The meat is on in Aberdeen as Brazilian barbecue experts Estabulo bring their all-you-can-eat ethos to the city next month.
The gaucho-style restaurant, which serves customers freshly-grilled slabs of meat straight from the skewer, will open in Union Square shopping centre on Thursday April 6.
It will sit in the first floor retail unit previously occupied by Coast to Coast restaurant, near to Pizza Express and Brewdog.
Estabulo Rodizio Bar & Grill is the latest food outlet to join the Union Street roster following confirmation that UK coffee house Black Sheep Coffee will move in this May.
However, the barbecue restaurant could easily lay claim to being the meatiest option around with its unlimited meat and giant portions.
Customers pay a set price ranging from £25 to £33 for lunch or dinner (including salad bar and hot buffet) and have the choice of up to 15 different cuts of meat grilled in the restaurant over an open flame.
Beef cuts include filet mignon and bife picante – a chilli-basted meat. Chicken, pork and vegetarian options are also available.
Getting your share of the meat is easy. Waiters circle the restaurant with fresh skewers ready to slice off a portion when needed.
And the restaurant even runs a traffic light system so customers can let staff know they’ve had too much.
A small card on the table signals green when you want to eat and red when you need a pause.
“Estabulo Rodizio Bar & Grill honour the Brazilian Gaucho’s traditional method of cooking,” the restaurant says.
“This involves taking the most delicious and flavoursome cuts of meat, which are then skewered and cooked slowly on open flames.”
Aberdeen beats rest of Scotland to Estabulo
Aberdeen is the first city in Scotland to get an Estabulo, which has 10 restaurants across the north of England.
The outlet also operates as a bar and has an extensive cocktail menu.
Union Square appears to have side-stepped the fate of rival city shopping centre Bon Accord, where a number of outlets have recently closed.
At Union Square, Black Sheep Coffee will fill the space vacated last year by Valerie Patisserie, while across the ground floor concourse, Japanese fast-food restaurant Itsu opened last year.
It hasn’t all been good news for Union Square’s diners.
Rikshaw, which was the only independent restaurant in the shopping mall, left last year to relocate to Rose Street.
Its owners said Union Square requirements to be open at set hours made life more challenging for the family-owned business.
