Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse

One of my favorite restaurants to go with a large group. Its quite an experience. We came with a group of about 20. The staff was very friendly and attentive. Most of our group hadn’t been to a place like this before. It was fun watching their eyes light up as the servers swarmed with swords of meat. Meat was everywhere! The do a great job of picking out meat cooked as you requested. Overall, the food is pretty good. Its always a good time to sit around for a couple of hours, talking and eating.
You MUST get the papaya cream desert! I know you are going to be too full and will be telling yourself that you shouldn’t, but you MUST. Add some liquor on top and it is absolutely delicious and will settle your stomach down. This desert makes the world feel so much better after the meat sweats you’re surely going to have!

This is a little of Brazilian test in Chicago! But from my point of view it is overprice, they didn’t have famous deserts from Brazil, the salad buffs is small and they jumped our table for many times!!! Definitely I should have gone to taxes do Brazil!!! This one is much better!

Quality is good but not quite 5 stars and prices I think are a little high. I have been to the original Fogo De Chao in Sao Paulo, Brazil so I am probably a little jaded. Make sure you are hungry and they should charge women less as 1 price for all makes it steep.

Went here with my wife for lunch and it didn’t disappoint.
Food: The food was good. The picanha steak is really tasty and full of flavor, the clear favorite meat on the menu. The salad bar had a nice variety. When you have good food and leave a restaurant full, you know they did their job. The only knock against it was the coffee and desserts. The coffee was bitter and the chocolate lava cake wasn’t anything special. The chocolate mousse cake was a little hard.
Service: The service was good, plenty of servers came by with an assortment of meats to try. My water was filled frequently and they always made sure everything was ok.
Ambiance: Atmosphere was nice, a little dark for my liking, but generally a nice place.
Would definitely go back again and recommend

Finally. Fugo de O Yeah!!!
Most important thing– go there if you are an ‘eater’ — meaning, if you can EAT. Period.
You gotta be a Joey.
Food here was great and the pricing was comparable to any other good steakhouse out there. Customers were treated nicely here and respectfully. 5 stars on that.
Started off with their salad bar, that had pre made as well as make your salad options. Fresh fruits, veggies, and other healthy options to support your stomach. few types of cheese, salami and bread to go w your wine as well.
Ready, steady, anddd GREEN signal. Here comes the MEAT. so many so fast. Felt like swimming in Uncle Scrooge’s pool. Chicken and Pork chops receive the standing ovation. House special garlic steak yummy as yum. Other meats were good too. Really well seasoned, optimally cooked and perfectly flavorful. Will go there often if someone else pays for it or I hit the lottery.

Made reservations on a Friday night at 6:30 pm. Got stuck in traffic and call the restaurant to ask them to hold our table. They agreed, arrived there close to 7 pm and waited 10 mins for a table. Which was great considering we were late. Hubby and I enjoyed the atmosphere, food, wine. I was so stuffed I could barely move.
My only complaint is our waiter Omar wasn’t very attentive. He came by our table twice within a hour of being there. But the floor manager, servers were very polite. We had to ask another waiter for the check. Overall I would recommend this place to anyone that loves to eat.

The place was busy on a Saturday night. However, the restaurant is so spacious that it was able to comfortably accommodate everyone including our group.
I came with a group of 12 and they were able to take care of us very well. The service was great and the staff was professional.
I would definitely come back and regret not taking pictures!
My favorite dishes were:
Lombo (Parmesan crusted pork medallions),
Beef Ancho (rib eye),
Filet Mignon (beef tenderloin), and
Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I am lucky. Why? Because I come from a city in New Jersey, about 20 minutes away, by train, from New York City that’s full of some of the best food the Lusophone (Portuguese) world has to offer. Almost every restaurant is delicious, quirky and perfect in its own way, which is why I’ve never cared much for chains. I didn’t have to! How could a huge, publicly traded restaurant replicate such an experience, so far away (distance-​wise) from its origins?
Well, I think at the Chicago location, at least, they did just that. Chicago has a way of really happening in the quiet, almost secretive of ways. You walk in to a space, or at least I did multiple times while in Chicago, and thought to myself, wow this place is dead. Not more than 5 steps forward and a dozen tiny groups were to my right. Some were on dates, others having what looked like a family dinner, a girls’ night in one corner and guys’ night in the other, and all were happily enjoying their food and each other.
We were a minute or two late for our already altered reservation for the night, but the hostess made no issue of my guilt, and kindly showed my boss lady and I to a nice little table. Maurice was the first waiter to attend to us and kindly helped us with our jackets and offered us water, drinks and taught us the lay of the land. I got a passion fruit caipirinha, a nice concoction of passion fruit juice, sugar, lime and Brazilian firewater.
Upon being seated, you’ll notice something that looks like a coaster for your drink that’s red on one side and green on the other. This will be your tell to those bringing around those delicious meats whether you’re up for another bite, or if you simply cannot take another. Before your mouth begins to salivate however, there’s an entire buffet full of rice, feijoada (Afro-​luso-​pork, beef and bean stew) farofa (cassava flour), to be enjoyed atop. Not to mention as many fresh veggies, salads of all kinds, fruit and a slew of other things that could fill you up BEFORE the meats start coming ’round. Be careful!
The meats of the rodizio came and went. There were sausages, chicken, filet mignon, ribs, lamb — just about anything you could think of and just as soon as your plate was dirty, within seconds, much like a well-​choreographed dance, another plate warm, an invitation to eat more food, was placed on the table ready for another go at the buffet and NEW rodizio meats.
If you’re not careful, soon you’ll be full and happy without any space for dessert or another drink. You may judge yourself a little, I did, but it’s at this point that you should thank yourself. You deserved a good dinner, great service, and sweet, non-​judgmental smiling faces seemingly happy to see you happy with them. And all the while, at least three separate occasions, a lovely woman, a manager perhaps, came over and asked how we were enjoying anything and if there was anything special that we wanted, all we had to do was ask. She was right and this dinner was one of the best that I’ve had in quite some time.
I’ve been away from home and I try my best to get over twice a year or so, but a four-​hour train ride away rests a beautiful city, with one of my newest, favorite restaurants,
Fogo de Chão and I so look forward to coming back.

