Brasa Nova Grill

I’ve been to Brasa Nova twice for company parties. The place is clean and classy. The menus that were handed to us were in Spanish, not in English. The food was pretty good, but the service was slow, both times. Mind you, I’m assuming that the service was slow because we had a party of 30 people.
The last time we visited this restaurant, I had the steak with mashed potatoes and rice (yeah yeah yeah, two starches? oh well). We only had two other options — roasted chicken and fish with shrimp sauce. I tasted my co-worker’s fish with shrimp sauce and it was really good! The steak that I ordered was good as well, full of flavor, but they slightly overcooked it. The mashed potatos and rice were ok, nothing exceptional. For dessert, we had two options: cheesecake and flan. The flan was overly sweet and the cheesecake was mediocre.
It was really nice of our bosses to treat us to a really nice lunch for the holidays, but I don’t think I would take the Mister here on a date night.

«Margarita no work Monday»
The only way to put my dinning experience at Brasa Nova Grill is to simple say call it silly, as in being so pathetically ridiculous that I can’t help laughing about it. Indeed, at times I couldn’t help but believe that I might not have been set up as the subject of a candid camera joke.
We hadn’t chosen Brasa Nova Grill in advanced, just noticing it on our return from Big Cypress and being decidedly hungry, thought we’d give it a try. The restaurant appears relatively new with a pleasant, clean, eye appealing interior. The menu is complete, not only with a wide selection of various meat dishes but of poultry and seafood as well.
The waitress came, and this is where the fun began. I requested a margarita, salt and lime but was advised «Margarita no work Monday.» Well, a slight language barrier is fine and understandable, but since she didn’t know a margarita from a Margarita I concluded that they must not serve many, so I ordered a glass of Merlot. However, noting the blank stare of confusion on her face quickly changed that to «vaso de vino rojo.» When the wine came I must say it was rather pleasing and of a good measure.
For entrée I order the Lobster Termidor, but noting further confusion, carefully pointed it out on the menu while saying «langusto,» to which I received a nod of understanding, and as a side, ordered plantain and salad with blue cheese dressing. After a few moments the waitress returned, «No Lobster Termidor.» Well, OK, how about the «Lobster Tail a la Nova?» After a run back to the kitchen she returned, «No Lobster Tail a la Nova.» Well, «Do you have any lobster?» Then, there was yet another run to the kitchen and a return with the statement «No, no lobster.» Ok, that resolved that, but being somewhat dazed as to why I wasn’t told so in the first place or why they would leave an item on the menu they didn’t serve, I ordered the Skirt Steak Churrasco, rare.
When the salad came, it came with but a thimble sized plastic container half filled with typical out of the bottle blue cheese dressing, hardly enough to cover the salad. However, I simply made do by using the table top service of red wine and vinegar as an additive.
When the steak arrived it came rolled up, held in position with a super sized tooth pick, and served in a ridiculous fashion of being balanced on its edge. Unrolling, as if it were a piece of new carpet, I quickly noted that the cook (whoever would hardly qualify as a chef) failed to remove the membrane that coated most of one side of the steak. Really now! I’ve never even had a short order truck stop cook serve me a skirt leaving a yucky membrane on it. Then, of course it came well done, not rare. To top that off, I nearly needed a magnifying glass to find the tiny dollop of accompanying chimichurri sauce.
Over all, it’s a nice place, the waitress well meaning, a real sweetheart, but clearly not up to the task. The food served, however was what borders on the line of being atrocious as to preparation. Had it not been for leaving the membrane on my meat and providing me with only a spec of sauce I’d have gone the Two Star «Meh! I’ve seen better» rating, but because of those facts, can only give it a One «me thinks not» Star.

The place is really well designed and extremely clean. The service is friendly and the food is well prepared and tasty. I definitely will be going back soon. The brasa nova platter is good, great pork chunks.

