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| - The s/o and I have been to several Brazillian steakhouses, including Texas de Brazil, Pampas and a few located in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've heard of Fogo de Chao for several years, but there was never a convenient location until I realized there's now a location in Vegas so, we had to check it out.
Very typical setup as the other steakhouses we've been to, as it features a buffet of various salads, cheese, cured meats, and a few hot items such as rice, potatoes and vegetables. They also serve you a plate of plantains, fried polenta and mashed potatoes...the instant kind, not real mashed potatoes, for the price you'd pay you'd think they wouldn't skimp on quality. The saving grace was their cheese bread, it was seriously the BEST cheese bread from a Brazillian steakhouse we've had! What nice is that they'll refill it with a piping hot batch on request.
They had a variety of about a dozen or so meats, varying from the traditional Picanha (Top Sirloin), Filet Mignon, Rib Eye, Pork Ribs, Sausage, Chicken wrapped in Bacon, and other cuts of Sirloins. They also had a Rib of Beef, which is served cut from a cutting board but you have to specifically request it as it's not an item that they walk from table to table. First off, avoid the sausage and even the chicken, you can eat that anytime, anywhere. If all you eat is the Rib of Beef, do it, it's the only super darn delcious cut of meat they offer! With that said, yeah, the cuts of the various beef were lacking in flavor, I almost wanted to ask for steak sauce. Unlike other Brazillian steakhouses we've been to, FdC did not serve Grilled Pineapple...if you haven't had it, you're seriously missing out, it just makes you enjoy the various meats even more.
My biggest gripe about FdC was the ambiance. It was a nice, typical white linen type of steakhouse. However, although I do understand the "meat guys" as I call them are running around from table to table, there were just way too many wait staff walking around. It made the dining experience slightly unnerving that you'd get bumped into (which I did), get something spilled on you (almost happened, but observed it happening on the dining room floor, twice) and just sheer pandamonium. It seriously was like a sea of people dressed in white shirts running around like chickens without heads. We've never experienced that at any Brazillian steakhouse we've been to. There was even a guy pushing a cart of liquor from table to table, which added to the chaos.
When we got our check, we skipped using the plastic, left cash instead and seriously beelined out of there. Sorry, can't say we'll be back.
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