Fogo Bonito — Restaurant in San Salvador

When we visit a new place, we always read the first two reviews on Google Reviews and then stop to avoid being influenced by others. We approach each location with a clean slate, giving them a fair chance to impress as we hold a respectful level ranking and review amount.

This time, we read one good and one bad review, the first two. Although we felt uncertain, we decided to give the place a try. We walked about 11 minutes from our hotel to find a somewhat secluded restaurant, making it less accessible to the average passerby. We chose to go in, as shown in our video, and arrived around 7:10 or 7:15 in the evening.

Once inside, we requested to be seated on the patio, but quickly regretted that choice as mosquitoes seemed to treat the area as their airport. With no waitstaff around to ask for permission, and no other guests in sight, we moved ourselves indoors to escape the blatant attack.

It had been 30 minutes since we arrived, and we still hadn’t received any water or service. Even though they took our beverage order right after we sat down, no further attention was given to us during that time.

Considering all of this, I decided to dig deeper into more reviews and discovered some concerning feedback about food poisoning from four weeks prior, with complaints stretching back six months. My wife and I were shocked by this revelation.

Wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, I approached one of the hostesses to inquire about the issues mentioned in the reviews. I even allowed her to read them, but to my surprise, she started tap dancing around the questions, excusing the restaurant's problems and outright denying some as false information. No language barrier here as I speak fluent English and Spanish.

When I asked her what would happen if something like that occurred to us, she went silent and offered no response. At that moment, I decided it was best for us to leave and find another place to eat that night.

The service industry is challenging, and the restaurant business is even tougher. If a restaurant is facing issues, they must be addressed immediately rather than waiting for months after customers point them out. It’s unfortunate because the restaurant was beautiful and located in a good spot, poor service and food quality can ultimately spell disaster for any establishment, this been the...

We arrived around 1pm on a Thursday. The place was empty. My family and I were a party of 9, 5 kids/4 adults. We were dressed casually, immediately we felt like we were viewed different for our very laxed casual wear. The hostess with long redish hair had a look on her face and was not friendly or inviting at all. We were seated pretty quickly, we ordered drinks and food. The kids food came out first. It took roughly 25 mins and the younger kids 3 meals came out . I noticed the server asking the hostess where our food was. Then about 10 mins later they came out with some of the food. The remaining 6 meals took another 50mins approximately after the kids meals had come out. Others guests had arrived and were served faster and with more attention then we were. I’d like to mention, others arrived 30ish minutes after we did. Their food was served 5 mins after our remaining meals. The remaining 6 meals were all cold. The server put fries on our table as a sorry for delay. The picanha was to be cooked medium and was medium on the ends but was completely raw in the center and cold. When the server came over to ask if everything was okay my sister and I both responded no, because both of our meals were undercooked and everyone else’s cold. Save your money, the portions sizes are awful compared to cheaper and better quality establishments. Not to mention the service is so much better. Never in all the years of visiting El Salvador did I experience such poor service and quality food, like I did here.

The server offered a faster meal of lesser quality or free sodas. Then offered a discount. Neither one of those was the point. If I waited for my food over an hour, while it was empty I expected to have a mouth watering and amazing experience.

Don’t fall for the...

I’ll start with the summary: both my friend and I got food poisoning.

Let me start off with the sides. They are TINY. You know those tiny little cups where restaurants typically serve ketchup/ranch/etc? Well they are that size. I’m not even kidding!

We ordered a tomahawk medium well (3/4). It actually tasted pretty good, no complaints. We also ordered the baby back ribs, those were also good.

Now let’s talk portions. HORRIBLE. I’ve gone to many Brazilian steakhouse restaurants, MANY. This is absolutely the worst price to portion. You’re paying US prices, sometimes even a bit more, for much less than what you’d get elsewhere including the US. For the ribs, you get four ribs, the smallest you’ll ever see too.

The place is very beautiful. You’ll love it. We certainly enjoyed it.

The service, was alright. I feel like they didn’t like that we brought our kids yet they didn’t say anything about that. You could just feel it.

Won’t come back. I think that tomahawk had some bad bacteria and my friend and I are now in bed, not being able to enjoy the rest of our trip. We have rising fever. Just not worth...