Manolo's Churrasqueira opens in Bellmore

Manolo's Churrasqueira is rather understated for a Brazilian barbecue restaurant, so when you enter the small room your eyes go straight to the soda. Bright green bottles of fizzy fruit drinks from Brazil and Portugal stand in the corner next to a cash register, adding a little pop to the simple white space. There are sodas flavored with guarana, a super fruit from the Amazon rainforest, as well as pineapple, orange and bubbly sweet passion fruit. 

Standing next to the sodas, you'll find Julia Arevalo, a native of Ecuador who opened the strip mall space with her husband, Jose Manuel Nuñez, in February. Originally from Honduras, he spent 14 years cooking at Antonio's Authentic Portuguese Restaurant in nearby Oceanside, and brings a similar menu of steaks and seafood to his own business in Bellmore.

The space on Merrick Road was previously a Himalayan restaurant;a framed photo of a Nepalese mountain village still takes up most of the wall. (Arevalo liked it enough to keep.) The landscape brings a calm feeling to the dining room, as easy listening music wafts through the speakers.

This is quite a different experience from your typical churrasco grill, which is often a sprawling dining room filled with garish sparkle and lots of men grilling meats over open flames and shuttling them through the dining room on large skewers. Manolo's feels like a mom-and-pop shop, despite the more formal menu of Portuguese paellas loaded with shellfish and varieties of steak and lamb chops cut in the Brazilian style.

Prices aren't super casual, but portions are extremely generous so it's best to bring people and share. The meal starts with complimentary bread and olives in a bowl of olive oil, which lead to a fresh salad spiked with vinegar and thin wisps of red onion. In keeping with the style of cuisine, the Manolo's Grill Platter for one ($43) is big enough for two. Especially when all the side dishes hit the table: housemade potato chips, yellow rice and black beans, which you can spike with a glug of housemade piri piri pepper sauce. 

A white platter is loaded with perfectly charred meats, which leave juices on the communal plate as you pick them up and move them closer. Short ribs were a personal favorite to rip off the little bones, but the tender skirt steak and top sirloin were also expertly prepared, along with the pork spare ribs, snappy Brazilian sausage and lobes of turkey breast wrapped in bacon. A separate order of barbecued chicken ($21 for a half) was gratuitous at this point, but welcome nevertheless due to the large pile of crisp green beans that accompanied. 

While difficult to save room for dessert, it's worth the effort, as Manolo's prepares an interesting selection of Portuguese sweets, including a hunk of white molotof meringue cake with a foamy texture, and a serradura pudding made from swirls of whipped cream and crumbled cookies.

Manolo's Churrasqueira is at 2518 Merrick Rd., Bellmore. It's open noon to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 516-804-5656.

By Andi Berlin

andi.berlin@newsday.comAndiBerlin

Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.