Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Edmonton

I’ll start by saying that Pampa has been a favourite destination restaurant of mine since they opened their first location in Edmonton downtown. I absolutely used to love the salad bar, the meats, and the entire experience. We started going to the south side location in Ellerslie several years ago as it is closer, and unfortunately have observed the quality of food and service decline over the years.

However we had the WORST experience on New Years Eve 2024… it started with a triple verification of our reservation a day in advance-we don’t need a text, an email AND a phone call. One method would be fine.

When we arrived at the restaurant our party of six was shoved in a back corner where our server pretty much ignored us much of the night. Our drinks were refreshed ONCE throughout the 1 hr 45 minute-capped stay. They probably could have sold more alcoholic drinks, where I know their margin is higher, but there was no opportunity to do so.

The meat servers also seemed to have difficulty finding us way in the back. The green card was flipped up the entire 1:45 stay but that only means something if there are servers there to observe it.

The meat itself was the most disappointing on this particular visit. Most of the beef cuts were tough and over cooked (the top sirloin and one other cut, whatever the rounded-looking one is called) were the exception. Which is tragic. Even the bacon wrapped filet mignon was terribly overcooked, which is a good way to ruin a perfect cut of tender beef. The selection of meat was disappointing- there were probably 4-5 pork options, which I know pork is cheaper than beef, but c’mon guys, people don’t pay almost $80/person for a bunch of pork options, we want the beef! The bacon-wrapped chicken also didn’t seem to be on the menu, not sure if that is a new permanent thing or just for NYE, but that used to be a favourite non-beef option of mine because it almost always was juicy and delicious. Sad omission this year. The garlic steak was overdone (all three times we were offered it), the tri tip was stringy and mostly dry/overdone as well, the normally excellent sausage was even over done. Overall, just a disappointment from the main reason we were there-the meat.

Finally, our server Amanda offered us dessert (probably expecting none of us to accept this) but unlike every other time when we have eaten until we were full, multiple people in our party did want to order because we had been neglected by the meat servers almost all night long and several still had room. She sighed, looked at her watch and told us that we had less than ten minutes left in our reservation time and had to clear out. The attitude seeping through was of impatience. When we said “well, if we had been offered this earlier, and if we had been brought more meat dishes in a timelier manner, perhaps we could have wrapped this up earlier, but it’s not our problem that you people have been neglecting us pretty much all night long.” After a testy exchange we cancelled the dessert and she left, presumably to get our bill. She didn’t ask, nor give us time to ask her to split the bill three ways between the three couples that were there and of course came back with one bill. We asked her to split it and she sighed heavily and stormed away making a point of loudly crumpling the bill that she had brought.

The final insult was to have an 18% auto gratuity added for a “large party”… of six! Are you kidding me? Used to be that they auto added a gratuity for a large party of eight, but apparently filling six water cups once at the beginning of dinner, having to be chased down for refilling water, and having the meat stewards forget us in the corner is a stressful “large” party.

I can’t speak for the other two couples we were with, but we will not return to Pampas Ellerslie again. It pains me, but I might not even return to my original favourite at the downtown location, this was such a brutal experience. So very...

We visited this restaurant for Valentine’s Day and it fin not disappoint. I would come here just for the salad bar. Huge selection of fresh salads for every taste. I wanted you to try them all. Very flavorful. The hot side dishes were delicious as well. It would be nice to skip the soups and add more sides like macaroni n cheese and potato gratin. Mash potatoes were good as were the black beans, & Spanish rice. The star of the show was of course the meats. You really need to pace yourself to make room for the meats. We especially enjoyed the chorizo, bacon wrapped pork, Parmesan pork, garlic sirloin, bacon wrapped beef tenderloin etc… all of them lol! We had no room for dessert but I understand that they are incredible. Oh! Almost forgot. If you’re going to have a cocktail. You need to try Passion Fruit Batista 10 oz. Trust me! You don’t want your pass on this one. It’s hard to describe the flavors and icy textures but it was like nothing we’ve ever had before. A must have. Our server was magnificent and the servers either the skewers were always around and happy to help with flavors of meats. If there was one thing I would suggest to management… we were asked to remove our jackets at the door and leave them there. We needed to empty them of course. I had to take out my two phones, wallet, keys, and reading glasses, and carry them to my table. You have to take your valuables so they do not get stolen. Reason given is that the servers would be impeded by jackets hanging off of our chair. We noticed that other tables were allowed to keep there jackets and some were not. There was plenty of space for servers to move freely. We felt this was an unnecessary inconvenience implemented by management. It was not a good first impression for us. Lucky your food was so delicious or I might be more upset. 😂 Anyways just a suggestion. Everything was great otherwise. We enjoyed our experience. Two...

I took my Fiance here for her birthday dinner and what a mistake! We have a 1 year old daughter that is very active and I therefore took her out of her high chair a couple of times to keep her busy and to allow my partner to enjoy her meal. I had two rude and inconsiderate waitresses show annoyance at this, which was very upsetting! My little daughter was not bothering anyone and was charming the room as people were smiling and engaging with her, so it was very disappointing that this happened. My little girl was even interacting with the kitchen staff through a serving counter to the kitchen and making them smile and laugh. I can understand people may find little children annoying walking around a restaurant, but this was definitely not the case as my daughter was well behaved and I was always by her side! The only two people that were annoyed with her, were out waitress and another one that was in a different section than us. The buffet was pretty good, but other than that this was a totally awful experience! We repeatedly had to ask the carvers to come serve us and several times after asking our waitress to get them to come to our table, they didn't even come by. The few times they did come by, it seemed like they tried to cut the meats as thing as absolutely possible. The kicker to all this is when we went to pay for our meal and I aske the waitress to have the bill split, between my mother and I. We spent over $400 that evening and for the waitress to show annoyance in having to split a bill, resulted in her reduced tip and leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. I called this location and spoke to several managers -a Pricilla and Christine - and I was told that some one would get back to me about my experience, but no follow up was ever made. This place is not kid friendly, had crampy service and I would add crampy management! I WILL never be going there again nor would...