I am really torn about reviewing this restaurant. The first the I ate here a few months ago I had a hamburger and it was delicious. This time they were out of ceviche and they were also apparently out of the salmon burger. Not a great first impression. Then I ordered the hamburger thinking it would be safe-​it was a frozen burger more horrible than any burger I have ever had at a U of M tailgate. But, the service was very nice and sweet and when we mentioned it they took off the bill. My husband’s chicken sandwich was just fine, no better than a Chili’s and the lemonade was incredible and served frozen. The ambience there is incredible although there is a random disco ball. It makes one wonder-​is this place a front?

Service was slow. The food coming out of the kitchen… extremely slow. The seafood parrillada (entrée) for 2 was pretty sad looking — priced at $ 42. It had 1 small lobster tale, a few calamari breaded and not breaded, a few pieces of Mahi Mahi (that tasted like dish washing detergent), a few pieces of breaded shrimp and that is it. I felt cheated and spoke up about it. They discounted $ 23 from the bill.
Perhaps they do the slow routine, so you are forced to order more drinks from the bar.
I looked at other tables to see if perhaps we just ordered badly, since it is a steak house. The steaks looked pretty small on everyone’s plate.
It was our first and last time at Brasa Nova.
If you do risk going — don’t expect quality. The place seems like it may close soon. What a shame! We were hoping that it would have been a good experience, but it just wasn’t.

the service was leisurely and the kitchen was amazingly slow. That said, the food and atmosphere were top-​notch, and the prices were surprisingly low.

This place is super good! Thier churrasco is nice and tender. There arepas are also really good!
The service was decent. It took awhile for our group to be seated but once we were, it was good. Good parking. Nice décor. Prices aren’t that bad.

I am utterly disappointed with this place. I suggested having lunch here with girlfriends since they catered a major event on FIU campus several weeks ago. and everyone loved and raved about the food and service. But the dining-​in experience was quite different.
Walking in, you would forget that you are in Sweetwater. Nice lighting, .classy atmosphere. We made reservations and we promptly seated. 6 girls and we told our waitress nicely that we wanted separate checks… and she made a face. She’s Latino and could barely speak/​understand English. I would have expected her to be familiar with the menu… even if her English sucked.
Food took forever to come… even the house appetizer platter. They run out of pork chunks and calamari. How does a Latina restaurant run out of pork chunks? During lunch?! So the food came after forever… and then the waitress gave my friend a hamburger instead of a salmon burger. When she asked for it to be corrected, the waitress took it off the table, said to other Latino friend at the table that she isn’t sure if they have salmon in the kitchen. My angry friend didn’t want any food at that point in time. THEN the waitress comes back to say they have the salmon burger but after this unprofessional exchange, my friend was done with her food. My friend left and the waitress continued to talk to my Latino friend in Spanish… while ALL the rest of us at the table sat there like WTF.
I mean… even if your English is bad, you should at least be familiar with the menu. That’s the least you could do. And how can you go on and on in Spanish when you see a table of clealy non-​Latino Hispanic customers?! And to tell the customer repeatedly the kitchen is out of this and that… before you even checked!!! I was so mad and disappointed because I recommended the place and we were there for a special lunch. I think we just got stuck with a lousy waitress. She had a busboy help her serve the dishes and she would talk down and yell at him in Spanish when he didn’t know who ordered what. Ugh. It was just our luck for getting her as a waitress.
The food was decent… I liked the cornmeal arepas. The chicken was tasty but a little salty. I ordered the oxtail stew with moro and sweet plantains. It was delish but probably too salty for my taste. Despite the unpleasant dining experience, everyone liked the food. A lot of FIU staff go there for lunch… not sure if there’s a hook up because they did distribute flyers to FIU departments.
Tip-​bits:
Drive through
Slow service even during lunch time
Ample parking
A «gem» for Sweetwater

This restaurant took ages to open. They took the space that was originally the Esquina de Tejas, and having finally gone to eat there, we saw that the wait was worth it. After looking at the menu for about 10 or 15 minutes unable to decide, we ordered a parrillada for 3 people, which included an offering of two different types of steaks, chicken, different chorizos and pork. We were pleasantly surprised– everything was great! The parrillada is served with a salad and costs $ 48.95. There is plenty off food, and we ended up bringing some home. For appetizers, we ordered the calamari, which was freshly breaded and cooked (it took a little long, but was worth it), and a French onion soup, which was good but not very warm. The wine was good, and believe it or not, priced at $ 5! We didn’t have any room for dessert, so that will have to wait for next time.

