Tucano’s serves a rare taste of authentic Brazilian cuisine right in the heart of Jakarta, offering a unique experience that is not common in the city.

The restaurant specializes in churassco, a style of grilling meat skewers over an open fire, serving a variety of different cuts of beef, lamb and chicken.

The menu also offers a Brazilian buffet that can be enjoyed for about Rp 50,000 (US$3.75), with an order of an a la carte lunch steak starting from Rp 78,000.

However, the true highlight of the restaurant is the all-you-can-eat dining package ranging from Rp 238,000 to Rp 378,000, which includes a variety of churrasco and unlimited access to the buffet.

Once you decide to opt for the dining package, the Brazilian dining experience begins immediately.

As soon as customers are seated and have ordered a free-flowing drink, they can indicate that they are ready to be served by putting a token on the table.

Each table is given three tokens that represent the different food items you wish to be served: Green represents meat, yellow indicates pineapple and red means you wish to finish the service.

Servers will move around the restaurant with skewers of halal meat from Picanha (Top Sirloin), Alcatra (Sirloin) and Fraldinha (Outside Skirt) to Carnero (Lamb) and chicken.

During lunch hours customers are served eight kinds of churrasco choices and 14 during dinner time.

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The waiters come to your table in approximately 10-minute intervals and slice single portions on your plate in each round.

The lightly rock-salt-seasoned and very thinly sliced top sirloin is considered one of the best cuts served at the restaurant. Customers have the choice to garnish it with two complementary sauces: a spicy creamy sauce or a flavorful pickled onion relish.

However, in terms of the meat’s texture and flavor, the top sirloin is nothing out of the ordinary. The cuts were tough and unfortunately lacked juiciness because of the low fat content.

On a positive note, the outside skirt cuts were tender and moist with flavor. These meat cuts were just the start to a feast of churrasco that was served throughout the dining package.

Once customers eat a number of churrasco rounds, they are bound to feel a little stuffed. As soon as customers feel too burdened by the meat, they can add the yellow token on the table to request pineapples.

The waiters will then bring a skewered grilled pineapple and serve thin slices on your plate. It is recommended that you season it with a dash of cinnamon to enhance the juiciness and consume it with your meat slices to tenderize it.

While people wait for the server to bring out the next type of meat, they can walk over to the buffet for additional food.

The setup of the buffet is similar to a typical family restaurant’s salad bar, with food placed around an island in front of the entrance.

It features a selection of 30 varieties of food that include Brazilian flavors such as the Salada de Jaca (Jackfruit salad), Salpicao de Frango (Brazilian Chicken Salad) and an assortment of different relishes and appetizers.

Most of the dishes resemble flavors common in Indonesian cuisine, such as the Moqueca, a Brazilian fish stew, which was similar to a fragrant fish curry in coconut broth.

The assortments of different dishes are organized from cold dishes on one side, stews on the other and desserts and other items on the side. Although the stews are placed in warmed servers, other cooked foods are served on plates that tend to dry the food items.   

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In addition to the unlimited churrasco and buffet, people can also select from a wide range of signature cocktails that are from Brazil.

For example, Tucano’s is a place to try out Capipirinha, a national Brazilian cocktail drink made with sugarcane hard liquor, sugar and lime. For the heavy drinkers, they can choose to add a free-flow beer from Rp 175,000 or free-flow wine or spirits from Rp 250,000 as an additional package to their meals.

Tucano’s aims to bring true Brazilian flavors to local food enthusiasts, by combining authentic tastes made by a Brazilian head chef Aldecy Bastos in combination with local ingredients. It boasts true south Brazilian taste without changing the flavors to cater to Indonesian palettes.

“Brazilian and Indonesian food is very similar in terms of flavor and ingredients,” said Michael Chuang, the restaurant’s general manager of business development and project management.

He added the dishes would appeal to the public because they offer tastes that people are already familiar with.

In terms of the restaurant’s setup, it is minimally adorned with dimmed lights and good natural lighting. The wooden-paneled walls compliment the modern space, along with the mirrored room dividers that create an illusion of greater space.

In contrast to the limited decor and the casual family dining experience, the menu is priced relatively high. If a table of two decides on the churrasco dining package, they would spend an average of Rp 500,000.

Indeed, the dining package does serve unlimited meat, various buffet dishes and a free-flowing drink. However, when compared to an affordable all-you-can-eat barbeque restaurant, the meat does not stand out.

In addition, the quality of the buffet is comparable to an average salad bar with cold dishes and limited cooked items.

If you are looking for a unique ethnic dining experience, then Tucano’s may be on your list to visit. However, if you are looking for a cheap casual dinner out, this might not be the best option.

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Where: Tucano’s Jakarta Pavilion Retail Arcade Lt. Dasar Unit D 01-12 Jl. K.H Mas Mansyur Kav.24 Karet Tengsin, Jakarta Pusat, 10250

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