It’s what you’d expect from a brazilian steakhouse. Lots of focus on many different types of meat, less focus on the quality of the cuts and exactly what you want in your dinner.
If you’re looking for all you can eat meat, this is the place for you.

My first time to any Brazilian Steakhouse. Just prepare yourself to eat the best food I have ever experienced. The Salad Bar was enormous! Place is not cheap but well worth it and the food quality is out of this world! We noticed there were some kids at a table and my advice is leave them home. For $ 50 per person, children don’t eat much and you would be wasting your money on them.

Great Place for all you can eat Lunch,(**Lunch has nearly the same food for $ 20 Less**)! Very good quality Meats and had a very nice wide array of salads/​appetizers at the bar, although the steaks and meats were supreme quality some lacked seasoning, despite that the lack of seasoning sin some cases, was still an amazing experience!

Service is spectacular
Food is delicious
Great locations for entertainment before or after dinner
If you love meat or if you are vegetarian and love a good variety of a salad bar. This is IT!

I just recently tried Fogo for the first time.
First and foremost this is not your average steakhouse and the way they do things here are very different then what you’d get at any other steakhouse.
The food is wonderful particularly the meats. I personally suggest The filet mignon (one of my favorites) it’s literally cooked to perfection. They offer a salad bar filled to the brim with fresh veggies and servers are constantly at your table cutting different meats hot and ready right out of the kitchen and they offer small sides like mashed potatoes Brazilian bread and pan fried bananas.
I’d say that this restaurant is not really kid friendly but is more less the type of place where you would consider going for a birthday party or a date night.
The restaurant is extremely $$$ pricey and that is the only reason why I’m rating Fogo a ³⁄₅ other than that I would definitely recommend giving it a try.

COST:
$ 52.95 (Full Churrascaria + Market Table)
Yes it’s a chain, but it’s a damn great chain. I’ve been to the one in LA and was recently at their Chicago location. I can definitely say you absolutely get what you pay for and the service is incredible.
The market table was full of cheeses, cold cuts, salads, breads and sides you can imagine. The ambiance and the place was really awesome as well. Come here on a near empty stomach. You will eat LOTS of food… or should anyway.
My best picks are the Fogo special steak and lamb obviously! The fried plantains/​bananas are delicioso! I plan to come back!

Cuisine: The food was really good. The steak was cooked perfectly based on you preference if you want it well done or medium. The side dishes were tasty and the salad bar gives you a lot of options of fresh veggies.
Atmosphere: I like it when the music played really calm and slow, the lighting was dimmed and the uniform was pretty typical traditional. All of those elements were just match with the restaurant’s concept.
Service: The service is the highlight here. What I am impressed overall from this restaurant is the service. The waiter and host were really friendly and enthusiastic in doing service. Just one need to be improved; when guests have made the reservation, the restaurant should be able to prepare the table ready before the reservation time. Don’t let the customers who have made the reservation wait for their table ready, especially when the reservation’s time has passed.
Overall I love the restaurant. I will not think twice to go back!

