Green Field Churrascaria

[Curlz]

Green Field Churrascaria

450 Hackensack Ave

Hackensack NJ

Anyone been to this place? I've been invited to a gathering there (disclaimer: by non eG folks), and I've never heard of it! From the directions, it appears to be in one of the strips of stores behind the Pathmark on 17. The invitation was a riot...

We're having a meat party! We invite you to come with us to the world's greatest restaurant. It's a Brazilian barbecue; you have a thing on your table that has a red and a green side. If you flip it to green, they bring you meat. Lots and lots of meat. When you can take no more meat, you flip it to red. When you want more meat, you flip it back to green. After an hour or two, you depart, engorged. It's brilliant. And this ain't no crappy meat, either-- they have the best tenderloin I've ever had. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! In addition to the copious meat, they have a regular buffet, and a sushi buffet. That's right, SUSHI BUFFET. So if meat ain't your thing, you will still eat like a king. Or queen. Or some other sort of wealthy, non-elected ruler.

Btw, the evening is going to end with Scrabble and mint juleps at their place--so you know I'm going regardless of what you all tell me about the place! But please-DO tell if you have any insight! Thanks!

Curlz

[Rosie]

They have been around a long time. Never been.

[TongoRad]

My wife and I went a couple of years ago and have been meaning to go back with a larger group. You really do have to be in the mood to overdo it and get boisterous, it seems, but the quality of the food was certainly good.

you will still eat like a king.  Or queen.  Or some other sort of wealthy, non-elected ruler.

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...And from the looks of it, it sounds like you're going with the right group. Something about the concept definitely puts you in a 'medieval feast' frame of mind. The only advice I could give would be the obvious- pace yourself. When we went it took a while for the interesting stuff (chicken livers, rabbit, ostrich- if I remember correctly) to start coming our way.

Scrabble definitely sounds better than Twister, btw. You've got veterans planning this thing

[tommy]

it's a small chain. they have a website. i can't for the life of me figure out where it is in hackensack. although yahoo maps shows it over by the mall, by that big japanese place. unless it's where the japanese place is/was.

[Spinner]

I believe it is across from the TGI Friday's by Riverside Square Mall. Actually..I know it is.

Edited July 30, 2005 by Spinner (log)

[zhelder]

I've been to this place several times. They've been around for probably close to 10 years. I like them. They had some growing pains a few years ago when they foolishly decided to make their entire buffet a Chinese food buffet (it used to be mostly Brazilian food) and I didn't go for about three years. Recently, they got their senses back and the buffet is now half Brazilian with maybe one or two "Chinese" dishes and the sushi section. The sushi is good and there's a pretty good variety. The rodizio meats are good as well, especially the beefs. The dining room is nice and comfortable and the staff is friendly. I usually go for lunch, as dinner is about twice the price without a whole lot more variety, but I've been there for dinner too. They're on Hackensack Avenue in the shopping center with Home Depot and Pathmark, next to Riverside Square Mall. There's a nearly identical rodizio restaurant in the Palisades Center Mall, although their buffet is still Brazilian without the sushi. They're both good.

[nizza]

Curlz - here is their website

They have a picture of the place so this way you can recognize it when you get there. It's kinda big so I don't think you could miss it - lol.

Give us a report after you go as I'm curious as to how good the food is.

Edited July 30, 2005 by nizza (log)

[Spinner]

I can actually tell you how this place is since Ive been there several times.

I can confirm zhelder's statements about the place. They went to this really odd Chinese/Spanish buffet thing years back and it was not working so I stopped going. Once it changed back...I went back.

Now..onto the good stuff.

Since my fiance worked at the gym close by, I went back one day and I was pretty stoked. I had seen a post SOMEWHERE on here putting the place down but the rodizio meats were, as said, pretty darn good. Even better than what I remembered. As mentioned earlier, the "good" stuff is a bit hard to find but it is quite well done when served.

The sushi is ok..Ive had way better but it is passing in a "oh we are at Green Field Churrascaria ya know" kind of way.

Anyway..I would say it's a good place to have the kind of event I think you are going to Curlz. They probably dont have Boggle though

[Anonymouze]

Hi Curlz!

My husband and I go here once a month and make sure we do NOT eat any meals before going that day. Elvis (lol yes, that IS his name) is usually our waiter (free refills on drinks and he keeps my glass topped off) it used to be called Green fields Churrascaria (SIC) or something like that - it has been since for about 1 year now owned by someone else. COME with a big appetite and eat VERY slowly (over 1 hour heh)

They revamped it, they usually have a chicken stroganoff type dish, several asian and italian and brazilian dishes and bring stuff on skewers to your table as well (brazilian bbq style etc...)

They have grilled pineapple (ask them for it if they don't bring it out...) also chicken hearts (UGH - same thing ask if they dont bring it out) my favorite is the chicken terriyaki skewers, the little steak terriyaki, the pork and the lamb, the thing that looks like (I think it is?) flank steak or a steak on the skewer avoid, it is often a bit too gristly and is not as nice tasting as the rest of the items.

I hope this helped you and p.s. thanks about the heads up on the tea things!

[menton1]

it's a small chain.  they have a website.  i can't for the life of me figure out where it is in hackensack.  although yahoo maps shows it over by the mall, by that big japanese place. unless it's where the japanese place is/was.

