Yesterday, we decided to go to Fogo de Chão Tysons location to celebrate my son’s 18th birthday. His sister also returned from college to join us for the celebration, and we had made a reservation a week in advance. This used to be our favorite restaurant, and we have visited many locations over the years.

I arrived with my daughter 10 minutes before the rest of the family. When I spoke to the host about our reservation for a table of five, I explained that my husband and the boys were on their way and would arrive shortly. However, the host refused to seat us, insisting that we wait until everyone in our party had arrived. This seemed unreasonable to me.

When my family finally arrived, we were seated and greeted by our waiter. We went to the salad bar, which was good, and we enjoyed our salads. However, after finishing our salads, we waited over half an hour to be served the meat. No side dishes were offered, which is usually part of the experience.

When the waiters began to serve the meat, we found it to be either overcooked, burned, or dry. The servers only brought meat to two or three of us at a time, leaving others frustrated. Additionally, one of the servers brought us two fish dishes that still had leftover bones; one even included the fish head, which we found disrespectful. I informed her that we wouldn’t eat the dishes with bones and asked her to return when she had fresh fish available.

Overall, the service was horrible. My son expressed disappointment, stating that if he had known it would be like this, he would have preferred to celebrate his birthday at a regular restaurant instead. The food was either burned or undercooked, the restaurant was overcrowded and chaotic, and as a result, we couldn’t celebrate my son’s birthday as planned.

We will never return to this restaurant, and I will not recommend it to any friends or family.