Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Burlington

I went on a Tuesday morning with my husband for a lunch date to get the full churrasco. Be careful when they ask you what water you want because they will ask "sparkling or still" without giving you the option for tap. You must ASK for tap water or you will be charged for a bottle of water. For context, the server asked if it was our first time at the establishment, and after we said yes, they still did not offer tap as an option until we asked. While we don't blame the waiter who probably just did what he was told, it felt disingenuous.

The salad bar/market table was good. Some people might consider the selection pretty limited but I'm satisfied with arugula or other non-lettuce salad greens and a few fresh-tasting toppings. The most expensive-looking items were smoked salmon and prosciutto so if you feel like you can't eat $20, you're better off making your own salad at home. All the other ingredients present were ones you can find in a local grocery store.

I ordered a roasted bone marrow, one of my favorite things to eat. It's like savory butter and great to put on a crusty bread. However, the bone marrow didn't taste roasty, only oily. The caramelization on top lacked flavor. It was served with two slivers of bread fried in butter. What is the point of the marrow if the bread it's served with is fried in so much butter that it becomes overwhelming with marrow on top? My husband got me some of the Italian bread from the soup table to see if that helped but that it didn't have the right texture to pair. The marrow was so devoid of savoriness and tasted only like fat. This was highlighted even further with the sour condiment served with it. The condiment should have enhanced the savoriness and cut through the fattiness. It did neither.

Following up with the bone marrow, I would have tried to put it on the mashed potatoes that came as an included side except after taking one bite of it, I realized that it might be more butter than potatoes. The polenta(?) fries were equally greasy and the fried plantains also heavy. The pao de queijo was very good with the fig jam from the table but it was also heavy. Given that the fries, cheese bread, and plantains are fatty by nature, I would have expected the mashed potatoes to complement better being lighter. Not only was it hard to eat more than one bite, it sat like a rock in my stomach and made it feel like a ploy to get us to eat less meat. I get that they have to meet their bottom line and that this is a legitimate business strategy, but when I can taste it in my food, it really takes me out of the experience.

As the cuts of meat came, the music was so loud that we had a hard time hearing what the waiters who came by were saying. The music being loud also made it hard for my husband and I to talk to each other while eating. The meat themselves were really dry. Maybe that's just style? There were two items that weren't cooked dry and one was wrapped in bacon, so if you like your meat juicy, try to grab that one and I think the garlic steak? I'm not sure. Otherwise, if you sink your teeth into it, there's a chance that after chewing 2-3 times, you just get mildly wet meat flavored sawdust on your tongue.

The bill came out to roughly $140 including tip. $140 is an entire week's worth of groceries for my husband and I. I do not mind paying a week or two worth of grocery money for a truly good dining experience. This was not the experience I was hoping for at that price tag.

My suggestion for one small change: bridge the gap between the super indulgent and the market table with some sort of lighter cooked greens.There is this expectation that indulgence MUST equal extremes and I think that takes away not only from the enjoyment of guests but also from a chef's ability to showcase their thoughtfulness. Indulgence can only shine as indulgence if given the right accompaniments to make it last long enough to savor, and for the guest to keep wanting more of it even when they are bursting at the seams and...

This has been the worst experience for a Brazilian Rodizio i ever had (same for my brother, and his friend). I'm Brazilian, so i have plenty of experience with top/medium/low level Rodizios.

The service was awful, they had more staff trying to upsell you "a la carte" drinks and others cleaning the tables to bring in more fools to eat at this sad sad sad location. Than staff bringing in meats to the customers.

I have eaten at Fogo De chao in Boston, and 100s others in Brazil all my life and around the world.

The place was packed and i feel embarrassed this is the experience that local people in Massachusetts are experiencing for Brazilian food.

We sat and immediately we were offered an la carte menu, and drinks as we visit a Rodizio restaurant...., we asked for caipirinha and asked to switch up the cachaça (the Brazilian alcohol used for caipirinha) for a better one than the cheapest imaginable "51". (51 is what you serve when you are 18 years old in Brazil and can't afford anything else) They come back 10 min later to say they didn't have that, and where going to switch to something else... Why not just switch up. So it then took another 10 min to get the drinks.

On top the meats:

The only offered 1 type lf sausage, that was something i never seen before, brown looking and tasted awful. (We have no many delicious types of sausages in Brazil, what were they doing?)

Most of the meats offered were well done, hard and salty. we kept asking to give us the more medium or rare kinds and it never got out.

We had to try and get attention from servers 2-3 times to even get something to eat.

2 of the cuts had so much salt, no one in the table ate it after trying it once. Pure salt.

