Flames Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Belmar

I am a huge fan of Rodizio, eating at several well-established Brazilian restaurants over the past several decades.

It was great to see that one existed locally, and my girlfriend and I were excited to give it a try just having enjoyed Fogo De Chao over the past year.

We both had similar mixed opinions about our dining experience at Flames. It was mostly good, but we both thought for the price it could have been much better.

First, let's start with the price. At $60 per person, it's exorbitantly high. This is the kind of price I paid at Fogo De Chao in Philadelphia a year ago. It's the kind of price you expect to pay in a large city. I had not expected to pay this much locally, and it looks like not too long ago the price was $40 per person. I do realize that food is expensive right now and restaurants everywhere are raising their costs, but when you pay this kind of price per person you expect a heightened level of service and quality of meal.

Fortunately, the service here is tremendously good. We were greeted warmly, seated immediately (we made a reservation), and our server was extremely polite, attentive, and willing to answer questions about the different kinds of foods on the salad and hot bar. There was always someone nearby refilling our glass of water when it was low. I was very impressed with the staff here.

As far as the Rodizio is concerned, we did not have to wait to be served a multitude of different meats. I was amazed at how fast the servers came around. We just could not keep up with them. There was a nice array of chicken, steak, short ribs, sausage, and lamb. Even when we turned our cards over to indicate we were full, a server came over with a brown-sugar-coated pineapple dessert that he thought we would be interested in. He was right -- and it was quite good.

The thing we were not crazy about was the quality of the meat. It was very hit-or-miss with many of the selections being very dry. This seems to be a common complaint with other reviews I have read. The salad bar is not very extravagant compared to Rodizio restaurants that charge the kind of price Flames does. There is an accompanying hot bar with wings, macaroni and cheese and potatoes (to name a few), but one generally doesn't gravitate to offerings like that when they are here for unlimited meat.

Would we come here again? Given the fact that there aren't many Rodizios in the area our choices are kind of limited to Flames. Certainly, we were impressed with the service and not being pushed to buy dessert or spend more than the Rodizio itself. It's just the price that I find to be very intimidating given that it's way overpriced for the area and for the quality of the food offerings (and lack of a more elaborate salad bar). Still, it does make for a fun night out with friends -- especially those who never experienced a Rodizio before.

Newbies will be delighted. Those who know will find they have had...

UPDATED 5/18/2022: Restaurant must have changed hands. No longer as good as 2 years ago. Reservation on 5/15/22. Arrived in timely fashion; seated immediately. That's when it went down hill.

Our server ("N") was engaging at first, but disappeared for extended periods of time. Never put in our order for pitchers of sangria (stated the bartender was busy, but we saw them ("N") was "chatting" with him at length.) Had to ask for water for the table from a different person. Never received the cheese bread for our table; had to again ask a different person for it. Finally received sangria (still excellent) but just placed on table - so no one pours the first glass anymore?

"N" never brought over plates for the rodizio service - WE had to get clean plates from the salad bar; this was only after several ties by the rodizio servers who came by WHILE we were eating our salad.

Salad bar is not as exciting or hearty as before. I used to look forward to it. Not anymore. Lacked ingenuity. Very boring. No cold meats (antipasto plate gone) tomato/mozzarella/basil plate gone; no "hearty" vegetables available. Hot bar very disappointing. Extremely disappointing.

After being served the same meats over and over and over again for the rodizio, servers never really swept the room for those who were waiting for the premium meat. Saw several only go by the area to the right of the bar, but not the main dining area. Had to ask for specific meats instead of the chicken/sausage that was pushed ad nauseum. Also asked for chicken hearts - took at least 30+ minutes to receive and at the end of the meal.

When "N" finally showed up after not being present for pretty much most of the meal, their face was not at all pleased to be there, never re-engaged us, never offered a dessert menu or coffee/tea, never asked how we were doing at all at anytime during the meal or if we needed anything. Was extremely off-putting to the entire table. Unprofessional, lacking in customer service skills, made our visit fell WE were imposing on "N".

I asked to speak with manager, who was not there. Spoke with a different person and told him all of the above.

We are seriously re-thinking our visits. After our last visit (5/15/22) we may not go again - and that is a shame for us and Flames. We used to tell everyone if they wanted really good rodizio, go here. Not so much moving forward.

2 years ago I stated "We LOVE this place. Excellent service. Rodizio is superior." I rescind this statement. 2 years ago (even 1 year ago!!!!) I stood by my review - not anymore.

I give 2 stars only because the sangria is...

I would give zero if I could. We had the most terrible experience at this restaurant. We had a table of more than 12 people. The Brazilian waitress was exceptionally rude from the moment we arrived. Our friends had informed her about our arrival (in advance), requesting her to get two additional tables. Despite the restaurant being empty, she refused it. Upon our arrival, she insisted that we could fit at the existing table(????) and didn't want to add more tables. We were at a high-end restaurant, expecting to have a good time and ready to pay $69.99 at least per person. It felt like we were doing them a favor. While the food was good, the service was HORRIBLE.

When it came time to pay, she didn't inform us beforehand that we could pay the bill with only three cards. There were 16 of us. She claimed this information was on the website and that we should have checked before coming to the restaurant.

I scoured the entire website, and even the owner's son couldn't find this information. Due to the horrendous service, we refused to pay the tips. However, he claimed that it was the restaurant's policy and that he could not do anything about it. Even the police got involved (YES!). The person I'm referring to as "he" is the owner's son, who seemed utterly indifferent to our situation. He didn't care. All he could say was "yeeah, I'm sorry, it's the restaurants' policy" - Where was this policy? Because not even he could find it on his website.

This restaurant desperately needs a competent manager who can resolve issues rather than create more. It's pretty simple, really. We only wanted to pay for what we had consumed. I almost forgot that in the middle of this situation, the wife's owner came and said, "you eat, you pay." Super rude! She didn't was there when it all began, she didn't know what was going on, and she didn't try to solve anything. Nobody at this place is capable of managing a restaurant. They don't know how to treat their customers, and they don't care at all.

We requested to divide the large table's bill into three separate checks, but they were incapable of doing so. As a restaurant owner myself for years, I know how straightforward it is to resolve a customer's problem. Clearly, this was not the case here.

I urge you to avoid this place. Our table spent over $1000, and this happened on a Monday, no less. They have now lost 16 customers, and the count will only increase as we all share our terrible experience at this place with...