El Puerto (Hervey Bay, Queensland) 05/2017

Part of the Hervey Bay Boat Club

this Brazillian style restaurant, 

offers an all you can eat meat fest. 

Simon, an enthusiastic, hyperkinetic Major Domo has a team of waiters who all try extremely hard to please.

Soon after you are seated at a simply set bare table featuring a South American steak knife, a fork and a pair of tongs on a serviette food

 starts to arrive. A small pot of pesto and a tomato and onion relish are brought early, 

First condiments and a litlle serve of cheese sticks, a warm bread bun and a pastel which is a thin pastry envelope wrapped around a filling and deep fried. Soon after the accompaniments arrive. Plates of rice, steamed vegetables, a garden salad, a plate of chips and a wonderful sort of bean salad made with a pork stock.

Waiters come around constantly with skewers of sausages and meat from which they carve off slices if you want - that's what the tongs are for. Chicken wings and chorizo sausage was first, The sausages were not quite mild and did not interfere with the taste of the following dishes

 Pork sausage and chicken breast. came next.

Every thing was barbecued with a variety of seasoning. 

Beef with a garjic seasoning, 

came next. I requested rare and that's how I got it. Tough but tasty> There was a contiuous flow of different barbecued food. 

Prawns

Red Snapper, filleted and battered

Bacon

You don't actually have to tell the waiters to stop bringing food. Each table has a tri-coloured cube on it to be turned red side up if you want a rest and green side up when you're ready for more. 

There were several other meats including pork ribs in a mild sweet marinade, lamb, which was excellent and pork. 

The last thing was a barbecued pineapple, 

peeled and rolled in sugar it was a delicious end to a hugely varied range of BBQ'd proteins of one sort and another. The marinades made the food interesting. The nature of the food preparation and served on long shashlik sticks makes it difficult to serve it as rare and tends to lead to the meay being dry.

Chef Gavin, and his sous chef worked hard in a hot open kitchen.

 

Simon told me he has a motto. "No breakfast" I might reasonably add No lunch either.

Score:13.75/20