Navala Churrascaria

All you can eat meat is a statement that rings sweetly to my ears, I love barbeque, I love nearly all cuts of meat and I love a challenge. I went with Mr A., the only male A., around to Navala Churrascaria, we were tossing up between this one and Mundo Churrasco in Bardon, but decided on here because W., and Gill. had enjoyed their dinner here the previous week. We also liked the fact that Navala had no time limit on their food and no seating times.

Mr A., and I are both bad at directions so we spent a lot of time driving around and around Eagle Street Pier looking for the Charlotte Street securing parking complex. It's in a much different spot than expected! Especially with all the one way signs! We got a bit lost trying to find it as we aimed ourselves towards where Jade Buddha/Bavarian Bier and Sake are located.

We were so relieved when we saw it that I didn't notice the water feature there. Its not the first time I've been there. Mr A., gave me a brief warning by saying that's wet, I thought it was just a shiny black tile, instead it was a 30cm plunge into a running fountain that I somehow failed to notice. I immediately dropped one leg down into knee high water and then stupidly put my other foot in to follow it. I honestly thought Mr A., was calmly understating things in that British way he does. He couldn't stop laughing when I replied, "yes, its wet." 

Anyway, we followed the smell of smoky meat to the sign. We admired the fire pits at the front of the restaurant immensely and wondered what the fire pit specials were for the night. Here is their menu. You can try nearly everything on the menu except for the fire pit, you only get to try 3-4 of whatever they decide to do that night. The night we went it was whole suckling pig, short ribs and pork belly.

Piggy!

We got seated pretty quickly and our waitress explained that this little wheel would indicate to our waiters whether or not we still wanted food! Flip it to sim por favor for more food or nao obrigado for no thank you! The waiters will zone in on your table and offer you a slice of whatever they're serving!

Bring it on baby!

Ugh meat sweats, the mind is willing but the body is weak

We choose quite a few of the sides to go with our meat. We had a pact that we couldn't have carbs or drinks because that would take up necessary space and Mr A., wanted to be at Navala Churrascaria so long that we got kicked out. He said that at an earlier stage in his life, he actually had been kicked out of several all you can eat buffets, which I was very impressed by.

The place is huge by the way! There's a lot of room for large groups, there's also a bar section and an outdoors seating.

HUGE!

Anyone, free condiments and sides at Navala! We picked, from upper left going clockwise, their malagueta sauce, a spicy, smokey and sweet chilli/tomato based sauce, a house made chipotle barbeque that was quite good, an excellent, excellent chunky habanero and seeded mustard sauce as well as some fruity/spicy and very small Brazilian chillis. We got multiple refills of the mustard and barbeque sauce overnight.

Mustard ftw

The first piece of meat we received was this tasty pork belly, succulent, fatty and well seasoned. The only disappointment was that my piece of crackling was quite chewy and not crunchy at all. Mr A.,'s was. It did take a long time for it to get to us however. We were seated for about fifteen minutes before we received any food due to being between two large 10+ person groups that seemed to get the prime pick of any and all rotating meats. Mr A., wasn't exactly shy about trying to get attention either.

Mmm pork belly!

We did get a piece of pao de quiejo each really early on, which broke our no carb rule because we were so hungry. I don't think its on the menu but we definitely got it the night that we went there. Pao de quiejo is basically a cheese and cassava flour puff ball, its a very starchy, cheesey ball of air. It was very moreish but we had to hold ourselves back for more meat!

Delicious cheesy carbs!

The next cut of meat that appeared at our table was the lamb rump cut to size and covered in malagueta sauce! We tried to snag more than a few pieces but the waiters have this habit of giving you a bit of a look that quells any request for thirds or fourths . . .

Seriously so much sauce though

This is a picture of some medium well beef flank steak? which was a touch salty but delicious. The banana leaf parcel is the coconut fish, a bland and melting piece of white fish that I wasn't a fan of.

Ehhhh it was okay

This is the beef hump, yes, you heard correctly, beef hump. Its apparently the cut of fat and muscle at the top of the shoulder. Its pretty gross, really hard, super salty and with lots of unrendered fat so its like chewing hard meat gum. Please avoid at any and all costs. Even for curiosity purposes.

Avoid!

The garlic prawns are especially good value, super garlicky, buttery and cooked to juicy perfection. I only had these two since I don't mess around with shells when I'm super hungry but I lost count of how many Mr A., had!

Oooh garlic prawns!

We had some well done lamb with chimichurri sauce! We got a dish of the sauce afterwards because it was so refreshing against the heaviness of all the meat.

Mmm lamb~

I had one and a half Brazilian style pork sausages which is about a whole sausage too much. They are quite juicy but they don't have the same bursty texture that German sausages do from being boiled then grilled. They aren't as flavour packed and I'd pass on them given the same opportunity to try them,

Pass!

We decided to grab a chicken heart each but they weren't great, slightly overcooked so they became rubbery little bullets.

Bleh

Ooh beautiful medium rare beef rump cap, you were basically the highlight of my night. This is also about the time the 7am dancing show started and I got the meat sweats something fierce. I took some photos then I realised I was there to eat not pretend to be interested in girls dressed in feathers!

Be still my beating heart, its beautiful!

These feather fans were somewhat interesting to watch though.

Peacock!

I was entranced by the cinnamon sugar grilled pineapple and especially the aroma but was disappointed with the pineapple itself. The pineapple was quite tart and not sweet in the least despite being lightly coated in brown sugar and cinnamon, as well as being grilled. I was expecting a thick, brown, burnt sugar and cinnamon caramel to be dripping off but I just got this sad pineapple instead! I was very disappointed to say the least.

Disappointing

I honestly can't remember what this might be, my heart sings pork however, so that's what I'm going with.

Pork?

At this stage, I had basically given up and started getting carbs. I ordered a bowl of chips and I've never felt so nauseatingly full as I did at that instance. Apparently Mr A., saw me touch a chip and turn green at the very THOUGHT of having something to eat.

Good chips though

I managed to eat the entire bowl, oh and thi really bad garlic bread too. Just wasn't seasoned enough aka salty enough to be worthwhile.

The colour was nice though

They also serve haloumi cheese which I thought was odd, but I never pass up haloumi so of course I got some. Too bad that they didn't also offer lemon wedges, haloumi and lemon is a match made in heaven.

Slightly spongy haloumi

I was still sporadically eating and heavy breathing at this stage. When the pork ribs rocked up I definitely couldn't say no as a pork and food lover, binge eater, food blogger, human being or whatever I class my gluttonous self as. They were delicious and I wish I had had more! Definitely try them if you seem them being offered.

RIBS

Navala Churrascaria
Atmosphere: 7, brightly lit, bustling restaurant with some really cheesy decorations haha. The show is fun and kids seem to love it! I think its a good place for large functions.
Service: 6, not too bad and its hard to have so much food circulating with lots of people around. It was really noticeable that we were sometimes ignored for larger groups and that we got food last though being on the opposite side of the kitchen.
Food: 7, I would definitely go back, the meat was high quality and mostly well cooked. There were a few exceptions were the meat was overcooked or heavily salted.