Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in San Diego

As a food critic, I’ve heard of this place being a great place to experience. I brought a colleague with me to get their intake on this visit as well. We’ve reviewed places all over including Japan. In the beginning we got seated fairly quick which was great. Once we were taken to our table a gentleman with a lot of hair came to us and introduced himself as our waiter and that he would be taking care of us and then asked us if this was our first time dining in with them, we stated yes this is our first time. He gave us a menu and walked away. Puzzled on what we need to do next since we got no explanation on their specific process. We patiently waited for him to return. Once he returned we asked how this works he then explained the salad bar and the meats that will be coming out constantly, said he will be back for our drink order then walked away. As we waited, about 25-30 mins for him to come back and take our drink order and figure out what we need to do next we decided to just head to the salad bar. Once we got back we continued to wait for him to return back. A table next to us got seated after us and had already had their drinks and side dishes. Puzzled and confused we did not understand why our server never returned. Fortunately, the server at the next table noticed we had just been sitting there and she came up to us and asked if we have been helped at all. We stated and pointed out the guy who said he was going to take care of us. She kindly asked us what we would like to drink. She kept checking in on us and brought us out the sides we never got. After being neglected for a while SYLVIA is the one who catered to us and made our experience turn around. She made us laugh and brought us out anything we requested. If it was not for Sylvia I think we would of left more upset than we did tonight. Her service was outstanding and because of people like her is the reason that will bring customers back and keep them satisfied. The food… to be honest lacked flavor. A lot of the meats that came out was dry. The steak that came out was extremely red and was not cooked. The only meat that came out to our table was sirloin, that came to us about 7 times extremely red and bloody . Pork sausage that came to us about 5 times most times looked burnt and black. Parmesan chicken that came out once was not too bad. More tender with a strong Parmesan flavor. We had pork ribs come out once and let me tell you my rib was just bone! It had no meat and look so dry. We had a chicken leg come out that was dry and tough to eat. It had no flavor whatsoever. I was extremely disappointed in the flavor of everything that came out (out of what we got). We had to request bacon wrapped steak and chicken to come out. They were a little better but also tasted a bit sweet from the bacon. Definitely not enough seasoning to make it pop. The one thing I honestly enjoyed was the cinnamon pineapple. You cant really mess that up but that had the most flavor out of this whole experience. The mash potatoes were very watery and running but actually had a great flavor. The atmosphere of the restaurant was crowded. The tables are way too close to each other. You can barely walk around to get anywhere. The workers do not wait for any customers to go first. They will cut you off and make you wait to pass. When it is busy I understand but customer service should be priority. The bathrooms were somewhat clean but you can tell it was not constantly maintained throughout this experience. Would I recommend this restaurant to others, I would not and would recommend another Brazilian restaurant in Southern California for them to try. Honestly, Texas De Brazil we had an outstanding experience and food was incredibly tasty. Lots of flavor and tremendous customer service.

Again, I would like to shoutout Sylvia for actually caring and taking care of us through this experience. I gave three stars only because Sylvia, If it was not for her I would have rated no stars. She deserves...

We had a dinner celebration for 2 college graduates this past weekend at Fogo de Chao in San Diego’s Gaslamp district.

RESERVATIONS We had a large party and needed space. When we called around, Fogo de Chao met our expectations to accommodate the number of people in our party. We booked a reservation just days in advance and waited for the night to arrive. I recommend making reservations especially with larger groups.

PARKING Parking in downtown can be a nightmare but, if you plan correctly, you won’t have to struggle with finding a parking spot. The easiest place to park is at “Park It on Market” - the parking garage located across the street from Fogo de Chao. You could even reserve your parking space using the Ace Parking app.

CHECKING IN When most of our party arrived, we checked in with the front hostess and were taken to our table.

AMBIANCE Upon check in, the place was loud and we were packed like sardines! The host walked us to a tightly packed room and showed us to a table that had more chairs than the number of people we had in our party. Another host came up and asked for the name on the reservation and - good thing - he showed us to a “roomier” dining area that wasn’t densely packed.

FOOD & DRINKS After being seated, we were able to check out the offerings at the salad bar. We arrived around peak dinner hours so the salad bar looked poorly presented with items needing refill. The salad bar offerings just did not look appetizing.

We ordered a bottle of red wine and that was pretty good.

