Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Dallas

Update 2025-07-15: Update. Corresponded with HQ. Went back tonight. Total tunraround. Great service. Great food. Well done Fogo!

Update: It has been 3 business days since the owner's response, which I responded to immediately via their email address.

Fogo de Chao's response: nothing.

In public, they say "It's concerning to hear about..." and "We strive to provide our guests...".

But their actual view of their customers is shown not by what they say, but by what they do. They got a PR firm to send a generic reply, while doing nothing.

Is Fogo the next chain to go Ch. 11? I have been to this location many times. On this visit it showed all the signs of last ditch desparate cost-cutting.

We arrived timely for our reservation to find several groups of people waiting in the lobby for seating. Nobody at the from desk.

Why?

A girl from the (empty) bar slouched by, ignoring eye contact like a life-member of the flight attendants union. She stared aimelessy at a wall of wine bottels in a showcase and then came back in our direction. This time, I nailed her gaze. "Er, you being helped?" she asked, the painfulness of providing assistance evident in her face. I gave ger our details and she meddled with the POS device before telling us that somebody would be out to help us.

Why did she not welcome guests? They are humanoid pay checks.

The front desk girl eventually appeared. Everything she said came out as a clipped mumble. I wasn't sure what it was said but I know she was the second person not to welcome us. As I finally interpolated, they were getting our table ready.

Why had she been approved to do the Maitre'd job without any training? Who was the manager who did this?

I bet you if you go by tomorrow she will be the same person there and without a nanosecond's additional training. To Fogo corporate there is no problem.

It was ten minutes late that we were seated, but why the queue? When I tried to get a 5:30pm appointment on OpenTable the slot was sold out. The restaurant has as good or better queue IT then the customer. Why they had not added someone to the front desk? Why was the girl with that role apparently untrained for that role? That is usually their last chance to create a first impression. Yet here were two employees who had apparemntly not been trained in the most basic requirements of hospitality.

The GM was off, so my request to speak to him was passed off to "a manager", a guy who seemed to have the same lack of hospitality training as the other staff. He asked ME what I wanted to remedy these service problems.

Has anyone at Fogo corporate heard of Danny Meyer? Or read his book.

There were service issues throughout the meal, the point shoulld be clear by now, and something of an effort to fix them by flattering us.

But the basic problem is that Fogo corporate is cutting staff to reduce expenses. It is now below the bome to the point where Fogo can no longer consider itself an upscale churrascaria. There are more alternatives than ever, so I shall...

Last night, I took my boyfriend and another couple to celebrate my boyfriend‘s birthday. My boyfriend loves Fogo, that’s why I chose it to celebrate his special day. Supposedly was going to be a surprise birthday dinner, and experience. I was going to be the one who was going to pay for dinner. That is why I took advantage of your Best of Brazil experience (without my boyfriend and guests knowing $$$) As soon as we sat down, I mentioned to our waitress that we were going to have that best of brazil and that the notes were in my reservation (surprise birthday dinner and the best of Brazil experience) She right away told us that we were not going to be able to try other steaks and that if we were sure to have the 39.99 dinner instead of having the full experience. (WHO IN THE WORLD DO THAT? For some reason I mentioned it to her, and I wrote it in the notes… why did she mention the price?) she made me feel so bad, she ruined our evening … and it was only the beginning… she took out the coaster out of our table, put the other ones (I guess for the “cheap” dinner”) mentioning again that those coasters were for the 39.99 dinner!!! 😡 Anyways we ordered drinks that came 20/25 minutes after we started eating, we asked another person to help us with that because our waitress didn’t stop by again and we actually wanted to cancel our drinks (we just had 1 drink each, she never came back to ask if we wanted another drink or at least water) Another sweet lady who I believe is a supervisor, very nice asked me about my boyfriend’s dessert, because our waitress never came back, and that it was going to be on the house and surprise like I asked… then finally our waitress came with the check and we were missing his dessert!!! Horrible horrible experience! She asked about what kind of dessert we ordered, she brought it… and we paid and left… the whole experience was very upsetting for me… she made us feel like “why we go there if we can’t afford the 65 Dlls dinner) on our way home, everyone was saying that, it would had been an amazing night if it was not for the terrible service we had. Everyone felt what I felt, how sad is that. Food was good, and tasty, not like always, but it was enjoyable. but I believe that there are 3 essential components in creating great restaurant experiences: food/drinks, environment and service, and in my eyes, the service is the most important of this “holy trinity”. We need to feel treated with respect, dignity, courtesy and kindness and we did not find that last...

To Whom It May Concern,

On Sunday, June 15, 2025, we had a 6:30 PM reservation at your establishment. Upon our arrival, we intended to use the valet parking service, but unfortunately, no one was available at the valet booth. As a result, we had to park across the street.

Once inside, the wait time was reasonable, and we were seated promptly. However, we sat for approximately 15 minutes before our waiter first approached our table. During the drink order, I also informed him that I would be ordering the 30-ounce Wagyu porterhouse steak to-go, along with enjoying the salad bar, meats, and cocktails.

The waiter asked if we had dined there before. We said yes, to which he replied, “Oh good, that’ll save me time from explaining,” and walked away. We then proceeded to get food from the salad bar. Minutes later, our water was served—but 20 minutes passed and we still had not received our cocktails or seen the waiter again.

Eventually, another waitress came to our table. We asked her about the missing cocktails and the card for meat service. She was very helpful and quickly returned with the drinks. When we mentioned how fast that was, she said, “They were already made.” This suggested that our drinks had been sitting for quite some time.

After about 45 minutes, the original waiter returned and casually mentioned that he had been outside on his lunch break. At that point, I reconfirmed my order for the Wagyu steak to go.

After wrapping up our visit—roughly around 9:30 PM and after spending approximately $300—we returned to our vehicle only to discover a boot had been placed on it. When we called the number listed, a man arrived, looked directly at us while talking on the phone, and stated that we owed $130 for parking. He added, with a smirk and a tap on his jean pocket, “I have the key.”

This entire experience was deeply disappointing—from the inattentive service to the surprise parking issue and unprofessional behavior. For an establishment of your caliber, we expected far better treatment and clearer communication regarding parking.

We hope you take this feedback seriously and make necessary improvements to your service and...