Rodizio Grill Brazilian Steakhouse Salt Lake City

I had high expectations from Rodizio's, not knowing much about it. I just moved here from Illinois, and we have a place called Fogo De Chau which is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G...so I was looking for a replacement for that, I suppose. The environment at Rodizio's was loud and rambunctious - with lots of families (not a problem) and constant birthday singing. It reminded me of an Applebee's or something, not a place that was supposed to be as high end as Rodizio's touted. Let me throw in here that the birthday song they sing comes with LOUD drumming on a huge bongo. I cannot make this stuff up. The plastic/bamboo mats on the tables had me worried about the sanitary situation but the greasy 'I'm-ready-for-meat' wooden barbell that you're provided with nails that down. The meats were bland or BATHED in garlic - old garlic, not fresh - and most of the meats were quite fatty. The salad bar had a great selection but the fruits had fruit flies buzzing about, and there was quite a bit of wilted lettuce to pick around when picking up your salad base. Our server was FANTASTIC (Diego) and super bubbly, we definitely recommend him. When the meal was over, and my husband and I were lamenting our meal experience, we were looking forward to the desserts since they had a lot of selections to choose from. The staff brought over a serving tray full of plastic/fake replicas so you could see what they had, and choose what you would like, and then you are served your actual dessert. As a baker, I was deeply disappointed by the chocolate cake... which was soggy, and quite obviously baked with too many eggs in it due to the rubbery texture it had. Topped with generic vanilla ice cream, a bunch of canned whipped cream, and a bucket's worth of chocolate jimmies... this dessert was extremely disappointing.

The overall quality of the environment, food, and timely service was super disappointing. I understand our appointment was for 8pm on a Friday night in the middle of the city, so I left this as a minor complaint, because they seemed spread a little thin in the server department, and Diego was very kind. But there was a lot of waiting around to be helped.

In the end, the manager was understanding and removed the dessert from our bill, but the overall quality of the food left us with no desire to spend our money at Rodizio's again.