All You Can Eat: ultimate Mexico/USA food safari

La Parrilada is perhaps the first restaurant we’ve reviewed which is an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is a little odd given the title of this website, but it’s a great place to begin. Located in Leichardt, traditionally an area only associated with Italian cuisine, La Parrilada is an eating experience unlike any other: a South American charcoal grill buffet which is famed for it’s value, flavour and copious amounts of meat.

Born in Peru, Jose Cruz has lived in Australia for twenty-two years, and opened La Parrilada four years ago, after realising the strong mutual love of the barbeque that exists in both his home country and his adopted homeland.

The restaurant itself is not very inviting from the outside, and the inside isn’t very flash either: multi-coloured fairy lights adorn the walls, along with Peruvian ornaments (ranging from flags to soccer balls to faux-Incan artefacts to stuffed Piranhas [no joke]). It’s tacky but in a cosy way; the smiles that you’re greeted with upon entry go a lot further than any wall hanging could.

 

But the real attraction is the meat, and there is lots of it. Jose gets his meat from a reliable and trusted source: a Maltese farming family from Western NSW who have been farming grain-fed livestock for over fifty years. Everything is cooked on a charcoal grill and is “100% fresh, it must be fresh” according to Jose – something which I believe; this place goes through around 400 kg of meat per week, so I don’t think the meat has any choice but to be fresh.

The real attraction of La Parrilada is the $20 buffet grill experience; which begins with a few chorizo sauces and Peruvian chilli dipping sauce, a plate of fries, a small salad (which is very much in need given the feast which is to come) and then the centrepiece - a huge plate of marinated meat: ribs, sirloin steak, charcoal chicken, and chorizo sausage.

All of the meat is incredibly rich in flavour; you can feel his passion when Jose speaks about his cooking methods, but when you tuck into the food, you really feel it. I’m a huge fan of chorizo, and this was hands down the best I’ve ever had – the taste explodes in your mouth. The charcoal chicken is marinated for 24 hours in a “Peruvian sauce” (the ingredients of which Jose is very reluctant to disclose. His response to people asking about his secret sauces and marinades is a cheeky “Piss off, mate”). The sirloin is soft and delicious, and the ribs are equally impressive. The meat platter comes with accompanying sauces too, a green medium chilli, an orange (capsicum) extreme chilli.

But the best thing about this place? As soon as you finish a platter (or rather, if you finish a platter. This is not for the faint-hearted), they bring you another one. And if you finish that one, they bring you another.

For a brief moment when looking at the feast which lies before you, you can’t help but stop and wonder just how many animals have given their lives for the sake of this gigantic meal.

The moment soon passes.

Restaurant name: La Parrillada
Address: 470 Paramatta Rd, Petersham NSW - 9560 0943
Menu recommendation: All you can eat grill extravaganza.
All You Can Eat Tip: Make sure you visit this place on an empty stomach and try the home-made Sangria.

www.laparrillada.com.au