Gauchos Do Sul — Restaurant in Houston

Bf and I went here for Houston Restaurant Week because we saw how great the reviews were. (Spoiler: we were highly disappointed.) Let me walk you through our 3 course meal.

AYCE Salad Bar (2/10): The only things we enjoyed were the salad and cheese. Broccolini was okay. Just seasoned weird. Pickles were…very sweet. I was very confused. The bacon was cold and soggy, even though it was under a heat lamp. It had this spicy sensation but wasn’t spicy at all. Mac and cheese was grainy. Didn’t go back for anything after our first plate.

AYCE Meats (4/10): The meats themselves were great- but only for the first few bites. I enjoyed the ribeye and garlic beef. Everything else, including the picanha and sirloin were a miss for me. The mashed potatoes tasted weirdly like baby food and was served in a plastic dish that looked ceramic which made it get cold very fast. Cheese bread had structure and wasn’t bad, but again, got cold and hard quickly, I would say at the fault the metal bowl they served it in. The meats were the same. Quickly got cold. If I was paying the normal price, I would be deeply upset because the plates for meat should be at least room temperature or warmer but it was cold to the touch. Chimichurri was good, but you could see the fat solidifying between mixing. A REDEEMING FACTOR: the pineapple. Wow. I loved her. She was amazing. But you know it’s a little weird if the pineapple of all things is better than the meat. Like..??? We also decided to get Brazilian lemonade. You know… at a Brazilian steakhouse. Disappointing is all I can say. It just tasted like watered down American lemonade. Not to mention, we ordered it at the beginning of the meal and didn’t get it until the end.

Dessert (2/10): I got the tiramisu. I took one bite and was done. It seemed like they used the tres leches sponge cake and dipped only the bottom layer in coffee. Then used the same frosting from tres leches for the cream parts. Little to no taste of mascarpone. My boyfriend got churros. It wasn’t bad. I enjoyed it much more than my own dessert. That to say, if you do get dessert, don’t expect the tiramisu to taste like tiramisu.

Service (7/10): Everyone was great minus the part where we didn’t get our Brazilian lemonade till the end. But again, nothing that stands out to me here. If you’re looking for an experience with service, I’ll leave you my recs for Brazilian steak restaurants at the end.

Atmosphere (4/10): Maybe I’m not the target audience. I was very confused. The second floor location has a greaaat view, but it was just too many aesthetics going on inside. I could not pinpoint one aesthetic they were going for. The music seemed like it was confused as well. There was electronic remix of My Heart Will Go On, then Latin pop, then bachata. Also, very cold. I never really pinpoint the temperature of a restaurant, but I truly think this was one of the reasons why the meats were getting cold fast, the fats were solidifying, the bread going cold and stale. Do not come here if you’re looking for a chill, relaxed work dinner or romantic date night.

For the same price and half the experience of Chama Gaucha and Casa Do Brasil, spend your money elsewhere on...

My brother & I had a quite subpar experience at this establishment. In the beginning, we received a warm welcome by the host while we were told our table was getting set up but then we were rudely interrupted by a male figure who indeed works there & told my brother that he has to turn his hat around to the front or “take it off” & then turns to me, mind you I was wearing a balenciaga beanie, he then tells me that I’d have to remove mine as a whole. We ask the male as to why he is harassing us as we see other gentlemen in the establishment with headwear on as well & he responds saying “they were in the restaurant before 8:00 also “friends” with people who worked there, so he cannot enforce this rule on them” which didn’t make any sense to me nor my brother or the rest of my party and was overall just very unprofessional. We comply due to wanting to keep the peace. Later in the experience, we see the other side of the restaurant when we were seated, we then see more gentlemen with headwear so at this point it seems as text book discrimination because the other gentlemen weren’t men of color. We then ask our server as to what is going on as to why we are targeted, the male who continuously bothering only my party states, “wearing Beanies is ghetto & that he does not condone.” That remark alone was utterly disrespectful, disgusting, and very unprofessional, not to mention how uncomfortable it made myself and my party feel. The service from our servers was exceptional and while they were speaking on our behalf due to the music being abnormally loud as if we were in some type of night club setting, they were told by the male to “do their job & not worry about his.” As if our experience wasn’t priority as guest. Very unpleasant experience to say the least. The man’s...

While shopping at highland village we spontaneously decided to grab dinner at gauchos as my daughter passed her midterms. We have heard that it’s like fogo the chao. Anyway the elevator does not work and we had to take the stairs which looked shady with tarp covering some areas and just does not look nice. We were seated immediately. We ordered our drinks and water which was prompt. Ambience is nice just a little dark so couldn’t see the menu and food as well hence the 3 points. The salad bar can be skipped. Nothing outstanding. Fogo is better. The wait staff seemed busy but the place was not crowded so I am not sure what the delay was. I then had to request for the food even though we had the Green cards on the table. They brought in ribs which was overcooked, no taste and fatty and my daughter and me could not eat it. Then there was another type of beef that was brought in which was overcooked and too salty. We were getting bits of salt in our mouth. I asked for picanha, chicken, any seafood and sausage. They disappeared for 15mins and brought us some sides. After waiting for some more time I got some shrimp which was good and chicken legs which I did not like. We then got more sides and had to wait another 10mins. We finally got chicken Parmesan which was the best. We were offered the picanha and sausages at the end but we were full by then with the sides and the delay. Overall we were very disappointed especially after paying $170 for the food and we are never coming back. Fogo is much better and I rather drive to a better place to eat if I am going to spend around $100 pp. I am surprised with the good...