Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Baltimore

UPDATED REVIEW: We came back on 4/5 after Claudia offered us a redo of an experience. Our server, Elijah, was very knowledgeable about the drinks we ordered and was very attentive. Our drinks and Churrasco experience was nothing short of amazing. It was also my friend’s birthday and they provided us with a happy birthday Crème Brûlée. We will be back, just not on a busy night.

OLD REVIEW: Definitely not upscale as described. If anything, this is a Golden Corral with higher prices and alcohol. Came here last Saturday with my Fiancè for a nice night out. Had 7:30 reservations and didn’t get sat until 48 minutes later (Terrible because we had to pay for hourly parking as Valet was all booked up. Ended up paying $30 for parking and almost one hour of that, we had to wait to be seated). I’m 7 months pregnant and had to stand on my feet, right by the cold, frequently opening door the entire time. None of the staff offered a seat or anything. The lobby was packed, but I didn’t expect customers to offer a seat up. After being sat, it took over 10 minutes for us to get water (we ordered spring and received sparkling) then an additional 8 minutes to get a manhattan and a clean Martini (we ordered them at the same time as the waters). The fruit/salad bar they had in the middle was very nice; however, it would be even better if they had more sauce options. Only hot sauce and ceasar dressing were available. There was also some green sauce, but there was no label. We paid for the churrasco experience, which is $67 per person and you get the opportunity to try 14 different meats. The same 6 meats kept coming around: Top and Bottom Sirloin, Pork Belly, Spicy Pork Sausage, Bacon Wrapped Steak and Chicken Breasts. The other 8 meats seemed to never make it to our table. I don’t eat pork so I was really looking forward to trying the Filet and the Lamb Chops, which never came around. We saw plenty of other tables repeatedly getting them, but not us! We tried to find our sever to order more drinks while we waited for the meats we wanted, no luck. Another server came by and took our drink order - 30 minutes later, no drinks. ANOTHER server came by and asked us if we were okay, we told them that we ordered 2 drinks 30 minutes ago and were still waiting. 10 minutes later, 4 drinks hit the table. I ordered a Clean Cucumber Martini and my Fiancè ordered spring water (for the second try). We received TWO clean cosmos, TAP water and an ALCOHOLIC cucumber Mint Mash (again, I’m 7 MONTHS PREGNANT). On top of that, the Clean Cosmos had to be made by two different people because they looked completely different( see picture). We told the server who dropped it off several times that these were not ours and we didn’t want it. I’m not sure if the language barrier was the issue or not, but “no” was not taken for an answer. She left the drinks there and walked away after trying to convince us to keep them. We didn’t drink any of them. The night was a total disaster. Having enough, I asked a server for the manager. His response was, “The manager? Are you sure?” TWICE. Of course I’m sure! More time passed and the manager did not come. My Fiancè thinks the server never went and got the manager. So I went up to the front and asked the host to grab the manager. Her response: “The manager? but why?” Irate at this point, I told her “Because I am having a terrible experience here and I want to speak to the manager please.” What I will say is that the manager was nice, calm and swift. I didn’t catch his name, but he made sure we received the Filet, Lamb Chops, Spring water and a complimentary dessert immediately. My Fiancè also ordered a Jack and Coke which came very quick. The manager also put a discount on the bill. At this point it was closing time though, so I had to get my dessert to go and he had to drink quickly. I’m very grateful for the manager’s quick actions; however, with everything that went wrong, I’m not sure I’d be back or recommend it to anyone. We paid and left, but it was not worth $190 at all. Like I said, expensive Golden...

