This Wide Wonderous World: O Gaucho Churrisqueria...An Experience Unbelieveable Enough to Earn its Own Post

Wednesday April 30, 2025

First, I need to begin with some background information. In this region of South America, meat is a primary part of the Latin diet and culture. Argentina and Brazil are well known for their churrisquerias and parrillas. With Paraguay sandwiched between the two countries, is it any wonder that meat is the main course here as well? This begs the question: what is the difference between a churrisqueria and a parrilla? Essentially, a churrisqueria is a Brazilian type of grill and a parrilla is a method of grilling in which factors like temperature are carefully moderated. If you want to know more, read about it here.

As I mentioned before, the kids and Clark had already tried a couple places, including this one. These exist in the USA for a substantially larger some of cost per person. Here the cost is around $25 a person compared to the USA Brazilian steakhouse experience beginning with $50 a person but that was 15 years ago. With inflation I would predict the cost in Kansas City sits north of $65 a person. Consider getting this in California or Miami. It wouldn't surprise me if the cost is $100 a person. In light of this, Clark has been an enthusiastic participant. The kids haven't been overly impressed and while we have taught them to be adventerous eaters, they are still kids. Maybe they'll appreciate more in the future.

Disclaimer: some of the photos are from Instagram because I felt rude running around with my phone out. They all are accurate representations of my experience. Also, we will probably return one more time so I might add more later.

Outside there are four, FOUR, parking lots for this one restaurant. This is an example of one. O Gauchos is FAMOUS in Paraguay. There is a second one in the touristy town of San Bernadino, where "the rich" go for vacation at Lake Ypacarai.

In the lobby. To the left is the sushi bar. Immediately behind the couch is an ice cream bar that opens up into one of the SIX dining rooms. When we arrived, the place was beginning the lunch hour. All the buffets were freshly stocked and there were only a few people arriving. By the time we left, the place was packed! I mean, a couple hundred people and the traffic around was crazy. The buffets were constantly being restocked.

A view of a couple of the dining rooms.

Fancy bathrooms with radio playing cover versions of popular classic USA rock and a KID'S playroom. What??

A closer look at the sushi bar in the height of the lunch rush. If I go back, I'm going to get a picture of it BEFORE the crowd descends! It was delicious and fresh!

The pastry bar with about every variety of bread, cold cuts, and cheese you can imagine. Think of it as the largest charcuterie board in existence.

The main buffet of los guarnacions, the Spanish word for "garnishes" but referring to "side dishes" or "accompaniments". It is HARD to decide how to try all this new and fabulous looking food!

The entre buffet including some typical dishes such as sopa paraguayo and five ways to eat cassava aka yucca.

Appetizers almost too pretty to eat.

My plate after visiting the side dish buffet. I am TERRIBLE at making decisions when it comes to food. My family can attest to the fact that I literally want a single bite of EVERYTHING!!

Then the meat...I really need to be brave enough to collect more pictures when we plan to return.

It looks pitiful but believe me, there is an endless flow of about 10 different kinds of meat and I wouldn't eat for a week trying to digest all of that so I kept it simple. Also, Clark and I figured it out its better to share a meat plate so we can try the different varieties without being too wasteful. They also have brought around pizza and grilled pineapple caramelized with cinnamon sugar, but these were offered on separate days.

DESSERT!! There was tres leches, brownies, cookies, cakes, cheesecakes, flans, fruit, sauces...