Texas de Brazil - Hartford — Restaurant in Farmington

This was our second visit to Texas de Brazil and we have been very satisfied each time.

This visit we went for my birthday. We have a tradition of visiting Brazilian steakhouses for my birthday when we can find them close by, so we have been to 6-7 Brazilian steakhouses ranging from the cheaper side to an expensive fine dining establishment. TdB is one of our favorites.

We made a reservation because we had a party of 7, and we were traveling over an hour to get there so we wanted to make sure we got seated. The reservation process was easy and pleasant. They helped us get in and answered all our questions (kids are half-price and salad bar only is $20 less).

So we arrived a few minutes early but they were ready for us and got us seated right away. There was a small snafu for seating but the FOH manager and our waiter added a table for us right away and we were set. Scott was our waiter and he was great. Attentive without being overbearing. He was on point with the drinks and water.

So we got our drinks (DELICIOUS) and then it was time to hit the salad bar for the starters. Now if you've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, or Churrascaria, this is where your first mistake can be made, filling up on the delicious sides. They have everything from brie, gruyere, fresh mozzarella and a GIANT parmesean wheel, to cucumber salad, potato salad and regular salad options, to hot apps like sauteed mushrooms and soups. While you are up getting your plate, the waiter brings cheese pop overs, garlic mashed potatoes and fried bananas. It's all delicious but make sure you don't fill up because once you get back to the table is when the magic begins.

When you're seated you receive a small circular disk that has one side green and one side red. Just like a red light and green light. So once you bring your starter plate back to the table, you turn it to green. At this point is when the 5-6 garçons start bringing the meats. And this is when you ascend to heaven.

There are multiple types of beef; top sirloin, flank, filet, but my absolute favorite is the Picanha, which is a top sirloin cap fire roasted in its distinctive "C" shape. It is the most amazing mouthwatering thing I have ever tasted. And THEN TdB does something I haven't had anywhere else... they offer garlic and spicy picanha options! They also have chicken options including bacon wrapped breast and parmesan crusted drummets. They have 3 lamb offerings and a Brazilian sausage that is delicious. All the meats (except chicken duh) are offered at medium rare-medium, but you can request well done if desired.

At any point, if you need a break from the constantly roaming meats, you just turn your disk to red, and they will not offer you their current option. But you can flip back to green at any time. Our favorite garçon is Antonio. My husband prefers well done (EW) but Antonio was so accommodating and would go get the selection back on the fire and bring it out cooked just as we asked.

The only thing we have had at other Churrascaria that isn't offered here is roasted pineapple (though sliced pineapple is available on the salad bar), but there is something about the roasted one 👌. This is the ONLY reason we can't say without a doubt that it is our favorite place.

So overall we love this place even with the higher per person cost and will...

Skip to the end if you don’t care to hear about the ok aspects of the place. Gotta start with the goods before the bads.

This will now have been the 3rd time we had shared a family/special meal here. The great reviews and chances I wanted to give this place are now over and I'm here to write a genuine review. I want to note that others who have reviewed really seem to enjoy this place, but do understand this isn't an outlier. I've been in the restaurant industry for 8 years and know how things work for the most part. So don't feel this is merely an outlier.

Reservations: Not once have they been even remotely on time. I understand you can't predict when people will be getting up from their meal but 1/1.5hr(2 of 3 experiences)wait times on a reservation with NO compensation is not acceptable. Not even an apology or gesture to show understanding. The other we were sat in about 30min of reservation.

Service: Servers were fairly attentive with how busy they were each time we were there. Party of 8/10 is never easy. Drinks take a little longer than usual. I expect them in about 15/20min for a larger party. Knowledge of the foods is there and that's appreciated.

Food: The buffet bar has some decent options, though they should pay a bit more attention to items that are running out their freshness clock. The meats and such are usually tasty but most of the time over salted(notice I didn't say flavored) because it seems salt is the only real seasoning and it's just overkill. Yes I understand it's a tactic to "fill" you quicker or make you drink more.

My PROBLEM with this place iS EVERY time we have gone there, there are not enough MEAT servers or consistency in the flow of meat. And what are we going to this place for? THE MEATS !!!The good cuts come once in a blue moon and ALL the meats come at a snails pace. All 3 experiences have been this way. Every time a few tables surrounding us have complained about the same thing such as certain cuts not making it ever to our/their table and not enough meat coming around. Yesterday a large party next to us left because of it. This was our final straw and we ended up speaking with the server/management to no avail. It's UNACCEPTABLE. It seems to be mainly the larger parties that really miss out so 6+ people. At the price point and revel to be fed endless amounts of meat( aka the point of a churiscaria) it is UNACCEPTABLE. 3 times out of 3 times now.

I gave the place 1 star because the avg rating is far too high on this place. I'd imagine it's largely due to smaller parties and people who just enjoy it for what it offers( as there isn't really anything around to compete with it) but honestly the "experience" isn't worth...

Went there with a large-ish party of 12 and the food was good, but not plentiful, and the service started out strong but fell flat, and most of us left still wanting more.

We were promptly seated around our reservation time and the host noticed our need for highchair and booster seat and promptly set them up. Our server came over immediately with a friendly attitude to welcome us and take our drink order and welcome us to help ourselves to food.

We started with the cold salad bar and had our cards flipped to red, but the gauchos kept coming over to offer us meat before we were ready. Little did we know, we should have accepted because after their initial passing, getting them back to our table afterwards felt like an impossible task. The meat was delicious and well seasoned and there was a good variety. Some of it was definitely a little over salted.

After the initial offering of meat trying to get the attention of the gauchos or our server was difficult, almost as if some of them were purposefully ignoring us, which I'm sure is a tactic to make sure they're keeping healthy profit margins. Eventually our server did come back and we mentioned wanting more filet mignon with bacon and he had to check back with us 3-4 times before they even came back with it.

The server himself only dropped off 1 serving of the sides (mashed potatoes, fries, and plantains) and after we finished didn't notice or offer more. Same with our drinks, our cups across the table remained empty with no offering of refills. However, he made sure to only offer us still or sparkling water at the start of the meal that was charged for and not tap water.

We also ordered a pitcher of sangria for the table which didn't arrive for about 30 minutes into our meal because there was only 1 bartender on a Saturday night. To his credit, the server did pour the initial round of drinks from the pitcher, but again, didn't offer more.

Definitely left feeling unsatisfied for what we received especially for the high cost of the meal.

Overall, the atmosphere and food were good, but the service could use improvement. Staff could be more attentive and offer more frequent rounds of food. I'd say the restaurant and restrooms were pretty clean as well, but the whole floor in the main dining room felt like it was greased up and waiting for...