Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in New York

I went out to dinner tonight (8/31st) with my daughter and we were so looking forward to it but we received horrendous service. Our waitress literally ruined our time out. Her incompetence was so thick, you could literally touch it. We ordered the Wagyu Porterhouse and two lobster mashed potatoes as well as a nonalcoholic cocktail and a regular coke. Before leaving our table, she confirmed that I wanted a regular coke and not Diet Coke. She came back with our drink and walked away. I tried my drink and noticed right away it was not regular coke. I do not like zero/Diet Coke. So, I waved at her when she walked by again and told her she gave me Diet Coke. She insisted that I was wrong as she’s pretty sure she gave me regular coke. My teenage daughter intervened and told her it was diet soda as she had tried it herself. So, the waitress took the drink and walked away. Before she walked away we asked her for some cheesy bread since she had mentioned our steak was going to take 25 minutes and I was starving. She came back a few minutes later and said that the regular coke machine was broken and they only had zero Coke. So, I ordered a strawberry lemonade and reminded her to bring us cheesy bread. She brought the strawberry lemonade but no cheesy bread. After a few minutes, she came back to our table as a waiter had approached us to serve us something we did not order. She asked us if we had changed our order. We said “no”. She said who put these two yellow pieces on your table because it means they’ll stop and serve you other items. I said “I don’t know. I thought these were coasters for our drinks.” We all laughed and she apologized and took them away. Before she walked away, I said “I’m really starving. Could we please have some cheesy bread?” She apologized and said she would bring them out. A few minutes passed again, no bread. Our Wagyu Porterhouse arrived and two male waiters were cutting it for us on a salt block. We told them we had been waiting for some bread for nearly half an hour. One of them went and grabbed us some right away. We told them we did not get our 2 lobster mashed potatoes orders either. He walked away and came back a few minutes later with a caramelized banana desert and another side order. We told him that we did not order those and he took them away. I waved again when I saw our waitress walk by and informed her that we were almost done with our meat but never got the lobster mashed potatoes. She apologized and walked away. She came back a couple of minutes later and said she actually forgot to put in the order and asked if we still wanted it. Of course, we didn’t want it anymore as we were pretty much done with our steak. She left and never came back to see if we wanted dessert (not that I was going to risk ordering anything else) or the check. We sat there for like 10 minutes after we finished eating. I finally got up and approached a lady and asked her if she is the manager. She confirmed and I proceeded to let know that we just had a terrible experience and that we just wanted our check so that we could pay and leave but our waitress was nowhere to be found. She asked me a question and I honestly did not understand what she asked after having her repeat it. So, I pointed to our table to show her where we were sitting. She never asked me what happened or what went wrong. Instead, she sent another waiter with the check and gave us a “family and friends” discount. Honestly, I would have much preferred that she asked me what went wrong so that she can better train her employee to do better...

Updated Review 8/1/2025

Based on the Fogo reply, I was able to have a conversation with the GM and was invited back to the location and give them another chance. Was impressed that Fogo actually wants to hear from the customers and willing to listen.

The new experience was simply amazing. From the moment we walked in the door to leaving, all the staff was very attentive and friendly whether it was their section or not. Our server checked in on us numerous times during our meal to see if we needed anything else especially when she noticed we had empty plates.

The food was fantastic, as usual. My wife had the full experience and one of the staff even noticed she wasn’t eating after a few rounds of meats passed. He stopped by and asked if there was a specific cut of meat she was waiting for and he would inquire. Less than 5 minutes later, a freshly made cut of ribs came out and was offered to her first.

This latest experience has changed my original review and will absolutely be back to the location again.

Old review:

Have been to other Fogo locations and this one is mediocre at best—understand it’s a new location and staff are learning but it doesn’t take much to provide quality customer service.

The waiter will try to upsell you on everything (water, food, drinks) and not listen when you say no. Comes off very off putting and like they only care about the tips and bottom line.

Decided to order the market table, ginger ale and the lobster mashed potatoes as we don’t eat meat. Waiter, of course, made a comment that you don’t eat meat today? Took a while for the ginger ale to arrive (had already finished off a plate). Lobster mashed potatoes came out and it’s just the regular mashed potatoes with some lobster pieces on top ($18!).

Halfway through our meal, waiter approaches us and asks if we wanted the sides that were included with our order. One of the sides was the mashed potatoes. If we had known, we wouldn’t have gotten the other one. At this time, a couple sat down next to us and were immediately told about the sides. I asked the waiter why he didn’t tell us in the beginning and he just said it wasn’t in his head. This is very poor customer service.

Then the waiter disappears and we had to have someone else give us our check. When we asked for a to go box, we were told couldn’t get one because of the “experience.” Had to explain it was foe the leftover lobster mashed potatoes.

The managers just stand around and don’t go to any of the tables. This was during lunch and they could have made the rounds.

Probably won’t be going back to...

Terrible Service – Not Even Worth One Star

I had dinner at Fogo de Chão near the WTC in New York yesterday evening, and it was one of the worst service experiences I’ve ever had.

I made a reservation through OpenTable and clearly noted that it was for a birthday celebration. I also called the restaurant in advance to ask about the $45 wine corkage fee, and they told me that a server would help pour and serve the wine at the table. But none of this happened. Also we sat down, the fourth setting wasn’t cleared for a long time. We had to ask the server to remove it, and even then, they said, “Oh, you’re not four people?” and still didn’t clear it right away — we had to ask twice to get it done.

• The server poured just one glass at the beginning and never came back to check. I had to pour the wine myself the whole time.

• No one came to take our order, so we had to stop another server and ask who was in charge of our table. That server simply said, “I’m your server,” which was very unprofessional. There was no introduction or help until we spoke up.

• We had to ask 2 to 4 times for everything — drinks, the dessert menu, dessert, coffee, and even the bill. It didn’t feel like service at all — more like we had to beg for everything.

What really upset me the most was that there was no birthday service at all, even though it was clearly written in the reservation and also mentioned at the table. All we got was a dessert plate with “thank you” written on it — no candle, no message, nothing special. Most restaurants in NYC will at least bring a candle for birthdays, even without asking. Here, we gave them a heads-up, and they still did nothing. It was supposed to be a special night, but instead, I left feeling ignored and disappointed.

After the meal — and after we already paid $400 for 3guest — I told the manager about everything. He apologized and offered to take one meal off the bill, but it was too late because we had already paid. I said no thank you.

In the end, he just said, “Next time, I’ll leave a VIP note for you,” but honestly, I have no reason to ever come back after this.

I didn’t expect anything fancy — just the basic service they said they would give. Even that didn’t happen. This place completely ruined what should have been a nice celebration, and I want other people to know...