Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Irvine

Bad, bad, bad! The negative reviews u find on here are 100% correct. The positive reviews come from people with only one review ( bots) We had a table of 11 for my friend's b day. They pack you like sardines in this "fine dining " restaurant. A table of 15+ on both sides of us where we couldn't even get out of our chairs to use the restroom. Not to mention the place was SO LOUD with everyone right in each other we often had to step outside because it was so overwhelming. That's just the environment! The service was horrible! Our waitress tells us that we all can only order the same type of package meat deal with no variations. It says there's happy hour all weekend so some of us thought we could do that but only to be told that's in the bar area. Which is not mentioned on the menu online. When we sat down, they had a bottle of mineral water poured in our cups and when we asked for refills, they said it's gonna be another $25. $25 for a bottle of water and one we didn't even ask for?! When half of us decided to just get drinks they removed all napkins, silverware, and bread from in front of them. BREAD!! They couldn't even eat bread with their drinks!! Some of us ordered the Brazilian cut Service and some of us ordered entrées and we were all told if you ordered food you could go to the salad bar or whatever fancy word they called it. Most of the salads were empty all night and it wasn't very easy to get up and get the food. One of us ordered a seafood platter that was $38. And she went and got the salad bar because the waitress told us all too. Her food arrived. It was just two lobster clause and if you shirts and it smelled rancid! I mean, smell so bad that the table could smell it when it arrived. It took a long time for the waitress to come back to even tell her. Eva came to talk to us, but apparently that wasn't the manager. She was kind and caring and felt bad. The manager was Kimberly, and when she came, she already came with an attitude and mean face because I believe our waitress was telling her how much we were upset. I had ordered an entrée, but the meat was taking such a long time and I was already full by the salad so I said cancel the meat the waitress said well you special ordered it to be cooked a special way and I said no I didn't everybody else has gotten meat five times and I haven't gotten anything so I'll just get a salad bar. When the manager came, she said that she would finally comp her seafood meal. (I would hope so since the food was spoiled and rancid.) but when she saw that she had got the salad bar, she said she was still charging her for that. I looked at her and I said are you seriously going to charge her for the salad bar when you serve your food that would've made her extremely sick and ill and caused her to the hospital?! She gave an attitude to another person at the table because I was involved in the conversation now and she said yes we're still going to charge her for it. I said we are definitely all going to go on Yelp and let them know that you Kimberly had horrible customer service and not even sorry for her and putting rancid seafood plate in front of her. She made her pay for her salad she thought was included per the waitress and they kept sending her the wrong drinks! If you want to pay $50 + for a few meats (they said were very fatty) and a salad bar that isn't even stocked with horrible service or you can't even hear the people around you and pay $25 for a bottle of water you didn't ask for THEN definitely come to this place. look at all the BAD reviews and believe me and them!...

