M Grill

Posted by Edmund in Brazilian, Los Angeles, Restaurants | 0 comments

M Grill
Brazilian Barbecue/Brazilian Steakhouse
$35 for dinner

3832 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010-3222

Los Angeles is one of the few places where you can find excellent Brazilian food. And Brazilian food is absolute comfort food at its finest, with an endless amount of perfectly prepared starches and meats. Thus, whenever I head back to town, I always make sure to stop by at least one Brazilian restaurant. This time around, I was looking for a nice, long night out with my two closest friends, and we decided on M Grill in Koreatown.

A brief recap on Brazilian food is needed (for more info, check out my review of Gaucho’s Village). It’s served buffet style, except for the fact that the quality of food you’re getting is just as high as you can get at any good steakhouse, if not better. In the front, there is always a salad bar and a section of hot dishes, including such marvels as cheese-filled bread, sausage and bean stew, fried yucca, mashed yucca/potatoes, garlic, seafood stew, and different pastas. The main draw, though, is the large list of bbq meats that servers bring straight to your table, hot off the grill—everything from filet mignon to beef ribs, chicken thigh, tri-tip, top sirloin, and picanha (top sirloin cap).

Anyway, when my friends and I arrived at M Grill, we didn’t know what to expect. The drive there was a bit ominous. Going through Koreatown on a dark night isn’t exactly the most scenic drive. The area looked almost like a deserted wasteland, and the restaurant was in the middle of nowhere on the 2^nd story of an otherwise completely closed building complex.

As we entered the restaurant, though, we experienced an almost complete change of heart. The restaurant has a fantastic ambience. It’s very classy, with a nice bar and great lighting (the lighting is a tad dimmed to create a more personal experience). The neighborhood is kind of dumpy, but the restaurant itself is quiet and small and has tons of room between tables, making it more intimate than most places and making for a great date spot. The service, moreover, is excellent—waiters rapidly bring out whatever cut of meat you like, constantly stuffing you. And, unlike in most places, waiters will go the extra mile to make you feel at home. For example, M Grill did not serve our favorite meat, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, so when the waiters found out how much we loved that meat, they custom-prepared and barbecued three pieces for us, using their normal filet mignon.

As for the food, you won’t be disappointed at all. No person I have ever taken to a Brazilian restaurant has ever disliked it, and M Grill is probably the finest one that I have personally eaten at. The meats are almost all perfectly cooked, and it is possible to obtain any level of rareness you desire, as everything is cooked in large chunks so that outer layers will always be better cooked than those nearer the center. Moreover, the restaurant offers at least 8 beef choices, 2 chicken choices, and 3 pork, all with different flavors and different spices and each coming from a different area of the respective animal. The beef at M Grill is especially outstanding, and its filet mignon is particularly the best I’ve had in any Brazilian restaurant.

As for the starches/hot section, almost anything you get is rather good, but two things in particular make M Grill stand out. First, it serves its bread (filled with cheese) hot from the oven and brings it straight to your table, so that it’s always fresh. This is by far the best bread in a Brazilian restaurant I’ve had. Also, M Grill is the only place to serve mashed yucca (Brazilian mashed potatoes are amazing, but yucca just takes it to a whole new level b/c it’s naturally so much starchier, richer, and creamier than potatoes). To be fair, though, the salad bar and hot section aren’t quite as large here as at other Brazilian restaurants.

Overall, then, M Grill provides a feast befitting a king. It provides endless hot dishes, salads, and freshly cooked barbecued meats unlike any you’ll taste at a traditional bbq. It is a bit pricy for bbq at $35 for dinner, but it has the variety and the quality to satisfy even the pickiest eater and the quantity to satisfy even the biggest glutton.

Some recommendations:

Best cuts of meat: Filet Mignon (Falling apart it’s so soft and moist), Beef Ribs, Polish Sausage (The Polish sausage is amazingly smoky and flavorful), Skirt Steak (extremely succulent, very well cooked).

Cuts to avoid: Brazilian Sausage and Chicken with Bacon (rather dry).

Best salads/hot dishes: Mashed Yucca, Black Bean Stew, Fried Yucca, Fried Banana, Potato Salad

Scoring:

Ambience: 4.0/5.0. Great for an intimate evening with great food.
Service: 4.1/5.0. Brazilian waiters are some of the most amiable you can find.
Food: 4.2/5.0
Value: 4.0/5.0
Verdict: 4.1/5.0. Not quite as good of a value as Gauchos Village in Glendale, which provides live entertainment at nights, but this is the best Brazilian restaurant for an intimate evening.