On a recent Friday behind the meat counter at The Knife Parrilla Argentina, chef Leonardo Velazco hovers over a parade of a dozen meats, pineapple and green peppers sizzling over white-hot coals.
As he flips a coil of skinny chorizo with his tongs and peeks at the blistered underside of picanha, a female diner approaches asking for extra-crispy tri-tip. He sears the cut of beef on a cast-iron skillet and deftly slides the piece onto her outstretched plate, which includes shrimp salad, vegetable pionono (a pinwheel sponge cake) and empanadas. Except the diner lingers at the meat station, frozen with indecision as she eyes a glistening bacon-wrapped tenderloin.
“Hard to decide, no?” Velazco says to her with a laugh, as a wood-burning fire behind him blasts barbecue fumes into the 200-seat dining room at Coral Square mall. “To order whatever meats you want, as much as you want?”
Diners with long memories of bygone buffets may recall The Knife’s mighty South Florida presence, touting all-you-can-eat Argentine cuts long before such communal spreads bloomed across the region. Years after shutting its Hallandale Beach and Sunrise locations, the 24-year-old local steakhouse is carving its way back into Broward County with a fresh comeback twist: It’s now two concepts in one — an updated buffet and an upscale a la carte restaurant.
The Knife, which debuted Feb. 24 at the mall’s south entrance, features a familiar medley of unlimited choice-grade cuts at a fixed price, including short ribs, rump and bottom sirloin, N.Y. strips and beef briskets, along with side bars devoted to salads, charcuterie, pickled bean appetizers, housemade desserts and a double-crusted, cheese-stuffed pizza called fugazzeta.
All is made by Velazco, a stable of 10 cooks and new pastry chef Anabella Olivera.
“[Velazco] is not a chef, he’s a magician,” general manager Pedro Rivero says. “Doesn’t it smell wonderful in here?”
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
A variety of chorizo and blood sausage sizzling on the grill at The Knife Parrilla Argentina in Coral Springs. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Starting in May, a pair of side dining rooms, seating 70 guests combined, will offer a white-tablecloth VIP experience featuring a separate menu of specialty desserts and higher-grade certified Angus prime cuts from Argentine beef producer Urien-Loza, Velazco says.
It is this singular addition that longtime owner Carlos Ruiz believes will set The Knife’s reboot apart in a growing arena of all-you-can-eat steakhouses, from Korean to Japanese, that did not exist when his “parrilla” last raised the steaks in Broward.
“It’s not a miracle but rather a strong desire to be back in Broward,” Ruiz, 74, tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel through a translator. “We have to change for good and modernize, and by making things higher-end, that’s the new path for us. Like any business, we’re not 100% sure we’re to succeed, but with effort, experience and budget, we’re trying everything to win.”
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Owner Carlos Ruiz of The Knife Parrilla Argentina in Coral Springs on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
‘Coral Springs looks attractive to me’
Before opening the first Knife on Hallandale Beach Boulevard in 2002, Ruiz worked in finance trading grain futures on the stock market in the early ’90s while also a founding partner of a chain of buffet steakhouses in Buenos Aires called Siga la Vaca.
“I just liked customer service and going out to eat,” Ruiz recalls. “I didn’t have any restaurant experience but, well, I knew Argentine cuisine could be done well, and I could learn to do it well and make customers happy.”
In the early 2000s, he says he grew frustrated with his family’s safety in Argentina amid a looming economic crisis and a surge in street violence. After suffering a robbery, Ruiz says he sold his stake in Siga la Vaca and moved to South Florida. (Siga la Vaca later opened a Coral Gables location in 2012.)
Ruiz says he created The Knife in 2002 because “I loved food, especially Argentine food, and we wanted to take the all-you-can-eat system over there and improve the quality here and make the people happy.”