Then the fun part came: The gaucho chefs carrying swords of meat to bring to our table. I was surprised that they weren’t using the red and green cards anymore. Our first set was sausage - the taste was good but it had a crumbly texture and was sort of rubbery at first bite. I couldn’t continue eating it. The next piece of meat that followed was the lamb - this was overcooked and not appealing at all. It was a bit off-putting to say the least. Next came the grilled pineapple - finally something that tasted delicious to get rid of the nasty lamb and crumbly sausage. As more meat came, the more disappointed we were - some were too rare and most were overcooked. It’s hard to tell in the dim lighting until you actually take a bite. The only delicious meat I had all night was the grilled bone-in chicken thigh. A close second was the bacon-wrapped sirloin but, too, was just ok. The picanha was disappointing. The pace of the meat being brought out was also slow.

SERVICE Our server, Monica, came at the end. She was actually very nice and she helped slice up and distribute a cake slices to our guests. Monica was the only one who really took the time to engage with our family and make sure we were good. I’d give her a 5 out of 5 rating alone.

Overall, our bill came out as expected but I can’t say the experience matched the price. Maybe it was an off night because it was extremely busy. While we did not bother to complain, I did take note of the evening’s dinner experience. Fogo de Chao is a zoo with the extremely loud noise and tightly packed space - I’m pretty sure it was a fire hazard with the way the tables were laid out.

Anyway, the dining experience fell short and I feel it has declined from what it used to be, say. 10-15 years ago even. I will say, though, that the night was saved by Monica. She made for a fun evening at the end and made us laugh. And, of course, we enjoyed our company and the celebrants. At the very end, a waiter brought out grilled white cheddar cheese and honey, which was a surprising gesture and both cheese and honey was a good pairing. We did appreciate them giving our celebrants a dessert of their choice with “Congratulations” written on the plate - it was a nice touch to end the evening.

Food: 2/5 Service: 4/5 Server (Monica): 5/5 Ambiance: 3/5 (Google has capped the characters on this review - full...

UPDATED REVIEW 12/26/23: Fogo invited us back for a second chance, and everything was REMARKABLY better: frequent meat circulation, tastier meat, good service, fast sides, clean restrooms. It wasn't perfect (still waited at least 15 minutes after our reservation time to be seated, and had to ask 4 different times for a particular item) but we left happy.

I'm glad that it seems our previous visit must have been a very off-night for them, so we'll likely return in the future.

---- ORIGINAL REVIEW ---- When I was a kid living in a different part of the country, Fogo de Chao was our favorite place for a fancy, nice meal to celebrate when we'd trek into the city. I have many fond memories of delicious meals and atmosphere there.

I'm not sure if it's just this location that's a complete disaster or if the chain in general has become an embarrassment, but my memories were shattered last night. The physical size and number of tables in this massive restaurant is about 3 times bigger than they can successfully manage with the staff they have.

We showed up at the exact time of our reservation (7:45pm) and were told it would be about a 10 minute wait. That's fine, we joined the 45-50 (!!) people waiting between the lobby and street outside. After about 15 minutes, we hadn't heard anything, so checked in and were then told it would be 20 minutes from THAT point. When we finally came back after getting the call our table was ready, the hostesses all prioritized handling bags of delivery orders and serving every new delivery driver that came in over the customers in front of her waiting for 45 minutes. By the time we actually sat down, it was 50 minutes past our reservation time.

Younger me always liked the green/red coasters they give you to start/stop the meat offers, and I fondly recall the parade of gauchos coming by so often that I'd regularly alternate between red and green to have a chance to eat. The coasters are no longer needed -- we and every table around us were green all night and staring around waiting for any sign of food to come our way. With the exception of the Picanha, which was delicious, the others that did come were dry and not worth it. Seriously -- we probably spent at least an hour during our visit with empty plates just waiting for something.

Sides took FOREVER to come -- we didn't get our first cheese bread until over an hour into our meal. The drink I ordered when we first sat down never came, so after around 45 minutes I reminded the waiter (I would have reminded him sooner had we actually seen him before then) -- and it still took another 20 minutes to get a COKE (which comes in a bottle and requires no preparation).

We had to ask several times for our completely-empty water glasses to be refilled -- there were simply no servers around with any regularity. Between all of the delays (being seated, waiting for meat to come by, waiting for the check, etc.) we didn't get to leave until over 3 hours later at 11pm.

Oh, and the bathroom was more like a public toilet than a nice restaurant. I'm including a photo of the trashy sink area and empty hand towels, but rest assured the other parts were even less maintained.

FDC either needs to either hire a lot more people, close at least half of the tables they're trying to operate, or switch to counter service because they've forgotten how to run a fine dining...