Samba Steakhouse — Restaurant in Philadelphia

One of the absolute worst experiences at Picanha Center City! Stay far far away! Visiting Philly with my husband for 1 night and we decided to go back to this place (we went in June when they first reopened from the pandemic). It was pouring rain last night and we arrived around 7:45, the hostess greeted us and motioned for my Burberry umbrella (given to me as a gift literally the night before) and said “give me your umbrella, I will take care of it for you.” We sat down, ate, had a few drinks and stayed till around 10pm. There were only 2 people left at the bar when we departed the restaurant. About 45 minutes later, we realized we forgot our umbrellas and so we went back. The restaurant had since closed, but the front door was open and the 2 managers and a few employees were still hanging out and they motioned for us to come into the lobby area. The manager met us and we let him know we forgot our umbrellas, he gave us the $7 black one we had bought at cvs earlier that night and the $320 Burberry umbrella was nowhere to be found. He said: “there’s only these 2 left” (neither was mine) and then he proceeded to say “why would you leave here without your umbrella?” while shuffling me out the door. Who says that when you’re trying to find something you left behind by accident? Is that the response to a lost phone or purse also? When my husband saw me leaving without the umbrella (he was outside) we both went back in and let the other manager as well as a few employees who had come over, know what had happened. Not one person said “I’m sorry.” They were aggressive, rude and belligerent. We asked them if they could please call the hostess and she claimed she had no idea where it went. Hmmm. A Burberry patterned umbrella is sort of difficult to forget in a sea of mostly black umbrellas, don’t you think? Especially when the restaurant only had a handful of tables occupied. Another employee came over and started saying that they were closed and insinuated that we had done something wrong in coming in, even though they had all motioned for us to come through the (unlocked) front door. What that had to do with finding our missing umbrella, I do not know. We just spent $200 on dinner (my husband tipped $40 on a $150 bill) and we get asked why we left our umbrella and then accused of entering a closed restaurant? We were clearly upset and instead of offering us any sort of apology or gift card or anything at all for losing our very expensive umbrella, we get treated like trash. They told us to come back at 3pm today because that’s when the hostess started working and if the umbrella hadn’t turned up, they would give us the money to replace it. We came back, the managers were not there nor was the hostess (she actually started at 4 not 3) and were told to come back as the managers were out at restaurant supply. We came back 30 minutes later, the absolutely horrendous manager started yelling again and not only did we leave with no umbrella and no money, another woman who works there said to my husband in Portuguese that this happens all the time. Moral of the story, this place is filled with unprofessional scammers. Will never set foot here again and will tell our many Brazilian friends to stay far far away! There was one employee I believe named Will and he was amazing and sympathetic. Everyone else we encountered either didn’t care or were argumentative and rude. I feel sorry for the employees that their manager is so nasty. Will be filing a report with the Better Business Bureau first...

I had some trouble 😐 😕 deciding how to rate this place. I purchased a Groupon for this place, it was very very last minute and on a Tuesday evening. It was super easy to find, and naturally due to the area we just paid for parking in a garage and walked several blocks to get to the restaurant. We were greeted immediately and seated immediately. We have never been to the restaurant so they explained their process, much like other Brazilian steakhouses. The wait staff was very friendly and not in the fake friendly way. The restaurant only had one other table of people so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was definitely a nice place but not nice in the uptight way where we had to adhere to a strict dress code. We didn't feel under dressed or uncomfortable because we were not wearing semi casual or formal wear. Although, I probably would have if it was later in the evening and it was a packed weekend. It's definitely not a place to wear sweats or leggings. We had these recommended drinks 🍸 and they were delicious 😋!!!! They had a pineapple 🍍 flavor kinda tasted like a melted pineapple water ice consistency too, it also had a slice of pineapple in it that had this crunchy sweet/spice seasoning on it that I would've loved to have just as a dessert 🍨!!!!! The steaks they were carving were perfectly 👌 cooked and you could see how juicey they were as soon as the gentleman walked up. Their side options though we good but when they said they had a salad bar, I expected a full salad bar. The salad bar was minimal on toppings to even make a salad as were the dressings. That's the main reason I debated on the star selection. They had this little BBQ ribs that were sooooooooo good, I wasn't anticipating to even have BBQ last night but they were really freaking good ribs!!! They also had this Mac n cheese type side that used a white cheese sauce, now that was delicious. But they had these sliced Brussel sprouts and I love Brussels but these were very under cooked like less than a flash steam even and no sauce no season nada. They also had this artichoke heart chunks that were in a sauce, it was ok nothing to brag about, and than I tried these mushrooms with red peppers and it was a cold dish and just off putting, if it was hot they would've been great. I mean there was a decent selection but I feel like sometimes resturants try to twist a dish to make it unique or "their own style" and it ruins it. I would definitely recommend the place but it's not somewhere I'd eagerly go again. That's how I judge a place, do I wanna keep going? Do I want to go back again at all? And this place was good but just not somewhere I'd say oooooooooouuuu let's go there!!!! That's why I...

Came in last night with a friend because we've been the location on Castor several times and thought "why not?" This location is much classier than the Castor one, decor great, place is new, ambience good.

However, what really mattered when coming to the place is the food, and the reason why I'm giving it a 1-star is the fact that during this restaurant week time - it's $40/person, I expect there to be some quality aspect to that. There were only 5-6 meats available and all of them flavorless EXCEPT for the chicken wrapped in bacon (tasted like bacon and the chicken was actually not dry). Don't expect ANY quality meat like ribeye or anything like that. It was all Top sirloin, roast beef, picanha, small pink sausage, chicken wrapped in bacon, and lamb.

We requested well-done meat and the well done meat we seldom got was burnt and inedible (extremely dry we both found ourselves spitting out the meat we got multiple times). The majority of the meat we actually got was bloody (inedible as well). The garlic chicken was the other chicken they had available and it was extremely lackluster - barely any flavor and extremely dry. I cooked chicken earlier in the day in my own oven and it was jucier and more flavorful than this (and I'm a terrible cook).

The other meats, pork + lamb + beef, all flavorless, with the only flavor you COULD taste was extreme saltiness on some outer parts of the meat - close to the fat, which was inedible as well.

Dessert were pre-made cheesecake or key lime pie. Cheesecake tasted good (just like how it should be). The key lime pie was very sour.

The salad bar was all about appearance, and to fill you up, some parts were good. The potato and plantains and green beans were good, but other than that the fact the meat was so bad, it was not worth the $100 I spent here and for sure, I'll never come back here again. It was a HUGE disappointment and a rip off almost!

Parking: Street metered parking. Good luck. Service: Good, refilled water a bunch of times. Covid: Everyone wore masks, they had hand sanitizer and gloves for the bar. Bathroom: Classy and clean only 1 bathroom for women (can only fit 1 person at a time) and 1 for men. Food: Extremely bad and disappointing. Would I come here again and recommend?...