Today for lunch Denise and I (John) were able to try a new restaurant called Gol in Riverside. It is a Brazilian restaurant. I have been to many different Brazilian restaurants but this one was different in that it was a buffet style. Usually in the Brazilian restaurants I have been to you pay a set price and then servers rotate different meat selections to your plate. At this place you can pay a set price ($21.95) or pay by weight ($8.50 per pound). The way it works is you take your plate, get what you want, then they weigh the plate at the end of the buffet line. You pay after you are done eating. For Denise and I this was a very good restaurant in that they had a lot of different dishes. Denise was able to appease her vegetarian and fish side, while I was able to satisfy my carnivore nature. We were not that hungry and went for the weigh in option. For the two plates we got, plus dessert, tax, and tip we paid $33. The concept of weighing in the food was novel to us, kind of like being at a frozen yogurt place with hot food instead of frozen food. I also never have thought about how much my food weighs, kind of helped me from going overboard with too much food. We were able to try many different dishes but both agreed that our favorite item was the cheese buns (how can you go wrong mixing bread and cheese?). The restaurant is very small, fitting the name of the restaurant the music played was in Portuguese and the flat screens TVs were showing soccer games. If you want to try the place yourself it is at 10436 Magnolia Avenue (same shopping center where the Dragon House is located) in Riverside.

Denise got fish over mashed potatoes, tomato and arugula salad, fried plantains, and rice and pumpkin. $11.61

John got noodles with chicken, some fried chicken dumplings, fried yucca, cheese buns, tri-tip, and pork wrapped in bacon (covered with chimichurri sauce). $11.81

For dessert we shared a guava and cheese empanada with ice cream. $4.00