Espetus.....

Ignore the fact that the word "Espetus" kinda sounds eerily similar to "Asbestos" LOL.

Espetus is a brazilian steakhouse in San Francisco. If you are a meat-eater this place might be your Mecca. It is also a place you are probably going to go to no more than once or twice a year. Be prepared to spend money like you never have before on lunch(or dinner).

I went for lunch with my wife, best friend, and his brother. Even though "steakhouse" is in the title, it is not really what one would consider a traditional steakhouse. It is a buffet of grand proportions. We arrived on time for our 1:00pm reservation and we were seated right away. They basically explain how the place works. There is a salad bar with lots of side dishes, such as potato salad, sliced tomatoes w/basil & olive oil, coleslaw, steamed rice, baked salmon, various meaty stews, guacomole, eggplant etc etc etc. While this in itself could be considered a meal, THE MEAT is what you are there for, and boy are you in for a mountain full of it. The Servers come out of the kitchen which huge chunks of meat on gigantic skewers, which they carve your slice from and you are given a tiny pair of tongs to take the meat and put it on your plate. The host explained that the little plastic disc on our table was actually an indicator for the servers. Keep it green side up and the servers will keep coming to your table with various different kinds of meats to slice up for you. If your plate gets full or you need a rest to breathe, flip the disk over to it's red side and the servers will stop bringing food. Then when you are ready to chow down again flip it back over to green.

This place strictly employs the "medium rare" style of preparing meat, which to me is the best way. Most of the time though there will be plenty of pieces on the skewers that are more well done and they will make sure to give those pieces to people that want their meat more well done.

I think for the four of us the bill came out to $185 w/tip....yeah OUCH, although two of us ordered sodas which are charged by the bottle and the bottles they give out are the mini-bottles, and we also ordered a dessert. Trust me it is worth it for a one time shot(or annual visit).....you will leave pleased.