The Knife’s all-you-can-eat meat fare caught on quickly, and the steakhouse expanded to Sunrise (2003), followed by locations in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood (2004), Miami International Mall in Doral (2008), Bayside Marketplace in downtown Miami (2008) and Orlando (2009). During the 2010s, he debuted four more Knife outposts in Madrid, Spain.
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Knife Parrilla Argentina in Coral Springs includes full-service VIP rooms. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
And then the steakhouse’s growth spurt dulled. Over the next 15 years, he says “a series of misfortunes” — landlords selling buildings, an investor fallout — reduced the chain to a single location at Miami International Mall and one in Madrid. In 2023, Ruiz says Maria Prado, a Simon Property Group manager, offered him space at Coral Square Mall, next to a Foot Locker — and he said yes. The restaurant spent the next two-plus years under construction, with Ruiz traveling back and forth from Spain, where he lives, to oversee the buildout.
How is Ruiz so sure that this Broward reboot will succeed in a crowded buffet market?
“When I first opened Hallandale, everybody asked the same question: How will I succeed?” he says. “Coral Springs looks attractive to me. There isn’t an all-you-can-eat Argentina grill around here with our exact concept. Look at our place — it’s amazing, it’s beautiful. I just know everyone who tries it will feel the same.”
A sharper Knife
The Knife’s new VIP rooms are a love letter to Buenos Aires, he says. They’re nicknamed Recoleta and San Telmo, after high-end and artsy-bohemian neighborhoods in the city.
Here, customers can order la carte appetizers, entrees, sides, desserts, 36 new craft cocktails and 56 wines by the bottle or glass — none of which are all-you-can-eat. The centerpiece of this menu are prime-cut entrees ($28-$100, including two sides), such as Black Angus flap meat, ribeyes, porterhouses, tomahawks, spinalis (flavorful ribeye cap muscle), six-rib lamb rack and matambre de res (a beef cut stuffed with mozzarella and gratineed Roquefort).
Until its a la carte menu is completed, however, the dining room for now is buffet-only. The cost is $49 a person until 5 p.m. Friday, when prices increase to $54 all weekend long, and includes access to salad bars, sides, a dessert and beverage.
Customers are first seated, and servers in white button-down shirts bring a choice of soda, wine or beer, after which diners can meander toward self-serve stations stocked with salads and sides. Many beeline straight for the meat counter, arrayed with charcoal-kissed cuts of skirt steak, pork and short ribs, ribeyes and blood sausage, plus empanadas.
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Owner Carlos Ruiz, left, and manager Pedro Rivero at The Knife Parrilla Argentina in Coral Springs on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Need help deciding? Mind the grill’s flames, step back and gaze up: A cow graphic above the station illustrates the Knife’s 14 cuts.
Guests can request special cuts of N.Y. strip, filet mignon and tomahawk if they’re available. Other rules: Dining is limited to 2 1/2 hours, and customers can’t take leftovers home.
Beef is cooked to diners’ desired temperatures in under 10 minutes over charcoal sourced from quebracho blanco trees in Argentina, chef Velazco says.
“The quebracho gives a different tasting smoke flavor to the meat,” he says. “The flavors and the presentation are the most important things, because the meat itself is very simple — just heat and salt.”
The Uruguayan-born Velazco (ex-Quinto in Brickell) says cutting his teeth in kitchens in New York, Argentina, Andorra and Spain has helped him add bold flavor fusions to dishes from grilled octopus to sushi-grade tuna tartare.
“All my Spanish and French cooking techniques help, but my focus is the meat, the salt, the charcoal and the grill,” Velazco says. “I think the customers know that Argentina and Uruguay have the best grills and gaucho tradition of grass-fed meat, and that sets us apart.”
The Knife Parrilla Argentina is at 9231 W. Atlantic Blvd., Coral Springs. Call 786-259-0382, ext. 1, or go to TheKnifeRestaurantus.com.
Staff writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com or Twitter/X @philvalys.
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
The buffet section of the dining room at The Knife Parrilla Argentina restaurant in Coral Springs. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)