Date Night at Chima Steakhouse in Philadelphia

I headed into the city tonight for a date night out at Chima Steakhouse in Philadelphia and I was so impressed with my first experience at a Brazilian Steakhouse!

Two years ago today I met my boyfriend.  We didn't start dating right away but we still consider this our "meeting anniversary" and since Valentine's day is a week night this year we used this this fun little anniversary as an excuse to head into the city for a nice dinner out! Fun fact: I was wearing this sweater dress two years ago when I first met my boyfriend and have worn it on this day every time since because it's the reason my boyfriend first started talking to me two years ago when we first met ;)

The hosts and waiters were so friendly: we were seated right away and got to try three of the specialty cocktails curated by Hop Sing Laundromat (fancy schmancy bar in Chinatown Philly) specifically for Chima that are only $10 each! The two drinks in champagne glasses are Brazilian rum and fruit based drinks called the Gaucha (cowgirl) and Gaucho (cowboy) made with raspberries and blackberries. The third drink was a Rio-Cha made with ooling tea, mint, agave and lemon. The blackberry rum drink was my favorite and my boyfriend really liked the Rio-Cha.

The first course that you could help yourself to was the salad bar full of meats, cheeses, specialty salads and some fun extras! We were warned not to get too excited and fill up too much from just the salad bar since we had quite a lot of eating ahead of us after the salad bar!

Regardless it was fun to take some small samples of different items - especially some things I had never even heard of or tried before.  Gorgonzola Mousse?!? I was very intrigued by this one.  It was a funky texture but ended tasting amazzzzzing.  I didn't even know cheese mousse was a thing!

After the salad bar it was time to start in on the MEAT!  When you are ready to start on the entree portion of your meal you just need to flip your little coin over to "Yes, Please." There are multiple "Gauchos" who roam around the dinning room carrying over 15 different kinds of rotisserie meat on skewers and will visit your table and ask it you want some of that specific kind of meat!

They cut a portion off right onto your plate - including your preferred style of cooking method for certain meats such as rare, medium well, etc.

 My boyfriend is a meat LOVER and was literally in heaven all night.  Here he was getting about his third helping of the beef picanha - top sirloin which was literally AMAZING.  I'm not huge on beef but even I had a second helping of this cut.  I'm pretty sure this was literally the best piece of beef I've ever eaten in my life.

Besides the amazing meat selection there was also cinnamon dusted pineapple which I was obsessed with and a selection of traditional Brazilian appetizers on the table including fried bananas, Brazilian cheese bread, fried polenta, turkey pate, and croquettes.  I may or may not have eaten both fried bananas and three of the cheesey breads while my boyfriend literally had nothing but meat haha.  All about those priorities!

Even though we stuffed ourselves during the meal...I always have to end with something sweet! I had a New York style cheesecake with berries and my boyfriend had a "Banoffee." Both were FABULOUS and worth every single calorie.

Overall we had an amazing experience at Chima. Since all the meat is delivered to your table on a rotating basis, there is really no waiting around for your food to come out like at traditional restaurants.  If there wasn't a skewer coming around of a meat that you wanted, all you had to do was ask and your server and he would make sure one came around.  The resturant is really conviently located in Center City Philly - easy to make a day of it in the city and do a few other things or easy enough to just drive there from the suburbs, take advantage of the free valet, and drive yourself back home immediately after dinner and change into sweat pants and sit on the couch until all that meat is digested.  That may or may not be my current situation ;) 

Thanks Chima for a great dinner and way to celebrate this weekend!