(November 19, 2001) — You know, it’s such a great idea to have all these neighborhood restaurants that resemble certain parts of the world and further broaden the diversity of dining. So when I went to Picanha Churrascaria in Burbank, I expected it to be something different and exciting. While I can’t say it wasn’t “worth it,” it definitely wasn’t what I had expected. When walking in the restaurant, it’s a little dark and the shortage of space leaves you constantly apologizing to the people around you for bumping into them. Oh, and the bar is right there so you can’t help but watch SportsCenter on the overhead TV screens. The salad bar offers a small variety—actually, it can’t really be called a variety—of regular salad, regular dressing and regular croutons with hardly anything to make it Brazilian. Wait, that’s not true; there is an attempt at Brazilianizing the salad bar with the “Brazilian Potato Salad,” which looked suspiciously like sour-cream-covered potato chunks. As for the Hot Food Side Bar, there were many improvements. The fried bananas (more on that later) should be saved until the end of the meal. The Chicken Strogonnoff, which at first glance looks like soup mush, is actually one of the highlights of the place. Bits of chicken and slices of mushroom are sautéed in a secret sauce to create the rich taste of creamy goodness. I got my food and was sitting at my (crowded) table when a guy emerged behind me with a metal rod containing chunks of meat in one hand and a huge dagger in the other. Yes, at first, it looked like an ancient Egyptian sacrifice to the meat gods, but they were only waiters bringing out the restaurant’s specialty— the “churrascas,” or meat cuts. (The “dagger” turned out to be a kitchen knife.) Throughout the meal, the waiters brought by the eleven varieties of beef, chicken, pork and lamb. Some of the better ones included the Brazilian Beef Picanha, the house specialty. It was surprisingly soft and full of flavor. There is a pineapple-flavored chicken that is exotic but is missing the pineapple flavor. The tri-tipped steak almost makes you want to skip the steak sauce—almost. Then there’s regular lamb. I don’t know, are Brazilian lambs different from American lambs? Warning: as encouraging as the waiters sound, don’t pile on the slices of meat or you’ll get really full really fast. Back to the bananas—two words: cinnamon covered. There is no way to know which deserts are offered as there is no menu and the staff doesn’t care to mention it, so these bananas are a good conclusion to all the meat. Lastly, there’s Guarana—the Brazilian soft drink that’s (gasp) more popular than Coke. This should have been recommended at the beginning of the meal, but the waitress also failed to notice the countless times my Coke needed a refill. Overall: nice place—worth going to once. Maybe twice for the bananas.