Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Dunwoody

I would love to leave a higher review but I just can’t. My group dined here yesterday. 9 of us total. 4 couples and 1 individual. There were 2 birthdays being celebrated which is why we choose to come to Fogo De Chao. We arrived on time for our reservation but had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated. I didn’t think much of that as it was a busy Saturday afternoon after all.

Once seated, we were barely given any water. The entire table was asked their preference as far as sparkling or still water. Most of us said still but sparkling was all that was provided at first. When the meat started coming around, half of our table was ignored. I mean blatantly IGNORED. They would only approach one side of the table and most of time run out of whatever it was being sliced and wouldn’t return to the other side when they came back out, instead they went to other tables. The fact that they were always running out, also means that our table as a whole was the last approached before they headed back to the kitchen. So for half of the time, half of our table got to watch the other half enjoying the meats. The person who arranged this reservation was one of the people getting to watch the others enjoy the cuts of meat. Which made her very angry. Everyone at the table had their little red and green tabs with the green side up indicating that Yes, whatever was being brought was desired by each guest. But the staff bringing the meats around ignored that as well. Finally, those of us being ignored prompted those of us getting meat to tell the staff person to come to our side of the table as we weren’t getting any meat. This shouldn’t have had to be done for each and every meat but if it wasn’t done this way, the staff person would walk away as if there wasn’t 5 other people sitting there staring at them waiting to be approached. If you’re going to treat half of your guests like peasants, maybe you shouldn’t charge $61.50 for this experience. That is way too much money for how we were treated.

If all of that wasn’t enough, everyone’s bill was incorrect and had to be fixed. One couple got charged twice. TWICE! And then told “well it’s going to take a while for the refund to come back on your card.” EXCUSE ME???? You charged them twice and you can’t issue a refund even in cash immediately? We’re not talking about a check being $40-50. This check was at least $125 plus the included tip since there was 9 people at the table. I know that most higher end restaurants go ahead and add the tip in on parties over 6, but what if you feel service was terrible? You have NO choice. This should be changed in general- not just here. $61.50 per person when we had to beg for water, beg for the meats to be brought to both sides of the table, and then ALL of our checks being incorrect! Nope I am done. I had high hopes since I’ve been here with my job for holiday meals before. Everything was great when I came with my coworkers. The last time was over a year ago and it certainly shows how things have declined since then. Our family will most likely not return unless they do something to make this last Saturday right.

Oh and not that it matters but there always seems to be a line for the bathrooms. In the women’s room, there are only 3 stalls. For a restaurant this size, that’s a poor design. Staff and guests use the same bathroom so when I went to the bathroom, there were 4 staff members ahead of me. I went back to my table and gave it a few more minutes. When I returned to try again, there was still a line of about 3 people ahead of me, a mix of...

What a nice turnaround! After a very subpar experience at Fogo de Chão in July (as seen in previous review below), I returned in September and was pleasantly surprised by the improvements.

First, I must commend Fogo de Chão for reaching out to me and listening to my feedback. They were genuinely interested in understanding my qualms and improving. I was invited to return and I did so, with some level of skepticism. But this time, everything was different:

Service: Extremely attentive and courteous. A tremendous improvement versus our last visit. We were right on time for our reservation, and we were seated immediately.

The “Meat Medley”: For those familiar with the Brazilian rodizio concept, one expects a constant barrage of waiters hounding your table with their meat skewers. This procession should be constant, and one should never be impatiently waiting for more protein. And Fogo de Chão did a great job this time! Their “gaúchos” were constantly buzzing around our table. Again, this is a major improvement when compared to a few months ago.

Meat Quality: All very flavorful. My favorite cuts – beef ribs, pork belly, and the rib-eye. This might have been the most surprising improvement. Some of their cuts, such as their Picanha, were barely edible back in July, and now they tasted great!

Side Dishes: The “pão de queijo” is always excellent.

Dessert: We had both the Cheesecake Brûlée and the Key Lime Pie. Both were quite good.

So hats off to Fogo de Chão. Great job listening to feedback and turning things around completely.

Previous Review (July):

I’ve been to Fogo de Chão dozens upon dozens of times, in many cities in the US and even more often in Brazil. Let me comment on my recent visit to the Dunwoody/GA location (dinner on July 13, 2024):

The Good: • Pork Belly w/ Honey (Torresmo com Mel): Excellent. Very flavorful • Blistered Brazilian Cheese: Very nice • Their cheese bread (Pão de Queijo) is always pretty good

The Bad: • Picanha: Flavorless • Picanha w/ Garlic: Terrible. Very tough… like chewing on a towel • Top Sirloin (Alcatra): Once again, flavorless • Bottom Sirloin (Fraldinha): Flavorless!! (I’m like a broken record…) • Spicy Pork Sausage (Linguiça): Nothing special, just ok

The Ugly: • The service was unacceptable. Very bad. In a churrascaria rodizio, you expect waiters to hound you constantly… you want to be swatting them away like flies. You should never be waiting impatiently for them to show up with the meat skewers. Yet we waited… and waited… and waited… and waited some more. I complained multiple times. When I complained, one of their waiters was rude to us. And management was unresponsive. Very disappointing. • Our reservation was for 6:15pm and we arrived at 6pm. Yet we were only seated at 6:45pm. Once again, unacceptable.

Fogo de Chão is going downhill very fast. After years of great food and service, they’ve been disappointing us constantly during these past few years. If you live in the Atlanta area, go to Passador in Alpharetta instead. So much better!!!...

I am writing to express my deep disappointment following a recent visit to your Dunwoody, GA location over the weekend. My family and I dined at your restaurant to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday — a meaningful occasion we were excited to spend together. Unfortunately, our experience was severely marred by unprofessional and disrespectful service from our assigned server, Kimberly.

Shortly after we were seated, we ordered mineral water. While pouring, Kimberly spilled water across our table, soaking the menus and some of our personal items. What shocked us more than the spill was her complete lack of acknowledgment or apology. When she asked if we wanted to order additional drinks, we politely said we’d like to wait. She responded with a noticeably irritated expression and walked away without saying a word. Her cold, dismissive attitude continued throughout the entire meal.

Later, we ordered beer and some soft drinks. While the beer arrived correctly, none of the other drinks we ordered were served properly. Specifically, we requested Ginger Ale, but what we received was carbonated water with a similar color. When we pointed this out, Kimberly said the restaurant did not have Ginger Ale and that the kitchen had tried to "make something similar." There was no prior notice or effort to communicate that the item was unavailable. The lack of transparency and communication was unacceptable.

What made this experience even more upsetting was that, among all the tables in our section, we appeared to be the only Asian family — and we were also the only table that seemed to receive consistently poor, inattentive, and unfriendly service. This raised serious concerns and made us feel as though we were being treated differently based on our ethnicity. While we cannot know for certain the server’s intentions, her behavior was so markedly different toward our table that it gave us the distinct and uncomfortable impression of racial bias.

Dining out is something our family does rarely, and we had chosen Fogo de Chao with the hope of creating a special memory. Instead, we left feeling disrespected, unwelcome, and deeply disappointed. We have no intention of returning to this location, and we will be strongly advising friends and family to avoid the Dunwoody branch due to this experience.

I urge your management team to seriously investigate the service practices at this location, including any signs of racially biased behavior, to ensure that all guests — regardless of background — are treated with the respect and dignity...