Nice place friendly staff. kinda pricey for the area, Lunch specials make it more affordable

I was delighted to discover this restaurant in this neighborhood. I visited them for lunch on Saturday and the place was not busy at all what surprised me. I was told that it opened about a year ago.
I was positively impressed by the nice modern décor, good parking lot and excellent food at very good prices.
Portions are abundant, food presentation excellent. Service incredible and Bread hot! What else you could ask for.
Very highly recommended.

I reviewed this place almost 6 months ago. We went back tonight and it just wasn’t that great. The side dishes are just okay, and for me I have to truly have everything on my plate tasting good, not just the meat.
The meat this time was cut differently on my boyfriends dish, it was still tasty but not as good as the last time we went.
The appetizer arepas are still very delish. I think it’s one of the best things they have here.
I ordered this time the steak salad. The steak was good but it was just on a bed of lettuce spinach and it had a few onions, the cucumber you can tell wasn’t that fresh either.
For the price of the steak you get is pretty good, but not my favorite place. i rather pay a little more and go to a really good place then go here. It’s just A-​OK for me. My boyfriend really likes it, so I’ll go if he really wants to go. It’s just not anything out of this world.

I think I’m lowering it to a three.
Service is still on spot. The filet mignon did not taste as good as the cheaper NY Strip. Presentation was nice. The salad was nothing to write home about. Tiramisu was a bit of a disappointer — too «overloaded» for a lack of a better word.
For a Venezuelan steakhouse, the pricier Brasero’s is still a better choice (as long as you stick with Venezuelan offerings there).

Excellent Food. Beautiful Décor! The lemonade is out of this world. A must have. The best cappucino I’ve had in Miami. (The bartender was trained in Italy) The punta tracera can’t be beat for the price. I order it med-​rare without the butterfly cut. The arepas with the chesse are a must have.
I’m glad to finally have a restaurant like this in this neighborhood. It’s a breath of fresh air.

The place is really nice, modern clean decoration but service and food was not as good as expected. We went on the St Valentine’s weekend and the place was really busy, The appetizer was ok, it was something like a sampler plate, pork cubes (Cuban masitas de puerco), 2 arepitas, 2 cuban corn tamales (wich were delicious) Guayanes cheese and guacamole. Our waitress was an Argentinan woman wich in my opinion was totally erratic with the service maybe because she had many tables to serve. She was rude and even said that one of us doesnt know to eat steak because he doesn’t like it medium rare and asked for well done… maybe it’s true but she doesn’t have the right to make customers feel bad. She presumed about knowing a lot about beef (she’s from argentina remember!) but to be sincere the punta trasera recomended by her was totally lack of flavor, most of the plates were just pieces of tasteless meat, served with mashed potatoes and vegetables, nothing to remember. service was not the best, was slow, we even had the table full of dirty plates allmost until the end of dinner… seems the waitress or the buzzboy were too busy with other tables or simply don’t know about waiting tables. Items in menu are a little bit pricey.

Fantastic restaurant! Just recently opened it’s doors (hasn’t had it’s grand opening yet though). Delicious food, beautiful décor, and very good prices.
If they keep the service and quality as it has been the two or three times I’ve gone, I see no reason why they can’t continue their success here in the states.
If you ever go, try the Arepas (appetizer) and Punta Tracera (medium-​rare is the way in my opinion) steak
Very highly recommended!