Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

Update Since this review, I have called multiple times and even showed up in person and this establishment did not fulfill what they offered in their reponse to this review.

This is the most inauthentic Brazilian Churrascaria Steakhouse I have been to and I have been to many around the globe. My wife and I came to this place for our anniversary dinner and was placed in this corner booth location that's pictured. Throughout the duration of the night we saw countless servers with empty skewers pass by back to the kitchen and when they would come out-would completely bypass our table even while trying to flag them down (our marker was set to green, we are very familiar with the process). In the 45 minutes we were first there, the waiters came by our table with the meat skewers a total of 5 times. This is unacceptable for a restaurant that is supposed to bring your dinner to the table and you as a customer are waiting for the food to arrive. We as well as other customers in our area noticed the servers walking past to serve the front customers and by the time they reached us, they're supply was spent. Over and over again we counted empty skewers going past our table. The general atmosphere of our surrounding area of fellow customers in the restaurant was absolute boredom waiting for long periods of time for the next meat to eventually arrive. (This photo is from our perspective of not a single server to be seen-which was a pretty constant view of our experience this evening.) Our waiter didn't seem to help much either and when we saw the automatic gratuity on the tab, it all made sense. All in all, most of the meat is overdone, the pineapple has cinnamon thrown on it as an afterthought, the buffet is pathetically small, and the service is the slowest we have ever experienced. Coming from a seasoned Brazilian Steakhouse customer, I really regret coming here for our special day. Save your money and go elsewhere, this is not worth the what...

Had an early dinner at Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse. For starters, we arrived without reservations on Valentine’s Day around 4:15 pm. They didn’t have a table for us, but allowed us to dine at the bar. Our first interaction was with Marie, one of the Managers. She was an absolute sweetheart. She’s the one (with great customer service) made space for us. Andrew, another one of the Managers was also amazing!

Unfortunately, we were sat at the bar with Brandy as the bartender. It felt as if she didn’t really want to be at work, overwhelmed and just “there”. When I told her I would like a Latin mudslide, she began to smile and giggle a little. I asked her what was wrong with that drink? She said, “it’s a lot of steps”. When I asked her to make something else, she said she would make it. However, at this point she already told a paying customer that something they wanted to order was “too many steps”, I didn’t want her to make it with the concern of what might come in it or the additional attitude with it. Right before the check, Marie asked Brandy if “they wanted dessert”. This reference was to myself and my husband as he and I were the only ones at the bar. She told Marie “they don’t want dessert”. As a side note, she never asked us if we wanted dessert or showed us a dessert menu whatsoever. This conversation was had between the two ladies without knowing we overheard it. Marie came by shortly after and my husband advised her we didn’t know they had dessert. Due to her customer service being amazing, she disappeared in the back and reappeared shortly with 2 white chocolate and regular chocolate covered strawberries.

The food….. The meats were only okay, if I’m being honest. Out of the 5 meats we tried, there were only 2 that were delicious. The others were either tough or just not great. The sides were decent! Tuna poke, ceviche, tomato with mozzarella, smoked salmon and balsamic glaze, salads..etc.

All things considered, we probably...

The food is absolutely fantastic and well worth the pricetag. One bit of advice though, please read your receipts. Specials such as the early bird are often forgotten ("You need to ask your server for it"), they've also recently been adding an automatic gratuity of 18%, usually I would agree this is a proper amount, but something just doesn't feel right about having that decision be made for me. This is not the first time we've had issues, and unfortunately I doubt it'll be the last. You can, of course, get these problems resolved, but not without hesitance, specifically from what in my understanding was the owner. While I have no problem going out and ensuring that these issues can be resolved, I feel it slightly predatory against customers. Regardless of this, I still think the food is well worth it, and seriously recommend that you try it at least once. The waitstaff are all also very pleasant.

EDIT: To clear up something, my issue isn't with the tip, nor the amount. Requiring a guest to tip, and not listing that anywhere visible to customers until the receipt is dishonest to your pricing policies. This doesn't seem to be a new issue though, your website lists a early bird special that is not valid on weekends, despite the website listing both every day and only weekdays. Simply clearing this information up to your guests is the only goal I had with this review, as I feel we should have been made aware of this information.

To end this then, I don't recommend against eating here. This place is fantastic, and despite the issues we have with information, it's a small hitch in an otherwise pleasent experience. I just hope that people are aware of what they are paying for, before they choose...