Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Miami Beach

Might be long but worth reading. My wife’s birthday was booked for 20 people and they sent us the contract which was 97 per person on a private room, with free drinks for 2 hours including alcoholic beverages, when we got there they said no alcoholic beverages free, only sodas and teas juices and coffee. But the manger on the phone told me free drinks and we even asked if alcohol too, she said any kind of drinks are free for 2 hours, that was their first mistake.

Therefore, I even confirmed with waiter about the price before everyone started to eat, because the contract estimation was 1969 with the taxes included, to my surprise 22 people showed up, but only 21 people ate.

Proceeding, 2 hours past people were asking for their bills to pay and leave, the waiter made all of us confused he went and gave people their bills charging them only alcoholic beverages, minutes latter one of our friends found it crazy that he was only charging alcoholic beverages but not the buffet, some of my friends left happy because they were paying less than they thought, I called him to make me understand while my wife called everyone that left to come and pay for their buffet, and all them said the same thing “THE WAITER SAID WE ONLY PAY FOR THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, BECAUSE THE BUFFET WAS ALREADY PAID BY ME AND MY WIFE”.

Therefore, we told the waiter the he’s was making everybody confused because he was supposed to charge everyone’s food including the alcohol they drank to each one of them. Because the manger that had us booked was clear to say free drinks for 2 hours and everybody would be charged according to what they consume in terms of drinks and the food.

Finally, When he brought the final check we had a clear vision of his mistake, so the check came up 2168.57, as we know the waiter must ask, one bill or separate? He Did not asked us that, and he did not charge for my guetes food because he was telling our guetes that we already paid for the food. For instance, he coulda tell us that he can only take one card, but prior to that the manager said the bill can be separate to each one of us. Also, another mistake he put 22 people buffet on the bill I called him and told him only 21 people ate except one, he went and change the bill, came back with the bill 2070, he came and charged me 5 drinks and I only had 4, he went to correct again… from that moment we told him that every restaurant when is a group you have to ask one bill or separate, and his answer was I’m sorry the manager didn’t tell me to charge separately, does it make sense?

Conclusion, it was already 11:53 PM, waiting for people to send their parts, some of them sent and some were not picking our calls, I ended up paying 800 and something for his mistake in not charging every single one of them before they leave. Because if it’s 2070:21=98.57. They changed a lot, I’m trusted client of them for more than 4 years, since they changed the management, when they see a lot of people they get paranoid and start complicating things.

Be aware of hidden fees and charges when you go there nowadays. Note: EVEN SOME OF THE MEAT WERE CHARCOAL BURNT ON TOP…. But the Atmosphere...

The food is good, most servers did a good to great job. But man, the service was rendered almost poor, mainly because of their one horrible waiter Amado

Once we were done eating, he comes to our table as we are checking out the bill. Amado starts asking and pressuring about tip amounts when I have not even made a decision in terms of how much I will leave as tip, and I have not even made payment yet

Now, i’m actually a generous tipper - but he starts pressuring me out of nowhere regarding the tip amount, implying that it is mandatory to leave at least an 18% tip, which amounts to about 25 dollars (again I am a generous tipper, but I haven’t even given thought of how much I was going to leave, when he starts pressing me. I’m still sitting in the table relaxing).

I get a little annoyed at his pressure tactics, so i ask him: “are you saying that tips are mandatory and must be at least 18%?” - he responds, with a bad attitude: “we don’t work for less - if you did not like the service you can leave nothing”

Classic emotional manipulation, and stupid to talk to a customer like that. Those silly verbal obfuscations might work in a McDonalds, but this is a 70 dollar per plate restaurant - maybe customers are smarter than average and can see right through that immediately? Those kinds of verbal manipulations are misplaced in a restaurant that presents itself as high end

That is low end behavior.

Pressuring customers for tips and saying misleading statements to attempt to confuse your clients and pressure them for tips is silly, and malpractice in a place like that. I wonder how many people he has annoyed with that? Must be many.

This is important because a restaurant really is selling Emotions. It is meant to be pleasant and a good experience. A waiter attempting to argue about tips with a patron is absurd and ruins the whole experience.

All this happens in front of the woman I am with by the way, whom was a friend - but it could have easily been a romantic date, and he probably saw it as such - which makes it even worse.

Not only that, but once he brings back the black checkbook after he has taken the funds, he hands it over to my female friend, instead of me - the man who is paying and initially handed it to him - a clearly passive aggressive, and purposefully disrespectful maneauver.

This kid, needs serious training, to say the least - that’s if he actually wants to be a decent waiter.

I will not be coming back.

Now; there is a reason though why i said “almost poor” - even though the experience was in the end ruined by this man - its important to be fair: and other servers did a good job.

In a rodizio, many other servers approach the table and cut the meat for you, and those other servers did good. The manager of the establishment is great, friendly, warm, and responsive. There was also a young cuban lady that was very good, i believe her name was Yadis

In any case, a decent experience turned sour by...

This used to be my favorite spot when I lived on the beach. Service was spot on. Always a great experience. My family was in town and I wanted to show them off one of my favorite spots and it was a total disappointment. When I made the reservation through open table I wrote in the notes "CELEBRATING MY NEPHEW'S BIRTHDAY" to answer if we were visiting on a special occasion. Why even bother!!! Neither the host, manager or the server acknowledged our special occasion at all. The server a Venezuela lady Johanna right at the start tried to push us into buying bottle water. We told her we were fine with regular water and we didn't want bottle. A few minutes later she shows up with a bottle of water. We of Course sent it back and she got angry like it was our fault she ignored our request for regular water. We ordered drinks of the menu and pointed at the ones we wanted. Menu said $9.99 however when we got the bill, Miss Johanna had taken upon herself to Charge us Premium cocktails, not only that, but a virgin Pina colada was charged as a regular $12 pina colada. The menu says desserts are $12 however the bill we got said otherwise. When dessert was ordered, nothing happened, no candle, no happy birthday, nothing!!!! It was supposed to a birthday surprise: IT NEVER HAPPENED!!!!! We called Ms Johana and told ordered another dessert and told he we were there to celebrate my nephew's birthday and that when dessert comes (SPOILING THE BDAY SURPRISE) bring out a candle and we will sing happy birthday. Guess what, dessert came, no candle, no birthday. Total lack of training, care, love for ehat they do. Just focusing on ripping you off blindly. Totally disappointed, Ruined my nephew's special day and got ripped off. When we asked why we were charged for something we did not ordered, a lady showed up (I'm assuming she was some sort of a manager) with zero managing or customer service skills, never apologized for the situation or introduced herself. At that point we just wanted to be out of that place. They fixed the overcharde drinks. About the overcharged desserts we just wanted to leave because everytime she fixed sth it took about 10 min to come back to fix the overtip Ms Johana had decided to give herself, take off the over charged drinks, run my card more than once got my bank block my card after. A total disappointment, waste.of our time, money and a special day ruined!!!! We will never set a foot in this place again. Train your people and...