ID Brazil Churrascaria Brings Affordable Rodizio To West Haven

I drove past ID Brazil in West Haven several times before deciding to try it. I have been a fan of Brazilian food for three decades, first discovering it in North Jersey and then enjoying it up and down the East Coast, but my luck with it had been decidedly mixed of late. I hadn’t liked the food at Palmeira in New Haven (which, it’s rumored, may reopen under new management) and I’d had pretty lousy Brazilian fare at a weigh-your-food restaurant in Danbury (a city whose dining scene has been in a long decline but which has rebounded somewhat with Barbarie’s Black Angus Grill and Ibiza Tapas & Wine Bar). Other Brazilian venues had closed (at least three in Hartford, one in Stratford and two in Old Saybrook), making me feel that the cuisine was taking the kind of step backward that Vietnamese food has taken since the late 1980s.

And maybe it is, but at least we have ID Brazil.

This is not a fancy joint, and a lot of the food is in a self-service buffet sold by the pound or all-you-can-eat for $19.95, but the brightness and freshness of the buffet dishes greatly surpass that of other such joints I’ve tried recently in Connecticut. The food is cooked with greater subtlety. It’s just better.

But splurge! Live a little! Get the rodizio ($24.95), which refers to a style of service in which grilled meats are brought to your table until you cry “Uncle!” It starts with this little brightly painted block of wood. If you place it on the table so the green end is up, it means “Hit me!”

But for another five dollars ($29.95), you can get the a drink, dessert and coffee or tea added to your rodizio experience, which is stretching a Lincoln pretty far. Here comes our handsome Brazilian waiter Victor with the drinks we chose:

a blood orange margarita sans salt

and something called a Brazilian flag.

They were as strong and tasty as they were colorful.

The rodizio deal includes the buffet, and you should plan on making a trip there because no one except a caveman can eat straight meat, no matter how great it is. Get some accompaniments, but keep in mind that you want to do damage. You want to eat so much meat they’ll be sorry they let you in. (That’s speaking as someone who, in his youth, went through buffets like a bear through a campsite.) So go light on the other temptations, as I did. (Although truthfully, my extreme eating days are pretty much behind me. Pun intended.)

Don’t make the mistake of getting any of the buffet meats, as my buddy did, because you’re going to get offered even fresher ones. But I tasted his fried pollock and it was really fresh and good.

So here’s a look at some of the buffet items. The freshness is evident.

And as long as we’re looking at the buffet, let’s check out the rest of the restaurant. Here are the friendly owners,

standing in front of the grill,

which was constantly being tended.

Here’s a view of the restaurant packed with customers from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Here are a few elements of décor.

There’s sure to be a table waiting for you!

But let’s get to those meats, of which there are at least a dozen types.

They’re the reason you come to a rodizio. Your waiter or waitress

will slice pieces of meat from a skewer according to your direction, and you will grab them with a pair of tongs.

I can’t swear I’ll get all of these meats right, but I think we started with bacon-wrapped chicken,

then top sirloin

(look how perfectly cooked that was),

then pork loin,

pork sausage,

chicken hearts,

ham,

grilled pineapple with cinnamon (!),

bacon-wrapped turkey,

picanha (rump cover),

then more picanha (rump cover).

Yes, as you fill up, you’ll just keep going back to whatever’s your favorite.

At this point, if you’re as full as we were, you’ll want to run up the red flag and bring things to a halt.

But hopefully you’ll have saved a little room for coffee

or tea

and dessert. I picked a chocolate pavé

that’s one of the desserts you can get to go,

while my buddy got a nice flan.

After we finished our desserts, we signaled for the check, with big happy smiles pasted on our faces.

ID Brazil, 241 Elm Street, West Haven, 203-932-4000, www.idbrazil.com