Texas de Brazil - Tampa — Restaurant in Tampa

Better off going to Terra Gaucha, a local Brazilian steak house in South Tampa. Also there is a new Brazilian steak house in Wesley Chapel - Rodizio Grill. This location is over crowded, chaotic and ran by a condescending and disrespectful (Juan) GM. You most likely will not be receiving all or half the meats. Not worth the $62 per person. Over priced and over rated Ruby Tuesdays salad bar. Be aware if you visit this location request on the outer parameter.

Full review below: I am writing to formally share an extremely disappointing experience I had at your Tampa location on June 7, 2025. This evening was meant to be a special celebration for my birthday.

We had an 8:15 PM reservation, and upon arrival, were seated in the middle of a severely overcrowded dining room. The tables were so tightly packed that it was nearly impossible to get to our seats without bumping into other guests’ chairs, which made for an uncomfortable and chaotic atmosphere.

Once seated, we waited several minutes before a server came by. We ordered drinks and went up to the salad bar. When we returned, our drinks had still not arrived. It took approximately 15–20 minutes from ordering to receive our beverages. We flipped our cards for meat service, and then waited another 20–25 minutes before the first cuts were offered.

We addressed the delay with our server, who admitted the sides had not been brought out and only did so once prompted. We also mentioned that only two cuts of meat had been offered thus far. She said she would inform the gauchos, but little changed. We continued to receive drink refills, but the meat service remained sparse. At one point, she spilled a drink across the table, soaking two guests. This incident further soured the evening, and I requested to speak with a manager—not just because of the spill, but because nearly 45 minutes had passed and our table had still received only two types of meat. One member of our party had not been served any meat at all, as he does not eat steak and was waiting specifically for chicken or sausage, which never came.

A manager-in-training came over, and I explained the situation calmly. At this point, our table was wet, my friends were soaked, and we were all ready to leave. I requested a review of the bill and expressed that I expected a reasonable adjustment to be made given the poor service and lack of food provided. The manager-in-training returned, stating that after speaking with Juan Barrios, the General Manager, no discount would be provided because “meat was seen on our plates.”

I asked to speak with Mr. Barrios directly. When he finally approached, the conversation quickly became hostile. I tried to explain our concerns, but he interrupted, telling me he would not “let me speak to him in that tone” and asked me, “Who do you think you are?” He then escalated the matter further, calling me a “liar” when I explained that we had not received all the meats. Ultimately, he refused to adjust the bill beyond changing one person’s meal to the salad bar price and made it clear I was not welcome back.

Before leaving, the manager-in-training returned to apologize for Mr. Barrios’ behavior.

As someone who frequently dines at fine dining establishments, I have never been treated with such hostility and disrespect—especially not by a General Manager. This entire experience was appalling, from the lack of meat service and the overcrowded environment to the dismissive and confrontational behavior of your management team.

In addition to the completely ruined experience, two of my guests had their clothes soaked, and one of them never even received the main course. My birthday celebration turned into a regrettable and...

I can honestly say I will never be returning to this restaurant and given this terrible experience I will likely never visit any Texas de Brazil location in the future. For the cost of food at this restaurant there are dozens of better restaurants in Tampa that will provide substantially better food and service. If you want the Brazilian experience there are also other options in Tampa, all of which are much better than here. I don’t have a problem spending money on good food and service, but I regret spending even a dime here. Don’t make the same mistake we did – go somewhere else.

Ashton was the worst waiter I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with in any restaurant I have ever eaten at. Based on the other reviews of this restaurant it is clear the managers do not know how to do their jobs, so it is not worth complaining at the restaurant. The best business decision for Texas de Brazil would be to close this location, or simply fire every employee there and start over. Details of the experience to follow:

This was the worst restaurant experience I have had in Tampa in more than a decade. After being seated it took more than 10 minutes for our waiter to finally come by our table to take our drink order, which was followed by another 10 minutes to bring them to our table. At that point he still had not given us the cards so that we could begin dining, and he argued with me when I asked for them. In retrospect the cards were completely unnecessary, as my card was on green the entirety of the meal and I still had to wait 5-10 minutes at a time for anyone to bring meat by our table. Over the course of 2 hours, we were only offered a few cuts of meat (less than half the advertised menu). The meat that was cooked properly was delicious. Unfortunately, most of the meat was not cooked properly. The petit filets were blue – cold and raw in the middle, and the picanha was very similar.

During the meal our waiter came by only one time to refill our waters and then we did not see him again until the end. Everyone in our party finished our drinks and no one received or was offered a refill, and those of us drinking alcohol were never asked if we wanted to order another drink. When our waiter finally came back, he immediately started clearing our plates without asking if we were finished with our meals. We asked if the restaurant served coffee and he answered yes before going back to ignoring our table. We had to flag him down again to order them. At some point he dropped the check on the table but didn’t say anything about it and no one noticed. There were five people in our party – 2 couples, one with a child – and he didn’t bother asking us if we wanted the check split. We didn’t see him again and had to ask another waitress (who also gave us substantial attitude) to get him so that we could pay for our dinner. When he finally came over, he just took the check out of our hands and walked away without saying a word. We tried to stop him and said we wanted the check split, however he continued to walk away. In all his wisdom he split the check evenly down the middle, which makes no sense given our party. We didn’t even try to fix that mistake as by that point we were fed up with being in the restaurant, so we...

My family and I made a reservation the same day on a Wednesday and were able to get one for later that night. I was surprised how busy they were on a Wednesday night - it gave off a nice vibe for a regular Wednesday. Our table wasn't exactly ready at our reservation time, so we had to wait about 15 minutes or so, which was not too bad. The way it works here is that different men will bring out sticks of different types of meat/chicken/sausages to the table and they even ask how you'd like your meat cooked (if they don't have what you want on the stick, you can always ask your server for any specific requests). The sirloin, lamb chops, chicken drumsticks and sausages were very delicious. Our food overall was great. The service of different meats/chicken/sausages coming to the table was quicker than we had expected, so we were a bit overwhelmed on how quickly it was going. It didn't even matter whether or not the coaster on the table is on the red (stop)/green (go) sides, as the men constantly coming around the table were not paying attention to that. We made our fun with it for sure! I also love that there is a large salad bar with some interesting choices, as well as an area with rice, soup, potatoes and whatnot.

Our server was patient and listened to our questions and concerns. One slight incident that occurred right after we sat down was my mom accidentally sitting on a small piece of cup glass that was on her seat prior to us getting to our table. I informed the server and manager(s). The manager brought over some antiseptic wipes and a band-aid. We were not told that we'd be taken care of regarding the bill when they were first informed about the small incident, which we were a bit surprised about at first; however, that did come up at the end of our dinner with a discount on our total bill and some free cakes to-go, which we appreciated since it was the least they could do after my mom worried about whether or not she'd get an infection or something out of sitting on that glass not knowing how it got there or who was touching it, etc.

We did not realize that the cake samples our server brought over to our table when we were deciding which to get were fake because they looked very real in the moment, so we all got a good laugh out of that. I would recommend dining here if you come on an empty stomach and don't mind spending $50 for all-you-can-eat salad bar/steak/chicken/pork and more (it is half the price for children during lunch time, I believe). Hopefully another incident like that won't happen again since the...