Once in awhile, you come across a delicious restaurant and can’t stop thinking about it for days afterwards. This was Rio Brazilian Steakhouse for me! When Cheese randomly suggested this, we all wanted to check it out! I made reservations online for us the following week!
There are two locations – one in downtown on Denman, and one in Coquitlam. We went with the Coquitlam one because parking would be easier to find, and it was free! 
The restaurant was spacious and comfortable. They have live performances on Friday and Saturday nights, which you can see from my photo above!
Prior to the performances, the lighting in the restaurant was very dim – which led to a problem, as I’ll explain below.
Rio Brazilian Steakhouse is an all you can eat restaurant. Servers walk around with different cuts of meat and will keep serving you until you flip over your green card to a red card.
This is where all of their meats are prepared! After they are cooked, servers will walk around with one of those sticks and go to each table until all the meat is gone (which is pretty fast!)
They also have a self serve buffet bar. Your typical carb dishes, soup, rice, veggies, and some fruit.
Now the part we have all been waiting for: the MEAT! There are many servers walking around, and we didn’t have to wait any more than 5 minutes for someone to be walking around.
I can’t tell just by looking at the photos which type of beef it was. This was either the alcatra, which is a rump steak, or the fraldina, which is a skirt steak.
It was so incredibly juicy, rich, and served medium rare. Full of delicious seasonings too.
Another one of their delicious juicy steaks being served! Please note the boyfriend’s patient hands in the background, LOL.
Maminha: Although smaller than the rest, the tri tip was the favourite among the five of us. It was roasted, so the outside was a bit grilled and crispy.
Meanwhile, the inside was so juicy!
Calabresa: Perhaps the only meat that we weren’t a fan of that night. We found the pork sausage to be very dry.
Ribs: I don’t normally have ribs, but I’m starting to slowly eat more. After one bite, Cocoa told me I HAD to try it, so I had a bite. The ribs melted right off the bone, and was so tender.
I’m glad that the server was still cutting pieces for everyone else, because I ended up getting my own piece after too.
Deep fried platains and cheese balls: Halfway through the meal, our server dropped off some snacks! We didn’t really eat these as we wanted to have more of the meat.
Salad: After all that meat, I decided to go and get a plate of veggies to feel better. The veggies were really fresh and the lettuce was crunchy.
The basil and feta sprinkled on the watermelon was a nice addition, and brought out the sweetness of the watermelon. It isn’t something I normally would have tried myself, so I’m glad I had a chance to try it here.
Grilled pineapple with cinnamon: My apologies for the terrible quality of this photo. I forgot to take a photo of it, so this is a screenshot from an Instagram boomerang.
Sangria and Lager came earlier this year, and both said that we all had to try the pineapple with cinnamon! It took awhile (compared to the meats) for the servers to come around with this, as it was gone after one table.
The cinnamon went really well with the pineapple! It was so good that I asked for two slices. The cinnamon made the pineapple even sweeter. Next time I have pineapple, I wouldn’t mind dusting it with cinnamon before eating.
All in all, we were very satisfied and happy after our dinner at Rio. Some of the meats were pretty salty, so I would recommend having a side of veggies with it. It’s probably a place that you would want to come once a year, when you want to have something different.
The only negative thing I encountered was that the lighting was very dim, which led to one problem. The photos above were edited to make them a lot brighter… so you have an idea of how dark it was in there.
After ordering the chicken, it looked a bit pink and raw… so I used my phone’s flashlight to check. To my shock, the inner part of the drumstick was completely raw and bloody! I know that sometimes meat can be pink and it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unsafe to eat (sous vide meat comes out pink), but this time the chicken was bloody.
I was very glad that I checked! So if you do come here, I would recommend checking that you aren’t eating raw chicken! Or maybe just stick with the beef steaks because they were SO DELICIOUS.
Yay!
The entrance to the restaurant is inside the hotel. As well, there is free parking for customers – just make sure you park in stalls that say reserved for Tivoli’s customers.
Mixed salad: The mixed salad was very fresh! I appreciated the decent amount of berries in the salad.
Caesar salad: Again, the salad leaves were fresh and crunchy. Not much to complain about either.
Sweet & spicy beef bites: We really enjoyed these! It tasted like Chinese sweet and sour sauce. The fried Alberta AAA beef cubes were also seasoned with Mediterranean spices. Talk about mix of cultures!
Sauteed garlic prawns: The prawns were fresh and had that nice snap to it. They were also slathered in butter which made it even tastier.
NY Steak: For $5, we could upgrade our Groupon to a NY steak. One of my dad’s favourite things at Western establishments is steak, so naturally we had to get this. It came a perfect medium rare and was nice and juicy.
Veal shank: The veal shank was also cooked excellently. It was tender and full of flavour. It came with a saffron-mushroom risotto, which was creamy and delicious.
