Rodizio Grill Brazilian Steakhouse Denver — Restaurant in Denver

Edit: Management offered an apology incentive to return to Rodizio. However, I went to the DTC location as it was more convenient, but it was a 4-5 star experience there.

Review update (3 stars -- 1 star):

I visited on a recent Saturday night for my birthday. The restaurant was clearly less than half full and it was fairly quiet, as it was in the middle of a baseball game at the nearby stadium (this is why I chose the time).

The only thing good about this visit was the caipirinhas, and even those seem to be a poor value for the high price.

We were at the restaurant (just me and one other in my party) for over two hours, most of which was spent sitting idle while we waited--waited for meats to come by, waited for our server to check on us, waited for the drinks to come out, waited for the check, and even after I reported our displeasure with the poor experience, waited for the manager. The pace of the meal in general was fairly slow.

The meats were almost all well-done, with many overdone to the point of being leathery. They also seemed to be poor quality--they reminded me of the cheap meat that I might buy from Walmart. When asked, we were basically told that the good cuts (e.g., filet) were reserved for "special occasions". Why did I have to pay a premium price for awful meat? They kept asking us if we had any requests, and the requests were either considered "premium" and weren't available, or they just didn't bring them. We had to ask for one item 3 times before it finally showed up, and when it showed up it was terrible.

Then, there were several birthdays. How did I know? They came out with an annoying tambourine and drum every several minutes and interrupted a bunch of servers who had to go sing happy birthday to people in Portuguese. Maybe this contributed to the level of diminished service. It also made the ambience and experience cheap, like going to a tacky "family" restaurant. The meal and experience we had was probably worth $15, not around $50/person.

Once I was finally able to get the manager and voice my concerns, he said he was surprised because we had previously said that we were happy when he checked. However, he checked once right after we were seated--our drinks had not yet been served and we had not gone to the salad area yet. The second time he checked was not long after we began eating, so the experience hadn't begun to diminish yet at that time. The resolution he offered with insufficient and we still had to wait for another 20-30 minutes before we were finally settled up and able to leave. He also offered a to-go box for the dessert that was provided, and then forgot to bring it.

I'm not sure if he was flustered or just not interested, but the restaurant was less than half full and there seemed to be a sufficient number of servers otherwise.

I won't be back.

Original review:

First off, I must say that the service was polite and excellent, and they handled things well with the COVID-19 situation. Tables are very spread out. Also, the "salad bar" had some great items that I really enjoyed (especially as compared to their nearby competitor, Fogo de Chao). However, the meats didn't really make me happy. There were a few cuts that were delicious (picanha was good, as was the pork belly and parmesan pork), but many of them seemed subpar compared to the other similar Churrasco restaurants in the area. Caipirinhas were very good, but somewhat pricey for the size. Probably wouldn't return on full price--maybe with a...

Wow, where do I even begin?

My now wife and I planned months in advance to hold a wedding rehearsal lunch here for the groom and bridal parties on New Years Eve 12/31/24. We had considered Fogo de Chao down the street, but heard good things about Rodizio and thought it had a better lunch package for our guests who flew in to Denver for the wedding. The day of the rehearsal lunch, the entire (20+ party) showed up for lunch....to a locked door and empty-looking restaurant. We knocked and no response. My wife called and texted the event manager (who apparently no longer works there) who frantically tried to contact the ?head chef or so to let us in. We were standing outside in the cold for a good 15 min and still nobody came to let us in...geez was it even open?

Therefore, I had to on the fly contact Fogo de Chao down the street to see if they can accommodate about ~24 HUNGRY guests for an unexpected lunch. They were short-staffed, but the manager took about 3 min to tell us they will work things around to fit all of us. So the entire party strolled down 3 blocks to Fogo de Chao, called an Uber to drive our senior pastor there, and managed to all enjoy excellent service and fabulous Brazilian BBQ. By the time Rodizio's event manager got the restaurant open for us, we were all at Fogo, which saved what could have been a disastrous wedding rehearsal lunch for us.

Rodizio did reach out later to talk to us to address our grievances , as not only did they lose a lot of business that day, but also put a sour taste for any future desire to check out this restaurant for holding potential events or recommend to other friends and family. Rodizio said that manager no longer works there and would like to comp us a free meal to make up for the disappointment we felt. My wife contacted them to set something up, but as of today (3 months later) have not heard back from them.....

Sorry, Fogo de Chao saved the day and...

OMG I love this place! We moved here in January and I walk by it a couple days a week on my way to class. I've been saying since March I wanted to try it but timing just didn't work out. Tonight though one of my best friends is visiting from out of state and asked what was a place I'd been wanting to try and I immediately thought of Rodizio. We got the dinner service, dessert, one non alcoholic drink, and 2 alcoholic drinks.

Food:🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 literally everything was so freaking tasty. The only thing I didn't 100% like was the Parmesan Steak, which was still so good just a tiny bit too salty for my personal taste. The mint lamb on the other hand was melt in your mouth tender and seasoned beautifully. The sides/salads were also well prepared and delicious, definitely give the yucca fries a go.

Service:🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I've been to Michelin restaurants where the service was not as good. The entire staff was kind, informative, prompt, and friendly. Jose and Michael were attentive. I'm so sorry but I cannot remember the name of the young man who went and got the pineapple by request or the dessert server who was gregarious and made my friend feel awesome. They were both very appreciated. The pineapple finder was tan with chin length curls and the dessert server was a medium height blond if that helps management identify awesome service.

Atmosphere:🌟🌟🌟🌟 Honestly, the lack of a star 100% has to do with the fact that I am ridiculously pregnant and the chairs were not super supportive of the back. They slope away from the spine (probably because you will gorge yourself on the food and need to lean back) so after about 45 minutes it became slightly uncomfortable. Otherwise the art was worth spending time looking at, lighting was appropriate, view through the windows of Union Station well framed, and overall decor tasteful and theme appropriate without being tacky.

I definitely recommend Rodizio for a date night or a nice dinner...