A couple of days ago, for some reason unbeknownst to me, my immediate family decided that they weren’t getting enough meat in their diets. This seemed rather confusing to me because, having lived with my immediate family for upwards of 19 years, I am fully aware that they eat enough meat. Even before I went vegan, though I did eat meat, I rarely ate red meat or pork. For both health and personal preference, I generally just stuck with chicken and fish. My family was stoked about this because they continued to pretend that they thought I ate things like steak and pork chops and would cook my portion and just split it amongst themselves (33.3% repeating extra portions? SCORE!) when I refused to eat it. Kind of like hyenas with steak knives.
(And yes, this is a fairly accurate portrayal of my family; they’re all tall, and tan, and brunette, meanwhile I’m the short, pale, blonde black sheep who got stuck at the short end of the gene pool. I have a theory called “adopted” which I stick by but which they continually deny. I’m sure the truth will be revealed one day.)
Anyway, they called me up a couple days ago to see if I wanted to hit up Bolero with them. I haven’t been to Bolero since before I moved to Victoria and since before I became a vegan and then abandoned it a short eight months later, so I obviously needed to go. The on;y times I’ve been have been with my family. We went when it first opened and my dad was really keen to go after getting back from several business trips in Southern California and falling in love with a few Brazilian style restaurants he had tried.
The restaurant itself has a nice ambiance and the red/green “yes please”/”no thanks” blocks add a kind of adult fun element to dining (versus a fun kid-like element like crayons and paper tablecloths). In addition to the various meats floating around on skewers (which are all diverse and very good), there is also a very good salad bar with classic leafy salads and a hot bar with things like rice and mashed potatoes.
Overall, I highly recommend visiting Bolero if you’re a massive carnivore (like my family) or even if you just enjoy trying different meats and BBQ styles. Make sure you have an appetite and it will be well-worth the money spent. The most recent time I went I planned on having primarily salad, but (just as always) I couldn’t resist trying all of the various skewers floating around. The Garlic Parmesan Striploin and the Bacon Filet Mignon are my personal favourites. The pork sausages are also phenomenal. From their hot bar, try the Black Bean Stew, it’s to die for.
[...] wrote about Bolero previously, and mentioned that we have been quite a bit and enjoyed it, though the last few times [...]