Chicken parmigiana: Considering how tasty everything else was, this was everyone’s least favourite. The breaded chicken reminded me of those microwave dinners. It was also quite bland. I guess they’re better at their beef.
Smoked salmon linguine: There was a very generous portion of smoked salmon in this plate! With every forkful, we were met with smoked salmon in our mouth. It was a bit bland but easily fixed with a dash of salt. The boyfriend packed this for lunch the next day, and apparently it was even better since the flavours had soaked in more!
Cheesecake trio: I don’t remember the exact flavours of the cheesecake, but everyone quite enjoyed it. Unfortunately, everyone was too full from the appies and entrees so we couldn’t finish this.
Ice cream parfait: Whoa!! Take a look at this monster! It came with layers of ice cream and fruit. It would have been easier to eat as a sundae since we were all sharing (well, I couldn’t have it so excluding me haha). Normally, this costs $10 without the Groupon so I think the Groupon was pretty worth it.
We had plans to go to another nice restaurant but that didn’t go through, so it was a pretty spontaneous decision to come here (we decided to come here half a hour before). I was Yelping and this placed seemed like the perfect atmosphere that we were looking for.
I didn’t really want to sit on the patio because it seemed cold outside, but we were ensured that the patio was heated. We were seated next to a roaring fireplace which kept us warm and cozy the entire evening! Not all the seats have the fireplace, and the views are slightly better without the fireplace blocking.
Bread, free: Standard complimentary bread. The bread was nice and chewy instead, and served slightly warm with a side of butter.
Calamari, $13.50: We normally don’t get appetizers to save money and our appetite, but it was a special occasion. We were glad we ordered this because it was really good. It came with a very generous portion of calamari, with crisp and fresh batter. The calamari was seasoned with a variety of herbs which made it really good.
Alderwood grilled BC salmon, $29.50: The salmon was DELICIOUS. It flaked off nicely, and had a slightly grilled taste to it. So good. I just wanted to eat the whole thing.
New York Striploin, $42: My entree was the striploin, cooked medium rare! It was very juicy, tender, and flavourful. If I recall correctly, it usually comes with some sort of sauce or butter, but I asked for only salt and pepper with it. I’m a big believer in eating steak with good ol’ salt and pepper because I find it tastes so much better when made simply! Am I the only one who prefers steak this way?
Close up of my medium rare steak! WordPress needs to have an emoji keyboard so I can insert the drooling and heart eye ones here!
Mac and cheese, $7.00: Wow, I didn’t realize how much food we ordered until writing this post. For $7, this was a really good value and good size. The mac and cheese was baked with four types of cheese. The boyfriend said it was really comforting, with very stringy and delicious looking cheese.
I had made reservations on Open Table for an early dinner, at 6 pm. When we arrived, the parking lot was completely full! We ended up parking on the hotel side, which was still a really quick walk. The outside of the restaurant looked pretty modern and posh.
We were quickly seated, and the restaurant was pretty empty, save for a few other tables. Other parties ended up coming in as well, but it was nowhere as busy as The Keg would be. I guess this place isn’t really located in a residential neighbourhood or an entertainment district either, which explains the quieter venue!
It was an special occasion, so of course drinks were ordered!
Tuna tataki, $14.95: As an appetizer, we decided to order the tuna tataki because the boyfriend looooves tuna tataki. Unfortunately, this dish was really disappointing. The tuna was pretty hard on the outside and tasted as though it had been prepared awhile ago and left in the fridge.
Bread, complimentary: The bread was served nice and warm, with no complaints!
Filet mignon, $39.95: On to the main course! I had my heart set on the prime rib, but changed my mind last minute and ordered the filet mignon, cooked medium rare. The filet mignon came with a red wine reduction, and I chose fries as my side.
Rib eye, $37.95: Unlike how I was set with the prime rib before changing my mind last minute, the boyfriend stuck to his original decision and ordered the rib eye. When we were looking up the menu a few nights prior, he knew immediately that he wanted the rib eye!
Mini birthday dessert bite, complementary: I had called in requesting a birthday dessert for the boyfriend. After confirming with our server, they brought over the mini birthday surprise! She was nice enough to give us the option of a complementary full dessert due to her dairy mistake above, but the boyfriend was already too full at this point and I am unable to help him eat this =(
Complimentary bread: To start, we were given a nice loaf of warm bread to munch on. The bread was fluffy, soft and came out lightly toasted. No complaints here!
Wagyu beef french dip, $23: Originally, my mom and I were going to share this because it sounded amazing! However, after telling my server about my dairy restriction, she told me the wagyu beef is smothered in butter before getting cooked. Sigh.
Prime steak salad, $25: I wanted to try the steak, but I didn’t want to pay $50 for steak at lunch so I went with the prime steak salad. That way, I was still able to try their famous steak! The salad normally comes with blue and Parmesan cheese, and dressing. Obviously I wanted to have the dairy component, but due to my stupid and frustrating restriction, and risk of getting super sick I had to order without it.