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Chef-owner Georges Elbekai spent two years developing this Brazilian galeteria specializing in galeto al primo canto, marinated young grilled chicken (the stunning stainless steel churrasco was imported from Brazil). The menu reflects Brazil’s multiethnic composition, starting with rich, silky baba ghanoush served with warm Lebanese-style pita and cheese bread. For $29.95, an all-you-can-eat “endless feast” comes to the table, beginning with a delightfully crisp polenta frita topped with Parmigiano Reggiano and pasta with three sauces. Then comes the meat: crisp-skinned, flavorful chicken, tender grilled beef tenderloin, and luscious marinated lamb. Sides include cloud-light cheese puffs and crunchy double-cooked potatoes with an addictive Gorgonzola sauce. There are no sword-toting tarted-up gauchos to trouble you, and in all Al Primo Canto offers the churrascaria experience in a significantly more civilized manner than other spots for a lower price. An a la carte menu is also available. —Gary Wiviott
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This outpost of Jorge and Jeanette Gacharna’s excellent Lakeview churrascaria, El Llano, has one major advantage over the original: pollo rostizado. Every morning the birds start spinning over hot coals in the window of the Albany Park storefront; plump and round, with steadily browning skin, they beg to be tucked under the arm like a football and carried away. In the dining room the Gacharnas have disguised the ghosts of retail past, festooning the dropped ceiling and walls with folkloric gimcracks and posters of South American ranch life. The scent of sizzling flesh precedes the arrival of wooden boards laden with grilled steaks, short ribs, or rabbit, accompanied by a sharp salsa verde and the four starches of the apocalypse—rice, fried yuca, boiled potato, and arepas. Milk- or water-based jugos like blackberry and mango are surpassed by the sweet but oddly peppery passion-fruit variety, and desserts include brevas con arequipe (caramel-filled figs). Doors open at 9 AM for calentado, the traditional Colombian breakfast featuring beans, arepas, potatoes, eggs, carne asada, and cheese-stuffed pastries called buñuelos. —Mike Sula
$South American, latin american | Lunch, dinner: seven days
Machu Picchu3856 N. Ashland | 773-472-0471
Formerly a pan-Latin restaurant, Rio’s shifted course last year when Elizabeth Perez, mother of owner Dino Perez, moved over to her son’s place after closing the family’s longtime Peruvian place, Rinconcito Sudamericano. Besides adding more Peruvian items directly from Rinconcito’s menu—among them sudado de mariscos (a steamed seafood combination), aji de gallina (shredded chicken breast in creamy walnut sauce) and carapulcra (pork and sun-dried potatoes cooked in red wine with peanuts and panca chiles—she’s tweaked others, for example preparing seco de carne (meat stew) with beef or veal rather than lamb and substituting seafood for tripe in cau cau spiced with aji amarillo (hot yellow peppers). In addition, Rio’s is showcasing a new signature dish, pollo a la brasa, chicken marinated for at least 24 hours in a secret blend of 20 ingredients, then rotisseried in a wood-burning brick oven and served with french fries and avocado salad. —Anne Spiselman
F 8.1 | S 8.0 | A 5.7 | $$ (7 reports) South American, Latin American | Lunch, dinner: seven days | Open late: Friday & Saturday till 11 | BYO
