The Traveling Steve's

I was a bit tired after our arrival into São Paulo,and was definitely ready for a nap when our room was ready around 1:30pm.  We had flown in the night before, arriving at the hotel around noon, but as we had requested a suite at the Grand Hyatt, it wasn’t readily available, and checkin was not until 2pm.  Once we got to our room, I quick showered and had a couple hour nap.  It wasn’t only the flight that I was tired out from, but I had had an 4:30am flight the day before coming back from Minneapolis on business, and the two days in a row with little sleep was finally catching up with me.

Fortunately the long nap did wonders, and Steve (DOS) and I toured the hotel property a bit before we we went to the 20th floor Concierge Lounge around 6:30pm for the evening hor dourves and complimentary drinks.  After walking by the pool area, we went by the hotel’s shop Grandado’s, which offered top quality soaps and toiletries, many which were provided in our room.  

I told DOS before I even knew they had a shop at the hotel that I LOVED their soaps and we should bring some home if we could find a store that sold them.  Not coincidentally, we went by the lobby level store, and stocked up on some soaps for us as well as gifts for friends and family.

 The Hyatt Concierge Lounge is very nice, and offers outstanding views of the surrounding city from the 20th floor.  I had a couple Brazilian Bohemia brewskis, (ok 3 actually) before we headed to dinner that was arranged by our wonderful Concierge.   We had considered going to Fogo De Chao (the Brazilian Steakhouse chain), but our Concierge suggested something similar, but something we haven’t tried before.  We love Fogo De Chao in the US cities of Orlando and Miami, as well as San Juan, but he suggested we try something with a more local flavor and a notch up in quality, and we are so glad we went!

We took a taxi to the NK Steakhouse restaurant around 7:30pm for our 8pm reservation, and arrived slightly ahead of time.  As in most of South America, the locals eat late, so the 8pm hour was not real crowded, but filled up as our meal progressed.  

We had outstanding service from the entire wait staff, and they really worked together as a team. While similar to Fogo De Chao, there were some differences, notably the absence of the huge salad bar, which was in no way a problem for us as they bring you a menu of salads which you can order any or as many as you would like.  We didn’t want to fill up, so we only ordered one salad each.

The highlight of course, was the awesome variety of steaks, sausages, ribs, and chicken.  Unlike Fogo De Chao they don’t have a little card with a red or green flip-sided card indicating ‘More’ or ‘Not right now’ so the servers don’t have to ask you if you want more or are taking a ‘break’. It wasn’t an issue for us, and the servers seemed to sense if you wanted more beef or not.

I must honestly say, the service here was outstanding, not to mention the food quality, temperature, an atmosphere.  Everyone here worked together as as team, and we consistently got excellent service throughout our leisurely meal.

Prior to eating I ordered a pre-dinner order of a beer, and the server asked if I wanted a bottle or half bottle.  I naively said a bottle, thinking a half bottle was like a 7 ounce Budweiser ‘pony’ beer. But no, a bottle beer was a full ‘bottle’, complete with a wine cooler urn to keep the beer cold!  How classy I thought, not to mention, wow – maybe I ordered a bit too much!  Now – we weren’t driving, and it was wonderful and a nice treat.

We also ordered a bottle of Argentina Malbec, (at this time Brazil is not real famous for it’s wine, rather coffee and Brazilian nuts), which was very good.  We managed a full evening of wining and dining, and couldn’t have been happier with the quality service and food.

We had a dessert after dinner, and a surprise port, served to us from a mammoth keg-like canister.

 It was truly a wonderful evening of dining out we really had an outstanding time.  A quick 20 minute cab ride back to our hotel, and I had a nightcap in the lobby lounge before heading to bed.  

As luck would have it, it was (Standard) Daylight Saving’s time in Brazil Saturday night, so we got an extra hour’s sleep!

‘Twas a wonderful evening of dining in Sao Paulo!  Thank you NK staff for such as memorable first night out in São Paulo!