Gaucho Steakhouse — Restaurant in Northville Charter Township

Brazilian style steakhouses are few and far between these days, and to be completely honest, I'm not exactly sure why. I like to think of a place such as this as the best all you can eat buffet experience you can have without really ever having to leave your seat (unless of course you want salad from the salad bar), but let's back up for a second.

You must know that this place resides within a rather busy area of Northville. It's conveniently located right off of Seven Mile, so it makes for a pretty easy in and out. It's also very easy to find, and you might have even driven by this place several times without even realizing it. The parking lot seems to be adequate enough to handle the customer base here, but I am sure that during peak dining times the parking situation might get kind of cramped and you might spend a few minutes trying to find a spot. When I was here, it was quite busy and there was still plenty of parking available, so I think in general you'll probably be fine. While we're on the subject of how busy this place gets, I would imagine that it fluctuates quite a bit, but as I said at the beginning, there aren't a lot of these types of restaurants out there, so when people are looking for this type of dining experience, this is going to be one of the places they choose, so just keep that in mind. This place does accept reservations though, so if you're going to be coming for a dining holiday or are with a large party it might be in your best interest to call ahead.

When you walk in, you'll notice a fancy water panel window type thing with some seating for folks that are waiting for their tables, and then a very nice and spacious bar area. You'll also be greeted by one of the many nice and friendly employees that work here, which starts things off on the right foot.

As you are taken to your table, you may notice that because of how things are laid out, it feels a little cramped. Typically an open dining concept would make you feel the opposite, but in this case it definitely feels a little too condensed in my opinion. You'll also want to watch your step when you're not on the carpet. The tiled areas of the floor get pretty slick (presumably from all of the meat sweat everywhere) and I almost found that out the hard way and ended up horizontal instead of vertical.

While we're on the subject of meat we might as well talk about it. I mean that's probably why you're reading this to begin with right? If you're not sure how the whole process works, basically you pay one (semi-hefty) price and then you can shove your face with as much meat and salad bar offerings as you physically, emotionally, and mentally can handle. There are a myriad of different meat offerings and the overall quality and taste is quite good. Really my only complaint other than the floor being unexpectedly slippery is that the "salad bar" which is also included in your meal price is pretty lackluster compared to other places that offer a similar dining experience (same with the deserts). There just wasn't much there by the way of salad, and I would compare it more to a giant charcuterie display than anything else. I will say that what was there, was quite tasty as well though.

After a mouthful or two of their perfectly cooked, juicy, tender meat offerings you're definitely going to want something to wash it down with. Lucky for you, they have a fully stocked bar with a myriad of different beer, liquor and wine options.

When all is said and done you might be thinking that $65 bucks (or whatever the exact price is) per person sounds pretty steep for dinner but when it comes down to it, if you think you can eat $65 worth of meat, it suddenly becomes worth your money and let's be honest here, this country isn't full of small people so in general, I think the average person can eat $65 worth of various kinds of meat. If that's you, then you've found yourself a good place to fill up to the point where you feel like you might not be able to walk out on your...

This is one of the worst restaurants ever, where I had the worst restaurant experience in my life. Came in to celebrate my daughter's 9th birthday with my wife and daughter. Found a disgusting long hair in their mushroom risotto, which I took out of my mouth. I politely asked our waitress, to call a manager. The manager came to our table and I told him about the hair. His reply "Sorry, It Happens". I asked if my dinner was going to be covered . He replied in an obnoxiously rude tone of voice "You can leave if you don't like it. I told you to never come back here again 10 years ago!". We were all shocked. We used to come here, the last time being in 2016 or 2017, but stopped because we fell in love with Fogo de Chao in Troy. I felt really insulted and requested the hostess to have the restaurant owner call me. I was told that she will call me within the next couple of days. I also told the hostess for them to check the video camera, which was hanging right above me, to see that I didn't plant this hair in the food (Clearly, what their manager believed). The owner didn't call. After waiting for a week, I went back to the restaurant and spoke to the same hostess, who kept whispering to that same exact manager. I was told that the owner was going to call me soon. Suddenly a couple of days later a lady introducing herself as Sarah called, while the name of the owners of the restaurant was listed as something totally different. Instead of apologizing for my horrible experience, this person told me that they do not want me to come back to the restaurant anymore. They had someone from the Northville police department, who gave their name as officer Johnson, talk to me in a threatening tone of voice and, when I hung up on them, called again and said that I was put on a Trespassing list. I am a heart patient scheduled for open heart surgery and now I have police calling me and speaking to me in a threatening tone of voice? This is a disgrace and is shameful! I hung up on this person and called the Northville police myself. Spoke to the Sergeant in charge, who was polite, but told me, that these people, these restaurant owners came in and filed a report putting me on a Trespassing list. This place is horrible and these people do not care about customers. Save Your Money, your family and your nerves and go to Fogo de Chao in Troy or Texas de...

My man and I had an absolute awful experience at Gauchos and unfortunately it was our first and last visit. There were many times during our meal that we were sitting with no food on our plates and didn’t even see the staff walking around with food to offer. Now, we are both reasonable people and understand that everyone is short staffed, however that didn’t seem to be the issue. It just seemed unorganized. The gentlemen carrying the meat around would walk right by our table and not offer their selection (and our table tag was flipped to green)…or they would stop would stop at multiple tables near ours, but then pass us up. It was very frustrating. We sat there for 2 hours and had the same 3 (shrimp, Italian sausage, and top sirloin) selections come around to our table (when they did stop). The meat (beef) we did receive was VERY tough and chewy and seemed like bad cuts of meat. We sat there with empty glasses as our waiter never came back to offer refills/another drink.

After giving up on getting other selections of meat, I finally asked our waiter (very nicely) to speak to a manager. He said ok and walked off. We waited 25 mins for the manager to come to our table (no exaggeration)….and that’s only because my man stood up and was looking around (attempting to catch the eye of a manager or at least our waiter again so we could ask for the manager again). The manager showed up and asked us what the problem was and we told her. We also mentioned that we had waited 25 mins for her to even show up at our table and she proceeds to say, “well, I’m waiting tables too”. That didn’t sit well with me. I stress, I understand businesses are short staffed and I always treat the employees that actually show up to work with respect, but for that to be the response from the manager from an already frustrated customer seemed unprofessional (even if it was probably true).

She ended up removing one of the 2 meals from our bill, which was not my goal. I really just wanted to let them know how unhappy and unsatisfied we were as first time customers. While it was appreciated, I don’t believe there was anything that could be done to justify us coming back. The service was awful and the food was way below average.

I would not recommend this place to anyone and would suggest you go to Texas de Brazil who had amazing food and...