We made a reservation for our 5 year anniversary dinner. This was our first time at a charruscaria. My brother raved about the fogo de chao in SA,TX so we decided to have a new experience here in CA. The reservation stated to list the fogo 44 if chosing this option. So we did along with requesting a quiet table because we were celebrating our anniversary. We arrived and waited 30 minutes to be seated with a reservation. Its a monday night and not busy. Our table was a quiet table tucked away at a corner. There were 2 glasses a water bottle and a fogo 44 menu with the yes/no coasters. We sat there for 20 minutes no one came to ask for drink orders. We went to the table bar to get some salads, we came back and a few meats started to come in. I told our meat server it was our first time to forgive us, and he just served us the bacon chicken. Still no drinks or server so we opened the bottle of water that was room temperature no ice on a hot summer night. Another server came with the sausage I embarrassedly asked how it works to get drinks he said he would call someone. a young man came and took our drink order. When another meat server came I asked her how the fogo 44 worked it stated you got brazilian sides throught meal and dessert. She said she didn't know shes just the meat server that our server would assist with that, I told her we were seated 40 minutes ago and no one came to take drink orders or explain to us she said she would get someone. I asked the "server" that came how do we get the sides listed on the fogo 44 menu, she asked are you doing the experience or the fogo 44? i said the fogo 44 menu that is here on the table and what we listed on our reservation. She said oh then let me take these coasters these aren't the correct ones. She said this with a tone that made us feel unwelcomed or that we werent treated as the others having the "full experience" like we had lied and already had the food we weren't supposed to. Keep in mind this is our first time we have no idea how anything works. We then figured the other coasters were for nicer, more expensive cuts of meat, but we had only just had the bacon chicken, sausage and the bacon sirloin all listed on the fogo 44 menu. I asked her about the warm sides how we order and she said ill get you some and rolled her eyes. She took our drink menu and we only had ordered one drink each. She brought the warm sides and didn't ask us what we wanted she just brought the mashed potatoes and bananas. I have been wanting to try the famous cheese bread and polenta and we didn't have any of it. No refills on drinks or anything, I had to ask for dessert. The only nice persons there were one meat server and the young girl that brought our dessert and cleared the table. From the fogo 44 menu only 3 different meats were offered to us. My partner was very upset at the bad service it ruined our anniversary dinner. The bill came 130 dollars and they included the warm bottle of water we opened thinking it was complimentary because no one came to ask for our drink order. We still had to pay gratuity, so we paid about 150 for a salad bar, 2 pieces of low quality meat and a warm bottle of water. Our original check listed a server of Gabriel, no idea who that was and our final check listed someone by adrianna or something similar who might have been the one that made us feel umwelcomed. Unless you know how this "experience" works I wouldn't dine here because they sure will make you feel stupid and...

A complete failure on every possible level!

For full disclosure purposes: I booked this restaurant around 6/21/23 through OpenTable for my wife's surprise birthday dinner. My plan was to have a nice evening with family from San Diego to Orange County being there and surprising her. However, after I read through reviews on both OpenTable and Yelp, with many reoccurring themes around a lack of service, no attention from the wait staff and meat folks, and much more, I cancelled the reservation.

But after careful consideration, I rebooked the restaurant a few days later assuming perhaps the restaurant read all these negative reviews and made material changes to their service level.

Boy was I was disappointed.

We had a group of 10+ on Saturday at 715pm. From the onset, we started to experience very slow service. The majority of the group ordered the meat experience (Churrasco) where various types of meat is supposed to keep making its way to the table. From the beginning, we asked the waitress a few times to ask the meat service to come by. We literally waited around with gaps of 15-20 minutes with nothing -- no meat, no service.

I then made a stern request to the waitress stating, "We didn't pay for a vegetarian meal but are being treated this way since all we have is the salad bar. We would like some meat to come by." Finally, a few rounds of meat slowly made their way to us. This was about an 45 minutes to an hour into the evening.

I thought we turned a corner and was hopeful we'd have a nice rest of the evening. But again, disappointment set in. Our waitress "went on break" so I asked our new waiter if we can have meat service. My nephew asked for pork chops which are part of the Churrasco service. Nothing. I called the waiter again and asked for meat and expressed our disappointment. We waited another 25 minutes or so. Again nothing!

At this point, our waiter had a manager or "customer service rep" come by. I expressed my severe disappointment stating that this was my wife's dinner; I had family drive from San Diego and we are all so disappointed. She apologized a few times and subsequently discounted the bill. I let her know I was appreciative of that but that I am still utterly disappointed, being that this was such a lousy experience and the experience was more important than the bill.

That said, it appears as though 1) this is a private equity run restaurant brand and they may strategically do this so you don't eat much meat but rather load up on salad. Because this type of poor service is absolutely unbelievable at an enterprise this large. OR 2) this restaurant just doesn't have a good operation or management team. They either need to improve staffing or their operations entirely.

Either way, if you care about the experience and service you receive, stay far away from this place. It's unfortunate because the restaurant can actually be good. For now, I suggest RUNNING away as fast as you can; go to a venue that will appreciate you and respect your investment of time and...