Daniel D.
Yelp
The place is nice inside, and the staff are generally friendly. I'd say where they fell short is lack of attention and what felt like purposeful penny pinching.
Promotion?:
The first part of this experience starts with the gift card deal which is so convoluted we couldn't even get the offer. 1) they stopped selling the $80 for $100 deal gift cards at Costco, 2) the website offers $400 to get a free $100 card and $300 to get a free $75 dollar card... We thought "okay cool we can do this and maybe come back another time... but 3) you must buy these cards in advance and cannot use them same day (this is plain stupid policy) and 4) you must use the free gift card you get after Jan 2. So, this means you get a gift card which expires? I thought this was outlawed? We just paid full price without taking advantage of their sham promotion...
Experience:
Our table of 7 came in and were seated in the back, which might be part of the issue, and we ordered a handful of their special table side flavored caipirinhas. Most of us went to the salad bar, but a couple of people didn't really want to. These people were very strongly encouraged to go to the salad bar until they finally said yes.. Ok fine...
Then we had our red/green meat tokens and started off well. But we started asking for cuts which were discussed at the beginning (lamb chops, filet, ribeye, bottom sirloin, etc.).. I would have to wave off a couple of pieces I didn't want until I asked again for the cut I wanted, and asked again..., then finally I got one. It went on like this for quite a while. Our whole table noticed this. What makes me think could have been our seating is our water glasses were often empty too, but many of us had wine to go with.. However, the length of time it took to finally get any of the cuts we had been asking for really felt like it was by design. We speculate they are purposely only cooking 2, 3, 4 rounds of the cuts nobody wanted for every 1 skewer of better cuts. The quantity and duration of times we sat there with green coasters waiting for something we wanted and only getting one gaucho with parmesan pork to offer us a bite was flagrant and what prompted me to write about my experience.
Conclusion:
On a brighter note, it was my birthday, and the main server (Alex) was accommodating. He offered a free dessert, but turned it down as we had brought our own cake. We still had wine, drinks, stayed late (their fault) and enjoyed ourselves. Also, Alex was a bright spot. But the purposeful delays and lack of meat options and "selective" meat types actually rotating were quite noticeable. This, and the stipulations surrounding the gift cards, makes me want to try Texas De Brazil or Chima next time we have a special occasion to celebrate.