Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Troy

Was invited for a birthday dinner, midweek 6:30pm for a party of 14. I was the first to arrive so I went to the bar for a drink. Immediately, I could tell that the service was not going to be great; there was one bartender working the full restaurant - she was running around making all the drinks. She approached me with a menu , I declined and ordered a Caipirinha. She prepared the drink right away and then walked off and never returned. Both me and another woman eating at the bar tried several times to get her attention to cash out; I gave up and met the friend group returning almost 15 mins later where I was still not able to catch her. Finally she acknowledges me and holds up a string of bills stating “I’m busy”. I understand it’s only her and don’t think she meant to be rude or dismissive but it came off that way.

When I arrived at the table, there were 3 guests seated and the waiter had already set out the bread and begin taking drink orders for those who were there. He continued taking orders as the others arrived shortly after but never brought out additional menus - so 3 menus for a table of 14! As he begins to describe the dinner experience, people are asking questions because some of us had never been there (10 of 13 we’re unfamiliar and so they’re asking questions)… it would’ve all kind of been taken care of had he asked of it was a first time experience, shared the menu first and/or fully walked through how the buffet is set up, how the rolling meat service works, what’s included/excluded, what you do with the utensils/plate etc. He acted irritated off the bat.

What I did appreciate is that before he started taking orders he did ask if it was going to be on one bill or separate checks. He encouraged everyone have the full experience as it was the easiest to serve. I knew that I could not eat that much food so I declined and asked for the single selection with the market buffet. I knew that there were two beef selections for the single selection so I asked him the difference between the cuts. He said one was top round was the bottom round. I said OK. Is there one that’s more comparable to a flank steak? he repeated again top or bottom round - they are both beef. What I was trying to clarify is could you give me a description of the meat because I was unfamiliar with those cuts and what that means. He wasn’t providing any additional detail, but I googled it myself and ordered the Fraldinha. There were two other people out of the 13 that were there that also chose that selection - we all sitting at the very end of the table, so it should have made it easy to understand who was excluded from the full experience.

Overall, the service was ok. A bit slow to clear our plates and infrequent with the meats. The market buffet offerings could have been refreshed more frequently, but the overall selection was good and tasty. No one explained to the birthday girl/her father that the upgraded surf and turf experience doesn’t have the same cuts offered. The most egregious thing was when the birthday girl asked several times for the dinosaur bones, a.k.a. beef ribs, our server brings out a plate of sliced meat instead of them on the skewers. She asked oh do we not get to see them being brought out I’ve always saw them being brought out. He said “well you’re not gonna eat the bone.” Very disappointing. It’s not even the fact that he’s speaking like that but also when they asked for more, he said no this plate is for the table we’ve made this easier for you by cutting it off the bone.

He returned with some of the checks and said I’m leaving so someone else cash you out. It really left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and kind of ruined a celebratory occasion to not to be able to experience the offerings fully. We finished the meal with a celebratory crème brûlée cheesecake.

The group enjoyed themselves, the drinks and the meal despite the service. I would consider going to another type of Brazilian steakhouse or going to the downtown Detroit location for...

Had a bad experience here. Second time dining. Walk in, not really greeted by Hostesses. Tell them we have a reservation. We're taken to our seat in a weird path around tables and through areas clearly reserved for waitstaff, which we were constantly almost running into. Normally not a big deal, but I was carrying a car seat which made this journey cumbersome. We're shown our table in silence. Not a, "Ok folks, here's your table," Not a single, "you're server will be with you," Nothing. Our table had debri/food all over it, like it hadn't been cleaned from the previous sitting. There was debri/garbage, literal garbage all over the floor around our table and the 3-4 tables nearest to ours. No plates. No silverware on the table. I'm cleaning food particles off the tablecloth. Also, there was no highchair for our 9 month old. That's fine, you're busy. But we intentionally mentioned in our reservation we'd be arriving with an infant. No staff asked us or brought us a high chair. We had to request one. This was a little irritating. You can see we have a child with us. Staff begins to bring bread and other food to table, but we have no plates and no silverware to use. After waiting around 15-20 minutes on a server to take our drink order so I could also ask for silverware, I just got up and walked across the restaurant, found a table with no-one sitting at it, and took the silverware from there. When we did see our server, she was pleasant. But she didn't care about us, which is whatever. But checking in every now and then would be nice. Making sure we had a clean table and silverware would have been nice. I would mention her name, but she never gave it to us. Finally, someone who looked like management came to our table to ask how things were going. I explained they were not going well, and why. Not sure what rank this person held, but she said, "I'll talk to the manager about your concerns, I'm sorry." No manager ever came to speak with us. On our way out, my wife looked in the direction of the two hostesses, standing around, not doing anything, I think in an attempt to give them a goodbye. They said nothing as we walked out. Completely ignored like we were the garage on the floor, around our table. If you're going to be in the hostess game, you might want to practice a little hospitality. To their credit, when we explained it wasn't going well, staff did make an effort to correct things. But I'm tired of having a $150-200 diner bill and having experiences like this. I honestly receive better service from Applebee's. It was my birthday too. This where I choose to go..... I wouldn't go so far as to say it was ruined, because I was with the two most important people in the world to me, which is what matters. But it wasn't fun. It wasn't relaxing. It wasn't a premium dining experience. Our server did give us a card for $25 off our next visit as a, "my bad," but we've added this place to our "never to return" to list. It's a shame, The place...

Food was great! We were seated promptly and both the host and hostess were friendly. Unfortunately shortly after being seated is when the first of many problems with our service experience began to arise.

As we are being seated immediately before speaking to any of the 3 adults 30+ years old, all wine glasses were removed from the table, we all brushed it off at the time and sat down to look over the menu. With it being everyone’s first experience at fogo we were a little confused on how to order and what the “complete experience” looked like compared to a single entree. We asked our server, who never mentioned her name, to explain the menu a bit more to us and explain what the “complete experience” looked like. We were given vague descriptions and asked the same question 3 separate times different ways and still received little to no actual answers. One person began ordering, still a bit confused given the lack of either knowledge on how to explain the process or plain unwillingness, and then without a word our waitress just walks away and begins taking another tables order. We all sat and looked at each other in disbelief that she had just been so unbelievably rude and completely unhelpful.

As we sat at the table confused, a manger wanders over and asks how things are going and we tell her that we are confused, trying to order and our waitress just walked away mid conversation. She then clearly explains the process as well as other menu items and children’s prices, which our waitress had completely failed to do. In moments we were brought up to speed and confident in our choices and places our orders with her.

Shortly after the manager leaves our waitress drops off drinks but hands my 9 year old and my 2 year old a glass cup of soda even though their waters were brought in plastic cups with lids. No other drinks or refills were offered for the rest of our visit aside from the waters being refilled by other staff. Plates were left untouched on our table for the entire visit and not pre bussed what so ever leaving the table very cluttered and begging for a spill especially from the kids.

Our waitress did not return to our table until the end of our visit and only to drop off our 300$ bill and leave. We also over heard her complaining to another table that they didn’t have their hot sides in a timely manner because it was “someone else’s job” The manager did stop by and offer specific meats that we may have wanted more of and also offered a complimentary dessert to my fiancé as we were there celebrating his birthday.

All of this to say our experience was not what we had expected and our waitresses behavior was completely unacceptable and inexcusable. We expected far better and were left disappointed in her efforts.

Update: after emailing the requested information to the provided address immediately after receiving it, 3 weeks after the initial visit and 2 weeks after the follow up comment from Fogo de Chão there has been no further contact or follow up via...