The servers would go to busy tables and empty the meats, so the smaller 2-4 people tables would sit devoid of any meats. Just the dam sausage that was offered 3 or 4 times.

And this is what happened to us, we would sit waiting for 10+ minutes for any meat to be offered. Then get something mediocre then wait 10min again for another mediocre cut/burned meat.

After about 2 hours waiting, we finally called a quits... All 4 of us left without even getting full.

P. S. The desserts are not Brazilians desserts they are just generic desserts.

Bad meats, bad service, if I could give 0 stars for this visit I would. Atmosphere...i guess the music was brazilan but morning nice... Same theme that didn't fit an "up scale" rodizio.

I'll be surprised they have remained in business for this long.. . I hope people see this review, because yesterday was absolutely packed, and the horrible experience that everyone must be getting is giving Brazilian cuisine a bad name.

Please please please fix your business!

This was awful... I will not date to ever step foot in that place again. I have at least 5 locations that are 100x better all over the state.

Total bill for 4 people 6 caipirinhas, and 1 beer was $375 +tip I coins go to almost any restaurant in Massachusetts and have had a better experience than here for a fraction of the cost...

Actually I could BBQ at my house for $100 and feed 10 people drinks included.

P. S. The green/red cards were given to us about half way or visit. My review to this is like my picture. No thanks! Nao Obrigado.

P. P.S: I see another 1 star review from 2 months ago Gustavo. Same issue I had. So either the place didn't care about his complain or did nothing to address it.

Maybe it's the new trend here, but as i mentioned because so many new customers maybe they don't have to care... But this location is creating awful experiences.

Maybe the good reviews are of large groups which means the staff focus on that and leave the other 10 tables empty...

P. P. P. S. Do yourself a favor and look at the 1 star reviews... So many in the last few months... All with similar...

We have dined at almost all United States Fogo locations as work and military duty have taken us around the country. It’s our favorite restaurant. We have never had a bad experience at any Fogo, except this Burlington, MA location. This is the second bad experience. Christmas Eve we decided to dine at Fogo as my mother just passed recently, and first year I wasn’t cooking for family. We were actually enjoying our night, food and drinks. We were not done yet, and a couple brought in their dog. A drooling bulldog. The dog proceeded to be fed off the table (we have pictures of the dog eating from the man/s hand from the salad bar plate, as well as the dog laying there staring at us). They were seated next/near to us. I have allergies to dogs. We own two hypoallergenic and shed free dogs so we are actually dog lovers. This did not appear to be a service dog as his behavior proved, and the man proceeded to feed the dog food from the table. We asked if they could seat them elsewhere due to allergies (before they were even fully seated). Rather than seat these people and the dog at another table, we were asked to move. We were stunned. Three times staff came over and said they have another table ready. We were upset with this. Why didn’t they just seat them at that other table? They said they have to accommodate the dog. What about accommodating the human with allergies? The manager, Abby, relayed they have to accommodate a service dog. We told her about my allergies. Abbey stated they checked for papers, but we never saw this (I think it’s illegal to even ask for papers). We were a bit stunned that they would try and make us move, after being there for more than an hour enjoying our dinner and drinks on Christmas Eve. Abby did refund our money (we didn’t ask for that), after they had taken our credit card to pay already while I was trying to talk to her. Also, it was very deceptive and sneaky for a man to come around with a tray of small sized trials of an orange and red drink, making it look like they were giving these away for free. I even asked a few times if the FREE trials would come to our table as he was walking around handing them to seated customers. Then, they charge us $14.00 each for these very small trial size drinks. Very deceptive. This location has had bad management on our visit in the past. This is the ONLY Fogo location out of all we have been to many times that does not feel the same as other Fogo locations. The meat is usually not cooked right or seasoned right. I have to ask over and over again for Filet, and possibly receive it by the end of our dining experience. Just not a good experience every time we go. Yet, we felt last night we were having a nice time for once here (although still not getting the filet). We enjoy the Boston location, and have dined there many times. We know people who train service dogs for military veterans, and at no time is a SERVICE DOG EVER allowed to eat from a table. That dog sat there begging for food, looking around, staring at patrons. Fogo is a very expensive restaurant. People get dressed up (if they desire, but not required) to enjoy a night out, save money to enjoy this experience, and at notime should they be burdened with a dog sitting next to them, eating off a table, and then having management try to make you move and accommodate the dog. Boston is a bit further, but definitely worth it. Disappointed this is our second bad experience with staff and management that don’t seem to enjoy what they are doing or treat customers with the same courtesy and respect as every other Fogo restaurant does. Really disappointing to have two bad...