as the rest of us dropped out after several additional servings.
The motto on their signage is “don’t be shy, eat all you want!”. There was a large group of Koreans there when we arrived and they were still eating when we left. So, I hope the place is still in business when you return to Korea. Actually, I’ve seen several “Brazilian Steak House” style restaurants popping up around town, so I guess the concept is working here.
Oh yeah, Ta Bom apparently means “it’s good” in Portuguese. And it was.