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It's in the same shopping center as PathMark and Home Depot; just past Riverside Square going toward New Milford. (Another 1/2 mile up the road is the New Bridge Inn).

A place to gorge oneself, not my thing-- also a very bare-bones environment. I'm in a minority of folks who prefer smaller portions of creative, complex-tasting foods. Don't think this place will ever see me. Has been around for years, though...

[Curlz]

You know the exit off of Rt 4W to go to Riverside Square? I think it's the same one I took to go to Fink's, if that helps. Take that, but pass the mall. The Pathmark shopping center is on the right after the mall.

Sounds like it's going to be a fun place to try...

[SueWho321]

Everyone has given correct directions... it is in the Shopping center with the Home Depot and Pathmark, just north of Riverside Square Mall, and across from Continental Plaza office towers/TGIFridays.

It's a bit of a hike from our West Orange home, and you have to be in the mood (and it IS better with a group) , but we get up there a few times a year... We even had our wedding rehearsal dinner there... now THAT was fun!

Have a great time!

[Curlz]

Saturday night, a group of 14 of us braved the heat and went in with the goal of eating our collective weight in meat at GFC. We went on the early side (6pm) to accommodate some folks who had to head home to Massachusetts that evening, but that meant that everything was fresh and the meats were just starting to come off of the grill.

There is an enormous buffet area which included an unusual mix of cuisines...things I recall seeing: cajun rice, white rice, mac 'n cheese, vodka hoisin chicken (fried and I'm told, VERY dry and "not good"), beans with sausage, collard greens ('tho the sign said collar greens, which amused us), fried bananas (not plantains), undercooked fries, chicken stroganoff (yep), a ton of sushi rolls, shrimp shumai, stuffed mushrooms (stuffed, btw, with meat and vegetables), spring rolls, decent pork dumplings, shrimp cocktail, hearts of palm, artichokes, an excellent string bean salad, broccoli rabe salad, an asian-inspired fruit/cucumber/pepper salad, fruit salads and melon, and a bowl of Jello that we agreed was the oddest colored Jello we'd ever seen. Not quite orange, not quite yellow. What flavor, we wondered? A number of suggestions that I won't mention were thrown out, but we settled on either pineapple or an old box of orange or lemon. I told you it was an unusual combination of foods!

The meats: chicken, turkey wrapped in bacon, sausage, prime rib, tenderloin, skirt steak, "shish kabob," short ribs and at least one more that I'm forgetting. I asked for ostrich and was told that they no longer carry it. The waiter said "I don't think enough people liked it." AAAAACK! Of course, that was the one meat I was looking forward to. Nobody wanted to try the chicken hearts or quail, which you have to request when you first arrive. My favorite was definitely the skirt steak, which was flavorful, juicy and served in generous portions. The last (3rd?) time he came around with it, I asked for a small piece, and three of us shared it. One of the hosts kept raving about the tenderloin, but I can't lie--I didn't think it was as good as many of the other cuts. Overall, my biggest complaint was that the meat was either too well done or completely raw; they don't seem to have anything resembling medium rare or even medium. But trust me--nobody left hungry!

For dessert, thanks to recs on here, I asked for pineapple for the table. It was already on the fire, and we only had to wait five minutes or so for it. And it was FABULOUS. Grilled pineapple, sliced fairly thinly, with cinnamon sprinkled on top. It's always the simple stuff that's the best, isn't it? YUM. Everyone loved it--even a couple of people who said they don't normally like pineapple all that much. There is also a van/choc self-serve soft serve machine, so of course, we all had ice cream too. With chocolate sprinkles.

The place is big; think Minado, although not THAT big (at least the Morris Plains location. I did note the fire restriction sign said they could only have a max of 440 in the place, fwiw. They have a full bar, but I was told by one of the group to steer clear of the (red) sangria; she had a glass and was very disappointed. Our hosts also mentioned that they have a decent bottle of reasonably priced pinot noir on the list, but we never went that route, so I didn't find out what it is.

This is definitely a fun place to go with a big group, the food was decent, and imo, the price reasonable. For $36pp (including gratuity, which they added and we added to), we ate and drank (a ton of water + 2 pitchers of caipirinhas) for almost 2 hours--and I think the heat kept us from really eating.

Edit: Just realized that I forgot to mention one important thing...if you have issues with salt, this is NOT the place for you. Every meat we had was a tad too salty, imo, but this also seems to be the case at every rodizio I've been to. Then again, my friend the salt freak would love it...

Edited August 15, 2005 by Curlz (log)

[Kape]

Everyone has given correct directions... it is in the Shopping center with the Home Depot and Pathmark, just north of Riverside Square Mall, and across from Continental Plaza office towers/TGIFridays.

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For those keeping score at home, this shopping center is adding an Applebee's. Based on a driveby, it appears it will be new construction situated in the parking area in front of the part of the center that includes Staples and Green Field.

~ Ken P.

[Anonymouze]

ALSO Route 17 in the Paramus area is FINALLY going to also have an Olive Garden for those who are the occasional fan of chains. (I surely prefer non-chains but I like the darn breadsticks and the occasional special there!) YUM!