Melinda S.
Yelp
Invited to a holiday party at Fogo de Chao sounded like a dream--unlimited food and a generous cocktail menu in a restaurant that truly lives up to its reputation for elegance. Unfortunately, the experience turned into a nightmare.
The evening started with a warm welcome, from a friendly staff, who walked us to our party room. As I walked past the salad bar area, I stepped onto a tile flooring and fell hard on my back and injured my knee. Management quickly helped me up, took my information, offered basic remedies and promised someone would follow up about my injuries the next day. I'm a healthy able bodied person and this shouldn't have happened to me. To make matters worse, several women in our group said they almost slipped too and avoided the salad bar out of fear of falling themselves. We determined that the tile is slippery and dangerous depending of the texture of the sole of your shoes. I was in enough pain that I didn't get up for the next 3 hours.
The rest of the night was chaotic and uncomfortable. Our tables were so close together that one server would grab the back of my chair, shove me into the table, so she could get past us. I don't think she knew I was injured. Out of frustration, I asked management to please shift our tables away from that wait station.
Servers repeatedly brought the same meats -- like parmesan chicken, sausage links, skinny lamb chops and skirt steak, while premium cuts like mignon and prime rib never appeared until the very end of the night. At one point, our host became visibly upset, announcing that the premium meats had yet to be offered while they were taking desert orders.
Eventually, I was able to taste the mignon, nothing spectacular to a guest who was no longer interested. But when desserts were served alongside the meats, creating an unpleasant mix of smells, that was not a good moment. Fogo de Chao was not living up to its reputation on so many levels!
Perhaps a smaller, more intimate visit might be better, but for me, this experience was awful. Packed up my dessert -- the only food they will let you take home.
The next day I had visible, large, painful bruises on my arm, elbow, hip, and knee. No follow-up call, text, email or smoke signal from Fogo de Chao about my fall. It makes me really angry that the only reason they will contact me is because of this negative review.