By far the absolute worst experience I had at a restaurant. I go to nice restaurants at least twice a week for dinner and more for lunch. There have been times when I haven't been satisfied but this was the first time I honestly left pissed off paying my bill. I wanted to leave $0 for tip but our actual waitress (who doesn't serve you) was actually nice and I think felt bad for us so I still left 15%. We went March 1st for my autistic daughter's birthday. We actually went to Baltimore for the weekend to go to the National Aquarium (which was great by the way). She loves steak and I take her to the Fogo de Chao near our house in Philadelphia often. I was planning on taking my kids to a restaurant more unique to Baltimore but my kids love Fogo de Chao. I was with my 3 children 8, 10, and 11. Maybe part of the problem was bringing my kids because of the discount price but that has never been a problem with the Fogo de Chao in Philly. We are normal sized people, even if we were getting filet (which we never even saw), there's no way we could eat enough to make out well financially. It was not busy but the first person to come by the table with any meat was pork after we were sitting at our for 20 minutes. We had to wait another 15 before the next servers came with chicken and then flank steak. It literally got to the point I was timing it. There was a table about 10 feet away where a server kept going to right out of the kitchen and then would go to 1 or two other tables in that area and then go right back in the kitchen at the far door. It was so frustrating and ridiculous it made even eating our salads less enjoyable. I took a picture below pretending to take a picture of my daughter because I was so upset.

The worst was a female manager came over to us and asked us how everything was doing. I never complain at restaurants but in this case I did because I was so frustrated and she told me she would look into it and absolutely nothing changed except one server came by with sirloin. They barely gave my kids any and they kept missing my daughter. This went on for a total of about an hour and 45 minutes just because we were waiting for steak. At the Philadelphia location we usually eat in an hour. Finally because my non-verbal, autistic daughter was getting upset, I told the waitress we would just fill up at the salad bar. The manager then miraculously stopped by to see how everything was. I told her I would like us to just have a serving of lamb which my kids like and then we were going to leave. After about 5 minutes we got our lamb and of course they forgot my daughter. Literally almost as soon as we were done eating the manager came by and said "Did you get your lamb?" and handed me the check. Again, I wasn't even being argumentative or even really complaining. It was just bizarre and I have never felt less respected at a restaurant. We were planning on getting desert as we always do at the Philadelphia location and because of my daughter's birthday, but instead we left and ordered room service at the hotel.

I do like the Philadelphia location and I've been at the DC location which seemed fine, but our experience in Baltimore definitely makes me question supporting this chain in the future. Sadly my kids had to go through it and I doubt they are eager to go even to the Philly one. Just a horrible...

UPDATED REVIEW I HAVE to update my review without a doubt! Fogo has surprised me with a whole 360 from my last visit/review. When I say, they wanted to do better and improve, THEY DID!

First of all, the manager Claudia, she saw my review on Yelp and on Google which was 3/5 stars. I never thought they were horrible, but there were things that needed improvements on. So, Claudia actually called me (I'm a rewards member) and she discussed my experience and offered me a gift card in the amount of my last meal and told me to inform her when I am coming back. This time, I came back for my fiancé birthday, and everything discussed was improved and much better and I believe that deserves a praise for sure.

Upon arrival, there was not a bottle of $7 Saratoga still water on the table, this time we knew it was not complimentary. We had two servers (one might have been training) but they were both amazing. The best Brazil is a promo offering 12/16 cuts of meats from the full menu, and we enjoyed the entire experience. The meat runners informed us of how the meats were cooked (medium, medium well, etc.) so my family really enjoyed being informed. They also brought out a complimentary cheesecake for my fiancé birthday that was delicious!

Overall, I had such a transformative experience and appreciated how management went above and beyond to fix the previous mistakes. I HIGHLY recommend coming here for a delicious Brazilian food experience!

PREVIOUS REVIEW I’m disappointed that I’m giving them a 3/5 stars review but this was not the same at fogo in Towson. There was a lot of miscommunication and the service was VERY slow for a Saturday night. The food was OK. They make majority of their red meats RARE or medium rare! I hate that! It should be medium or medium well. People have an increased chance of a food bourne illness eating rare meat so they should have to special order it rare if that’s how you like it. We had to wait for our meats to be made to order at medium well and it took a while. We were there for 3 hours and it was only 8 of us.

The server was able to split the checks but we waited at least 30 minutes for her to split it 4 ways. Also, when we arrived, we had two bottles of a sparkling water and a still on our table. We thought it was free because it was on our table upon arrival, nope, the bottle of water was $7 each! That is ridiculous!

The price was different online for the promo also than what was given to me and I checked to make sure before hand and the server was so confused and I was just...