Fogo De Chao-Brazilian Steakhouse

Jstroke

As crazy as this is, I had never been to a Brazilian Steakhouse. In Chicago on biz, someone decided on going. My experience in all honesty was pretty rough. Everyone has an opinion, and it could have just been a bad night for the restaurant. But I found the cuts of meat tough in general to say the least. Not overcooked, but simply low quality. I tried everything they were bringing by on skewers and even the fillet was mediocre at best. However, that was not the overall deciding factor. The biggest negative was the rub they used. All cuts including ribs were covered in the same rub, which I found and the rest of us, overpoweringly salty. It was unreal. I do not think it was kosher salt. I don’t think you could pack that much salt on meat with kosher salt. I have no idea what others have experienced or with other Brazilian steakhouses. Glad it wasn’t on my dime. I can buy a lot of good beef for the money.

paqman

I had good experiences at a local place but I can’t say that I’ve tried other locations 

dmchicago

Those places are meat theater. 

fishlessman

that place used to be the rage, now its in the mall.  i cant get beef to taste salty like most steakhouse chains without using a ton of goya adobo.

Botch

Both places in SLC I've tried were way too salty, think its how they limit the "all-you-can-eat" aspect.  I won't be going back.  

JohnInCarolina

It has been several years since I have been to one but my experiences have actually been pretty good.  Take it with a grain of salt (pun intended?) as this was all before I really got into egging.  

We had one in Durham (it has since closed) and I thought the food was excellent in general.  The biggest issue was that it was all just so much food.   You basically had to prep in advance by eating very little, and then you were good for like a couple of days.  I never went on my dime either as it was super expensive.  We just had a couple of work-related dinners there. 

I have also been to one in Rio de Janeiro.  That was pretty cool.  

Foghorn

Your review isn't wrong.  It seems that the quality of the cuts of meat - particularly the tenderloin/filet - has gone down significantly over the past few years - both in the San Antonio and Chicago locations.  I don't recall thinking that things were "overly salty" but they were salty.  That may be a new thing that is related to cook turnover or something.  Like most have said, it is an interesting dining experience that is best enjoyed on someone else's tab.

With that said, at a different local Brazilian steakhouse, I used to be able to get my money's worth.  They would come around with 8 oz probably prime tenderloins on their skewers and cut them into 1/3s as they served them.  I kept asking for them to return so much that they just started dropping whole steaks on my plate.  I can't eat that much any more so this type of restaurant isn't as appealing as it used to be.

Jstroke

Thanks to all for the sanity check. Won’t be returning and certainly won’t be trying others on my dime.

JohnInCarolina

JohnInCarolina said:

It has been several years since I have been to one but my experiences have actually been pretty good.  Take it with a grain of salt (pun intended?) as this was all before I really got into egging.  

We had one in Durham (it has since closed) and I thought the food was excellent in general.  The biggest issue was that it was all just so much food.   You basically had to prep in advance by eating very little, and then you were good for like a couple of days.  I never went on my dime either as it was super expensive.  We just had a couple of work-related dinners there. 

I have also been to one in Rio de Janeiro.  That was pretty cool.  

Should have clarified that neither of these were Fogo-de-Chao franchises.