Rio Brazilian Steakhouse - Vancouver

This was the best birthday dinner I have ever had! Our waiter was outstanding. Yes, that is a heart shape in my dish, I love meat. I love this restaurant!

The host at the entrance was unpleasant, almost rude, but the servers were friendly and changed the initial impression. The buffet was well presented, but the meat fell short of the standards expected for Brazilian BBQ.

In terms of service, one of the waiters appeared to be under the influence of drugs, as he moved and spoke slowly and had a strange gaze when looking at us. The host only checked on us once, and it was too uncomfortable to express how unsatisfactory the experience was. I assume they are already aware of the issues. Additionally, the water served tasted like it came from a swimming pool, which was surprising since the tap water in my area has never had that taste.

Definitely a fun experience. Came here twice with my son and husband. It isn't cheap, but you get lots and lots of meat which makes it worth it.The service is pretty good. The waiters are nice, and are good at explaining how the whole all-you-can-eat process works. The other meat servers walk around all the tables every so often offering different kinds of bbq'd meats. I found some of the meats to be quite underdone, but that may just be a preference thing for me.They offer lots of different sides, buffet style. I really loved to cous cous, but they also offer many different salads, potatoes, rice dishes, eggs and more.The manager was very attentive, and he made sure to check in on every guest throughout service. It was nice to see the effort he put in to ensure every guest was having a good time as well as a good meal.All in all it's a fun experience, and ill definitely be going back. Just maybe isn't my automatic go-to restaurant.Kid-friendliness: The servers were all great with my kid, and he absolutely loved waving his card around to show whether he wanted meats from the servers as they walked around. 100% kid-friendly.Parking: The location is right downtown, only a couple blocks from the beach, so as expected parking can be a challenge. There is some paid street parking, and a few paid parking lots close by, but the both are pretty expensive.

I was really excited to come here, but was unfortunately quite disappointed. As soon as we entered, the entranceway and entire restaurant smelled like a dirty mop. The bathroom was even worse, so I was concerned about the cleanliness. Our drinks came and our cups were grimy and we didn't want to drink from them (3 cups, all dirty). The one sip I took from mine before I noticed was super watered down.The meat was decent, they came around frequently and it was pretty tasty. The salad bar was so so, nothing stood out as very good but as we arrived right at opening it was freshly made.We spent $100 just for lunch and for that, I would expect a lot more. Bummed that the cleanliness was so poor. Definitely will not return.