The best steaks are often described as ‘melting’ in the writer’s mouth. This description never made much sense to me and doesn’t seem particularly desirable. The whole joy of a steak is that it’s something to get your teeth into.
Still, the steaks at Kaipiras, a small neighbourhood establishment down a Kilburn side street, come as close as any I’ve had to that description. Alf and I both ordered rib-eyes, heavily dosed with secret Brazilian seasoning, glistening with fat and falling apart with a gentle chew.
In short, Kaipiras do some of the best steaks I’ve ever had. They’re big, meaty, succulent, packed with flavour, free of gristle or toughness – everything you want a steak to be. Our eyes rolled back in pleasure and we polished them off with ease. We hoped (but definitely didn’t ask) if the cattle we were consuming hadn’t been raised on felled former rainforest.
We were joined on this Friday evening trip by some of Alf’s teacher friends, who I’d met up with after work for drinks. By the time we get to Kaipiras, everyone was merry, and we ordered rounds of caipirinhas, then beers which came out in frosted glasses (so kitsch, so great!). People were recounting tales of travels in Rio, getting mugged, going to bloc parties, climbing up to see Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf mountain.
We ordered a round of starters to share – strips of pork, chicken hearts and cod croquettes. Not exceptional, but perfectly nice (apart from the chicken hearts – eurgh. They looked like chopped-off ends of chipolatas, but with the odd taste of giblets).
My one complaint about Kaipiras is the dreadfully slow service. It took a full 45 minutes for our starters to arrive, and almost an hour for the five steaks. We were almost going to cancel the order it was taking so long but, in the end, were glad we didn’t. Those steaks!
We polished it all off with insanely sweet, chewy, chocolate balls and a flan.
If you can put up with painfully slow service, Kaipiras is a fabulous place to spend an evening. I recommended it to a friend who went a couple of weeks later and he confirmed it was as good as I’d claimed.
Score: 9/10
Cost: £39.50 each
Location: 10 Kingsgate Place, NW6 4TA
The A to Z of World Food in London 
Excelente amigo. Well-done on this medium-rare blog post. You almost butchered it at the start but you managed to serve up a plateful of prose.
I was really looking forward to this blog, so the steaks were high, but you didn’t mince your words and now I totally get your beef.
I heard that Alfie’s female teacher friend totally changed when she turned vegan just before joining at the restaurant. It was like he didn’t even know herbivore.
Very good to see a mention of Bloc Party too.
Anyway, looking at the time it’s pasture bedtime so I suspect you’ll read this in the morning.
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