Pichana

Newgate Street, Chester

IN Brazil, Picanha is the name given to the very best cuts of meat - so it's safe to say the restaurant of the same name does exactly what it says on the skewer.

The South American meat assault continues apace with the new Picanha in Chester.

It really is meat, meat and more meat. Then some more meat.

Which made our waitress's enquiry if any of us were vegetarians seem a little odd. But that was before attention was drawn to the gourmet salad bar, an impressive assortment of vegetable and potato dishes, cheeses, rice recipes...oh and some more meat.

So while there is something for everyone, it's those ravenous carnivores among us who really clean up.

The waiters bring 10 meats to the table, so once you're back from the salad bar, it becomes a tactical battle to pace yourself.

After all, you don't want to miss anything.

Beef, steak, lamb, pork, gammon, rare, medium rare....it's a big call if you want to turn your card over to 'no thanks' and have a break.

In all honesty, the waiters tend to ignore this anyway. You can politely wave them away but once the skewers are dangled in front of you it is game over.

Watching the cuts drop off the skewer is perhaps not the novelty it once was given the surge in Brazilian dining we have seen in the past few years, but here the tender, juicy cuts are difficult to resist.

The succulent lamb and Picanha special steak were personal favourites, but the gammon and pineapple also proved impossible to reject.

The trick, however, is to limit the sides and try a little bit of each. For example, it's best not to over face on a cut of steak that isn't as flavoursome as you'd like or isn't cooked to your liking. Be selective as you go along.

We were glad we did this as there was enough room for dessert, a quirky selection of Brazilian sweet treats for one half of the table, a fluffy, fruity lime cheesecake for the other.

But in the overall man vs food battle, this meat feast was definitely a winner.