Tucanos Brazilian Grill — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

Tucanos Brazilian Grill is an attempt at Brazilian cuisine, but if you are looking for an authentic Brazilian culinary experience, you will not find it here.

The main issue is the food itself.

The meat: The meat is usually well cooked, but it's not cooked/grilled in the Brazilian "churrasco" way and is missing that taste of open flame grilling/cooking. There are also cuts that come out looking cooked on the outside, but quite raw on the inside.

They have also invented a variety of meat styles that are not typical of Brazil (sweet and spicy chicken, Parmesan steak, bacon wrapped beef, and sweet BBQ sauce chicken, to name a few). If the goal of the restaurant is to present authentic Brazilian food (which is assume it is based off the name) there is no need to include anything outside of that. Part of what makes Brazilan food so good is the simplicity and uniqueness of it. It's un-necessary to try and cater to non-brazilians by including things outside of the the typical Brazilian dishes.

Which leads into the rest of the food buffet. There are so many things included that are called Brazilian names, but are not actual Brazilian things. Or they are pretty terrible attempts at recreating a Brazilian dish. Some of the stuff they offer (like sushi) is just down right out of place. If I am going to an Asian restaurant, I don't want to eat tacos. Likewise, I go a Brazilian restaurant to eat Brazilian food, not asian, Indian or any other food.

The service: Service is pretty decent. We were regularly brought meat and didn't have to wait long for anything we asked for. Although our waitress walked by out table several times and didn't offer to refill our water or bottomless lemonade.

The majority of the employees on staff were not Brazilian. That's fine, but going back my previous point about offering an authentic Brazilian culinary experience, why would you have a 20 something, non-brazilian as the "grill master"? If you want authenticity, at least have the person cooking the food be Brazilian.

Atmosphere:

The atmosphere is nice enough, but there is little to anything that resembles Brazil. Sure there are pretty vases (unrelated to Brazil) stacked over the salad bar, random bunches of bananas (bananas are in Brazil right?) laid around the fruits and salads, some tropical bird statues/paintings, and fake maybe tropical plants around the place, but nothing that makes you even think about Brazil. I just don't get why anyone would go through all the trouble of decorating a Brazilian themed restaurant with stuff that has nothing to do with Brazil. If you are gonna go through all the trouble in the first place, might as well do it right.

Overall, the food isn't "bad," but it's not Brazilian. That's the only reason I am leaving 2 stars. If it was just evaluating how close to real Brazilian food Tucanos' food is, it would be 1. What's probably the worst thing is that people will go to Tucanos and eat and leave thinking they know what Brazilian food is now. Tucanos is like the Taco Bell of Brazilian food. It's decent and kind reasonably priced, but it's a far stretch from true...

The downward spiral of this brand continues to impress me. The atmosphere itself is aging and worn out and the carpets are dirty and the furniture is rickety and falling apart and tables and chairs are scratched and need to be replaced. The idea of having an actual server who will describe everything to you and let you know exactly what to expect has simply been replaced by one person who is an order taker for an entire area. The young people who are carving the meat and doing their best to do a great job, at their own admission, as well as the admission of the manager on duty, absolutely have not received the training that they were expecting nor do they have the tools to do their job properly. The knives are dull. They are unable to carve decent size portions even for a Brazilian steakhouse. The quality of the meat is ridiculously bad. Every single cut we tried was dry or chewy or overcooked. Nothing came out rare or medium rare and the ones that were seasoned almost were overseasoned to a degree that they were masking the meat with the seasoning. None of the steak options remotely were impressive or tasted above a five or six on a scale of 0 to 10. And that's being generous. I literally could have exfoliated my face with the dryness of the chicken. I have been going to this restaurant since it opened and each time I've gone I've watched a downward spiral with the quality of the food, the quality of the service and the attention to detail. They started closing the salad bar before the day was over. Upon arriving at the venue, which was still open for almost two hours, they were not updating the salad bar or cleaning it. Refills were random at best. Many of the items that should have been offered were not. Upon requesting a manager, we were told that that individual was busy and then when we spoke with that manager, while they gave us a discount and some cards to return, they simply did not seem to care about the bigger picture even though they thanked us for the feedback. I can't justify suggesting this restaurant to anyone any longer. There are better Brazilian steakhouses in the area. I have my own opinion about those but I would suggest trying them first. I simply think the owners of this brand need to reevaluate everything from top to bottom and that they need to send people in on top secret missions to shop for them to realize how bad it has gotten. Do not support this brand. I believe the only reason they are staying busy now is because of the rejuvenation of downtown and most people are not aware of how bad it has gotten. I believe that ownership or management at the top levels of this growing small chain are simply focused on the bottom line and the revenue and that the rest is irrelevant. My money will be...

A group of us guys went to an expo at the Salt Palace and then were excited to go to Tucanos for lunch. We checked in with the hostess and put our name on the wait list and were told it would be 45-60 minutes to get a table even though it appeared that 70% of the tables were open. We just assumed they were short staffed but it was still frustrating waiting outside in February for 45 minutes when many, many tables were open.

The meal was just average in quality, nothing special and I had to put salt on most of the meat to bring out the flavor since it appeared to not be seasoned at all except for the garlic beef. After that the real kick in the gut was when the bill came, and is why I'll never go back. The lunch price on the bill was $34.95 per person. When we asked the waiter about it he replied in the cattiest voice he could muster that it was the special DINNER price. We replied that we were there for lunch and again he replied, that's the special dinner price. We all sat there stunned and confused and wondering what in the world he was talking about so we asked about it being lunch and not dinner and he said "It's the special dinner price for Valentine's Day. Didn't you notice some extra meats that they brought out to you?" Well, I guess I noticed the tenderloin they brought out one time and the salmon they offered right at the very end of our meal but other than that nothing special to justify almost double the price for lunch. There were no signs at the door, the hostess never mentioned it and the waiter never mentioned it. They just intentionally screwed us over. As we were leaving, the table of ten next to us, with what appeared to be a ten year old and fifteen year old, were fuming mad when they got their bill because they had just found out the same thing. What Tucanos did to customers that day was both unethical and dishonest. I will not be back.

UPDATE- I sent an email to Tucanos asking about this experience and never received a reply and it's been nearly two years. They do not care about their customers, they only care about making money. I haven't been back and spoke with the other 8 members of our group just last week and they all said the same thing as me. They haven't been back and will never go back. We all wish we would have demanded to speak with the manager that day and refused to leave until the bill...