So if you are not vegan and dont hang out with vegans whille you eat meat, then this may be a good destination for you. My last visit 2 weeks ago with one of my friends that I have known since high school.
My rule for a day that I eat at Fogo no matter if I am on a diet or not… eat a piece of bread in the morning followed by lots of water at least 90 oz’s of water maybe even 110 oz of water. Eat at fogos at 7PM. While at Fogo and they are loading all that meat on your plate then I have 2 more glasses of water. then I have some tea afterwords as that helps with digestion… or at least I think. Then if we want to have dessert we do. If we want to be able to fit into our pants tomorrow we might not :)
I love the cuts of lamb and roast beef the night I was there. There was some chicken on some skewers as well that I thought was tasty.
While I dont come here often, If Im in the mood for a shmorg (yiddish version of the words smörgåsbord) of meat then this is the place.

For a place where you pay $ 50.00 per person with a «all you can eat» buffet and meat, you should not have staff trying to sell you additional food items or using PURE BOTTLE salad dressing :(
The rest is good and the meats are really grilled to perfection.

Sex on a Stick
Truly, I must live under a rock. I had never heard of Fogo until I was watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta (dont judge me) and saw that they had dinner at the ATL location so I checked to see if Chicago had one and we did. Once I explored what Fogo was, I was floored. UNLIMITED MEAT?!! Yes Gods! YES!
Location: This Fogo is right on Lasalle. So while my initial thought would be «F*?#! Now there will be a long wait» because Lasalle is always busy, I looked online and saw that wait times don’t exist because most people make reservations. So doing just that, we walked right in, and got seated.
Décor: Very immaculate. Its like, an opulent barn? The chandeliers are beautiful here. Also love the carpet and the dimmed lights.
Service: Very friendly hosts and servers. No complaints here. Everyone was great.
Food:I had a little of the salad bar. I was VERY impressed with the full spread. My favorite thing on the salad bar was the candied bacon. I wanted to be trashy and steal a couple of pieces in a napkin on the way out, but I am too old for that now I guess (lol). Truly. The bacon is great.
The Beef: I have to be very honest, for this to be a steakhouse, the chicken, sausages, and lamb gave my taste buds more orgasms than the steak. I admit that I know absolutely nothing about the various cuts of steak and which parts are more/​less flavorful/​expensive but the first two cuts I received literally had NO taste or seasoning. Not sure if that was intentional but seasoning is a must for me. The steak that I had the remainder of the night was quite tasty but again, I was not WOWed like I was with the chicken.
The Poultry: THE CHICKEN! Ironically, the chicken was my favorite meat at Fogo. ESPECIALLY the bacon wrapped chicken! SO juicy and SO hot and FULL of flavor.
The Pork: THE SAUSAGES!!! Were a close second favorite for me! The spices used in these links were very carefully thought out obviously. A tad spicy, but more savory. The parmesan crusted pork was not a hit for me. Perhaps because it was cooked a little too long.
The Lamb: HEAVENLY! DIVINE! No other words.
4 stars because I was not WOWed by the steak.

Joined 13 friends for a dinner this past Saturday night. All but three went with the full dinner and really took advantage of the variety of meat options. I along with two others stuck with the amazing salad bar that also had an impressive selection. Salads, veggies, meats and cheeses, soup, fajita bar, and so much more kept me satisfied with my choice not to go with the full experience. Though I am not a vegetarian, my willpower isn’t great when it comes to ‘all you can eat’.
My food was good and the people around me agreed. Though the consensus did admit that it wasn’t the best quality or most amazing thing we have ever had, we did enjoy ourselves. The service was great and our server kept our wine and water glasses full. Overall a very positive experience. I don’t think I would go back outside the group event as it just wasn’t delicious enough for my taste, but would join the group if they choose this for our annual dinner next year.
As the evening went on it became more and more packed both in the dining room and the waiting room, so be sure to book ahead.

Do you like meat? Great meat? That’s the place to be. Great variety of beef, pork, chicken, sausage, as much as you can handle. Cooked to perfection. The salad bar is also delicious. No where in Chicago you will eat this much great meat for that price.

With Stephen being a meat-​lover, this place is absolute heaven for him. The dining experience is unique and as fresh as the cuts of meat. The variety is excellent, exciting, and allows room for adventure. The service is top-​notch, but be prepared to spend! Between the two of us, our bill was over $ 200. Overall, highly recommend!

Strongly recommended for grilled lover.
All are tasty and juicy. The salad bar is premium, plenty of choices.
The manager take a good care for customer service.

All the steak you can eat, and cooked the way you like, what could be wrong with this place? The price of a cocktail, that’s what. The price for the meal is fine, I have no qualms about that, but the drinks are too damn high. I still love this place, just won’t buy any liquor there.

Got to go with my 16 yr old son for my Christmas present… and what a great present!
Meat was excellent, service even better. Never been to a place like this before so I have no frame of reference to compare… but the «meat coma» we experienced after the meal was well worth it. Expensive, but we went for lunch (which was a LOT cheaper)
Especially liked the bread (think a cream puff without the cream), the lamb and a great chicken wrapped in bacon dish.

If you’ve never been to a Brazilian Steakhouse, you must. It’s a buffet on steroids. You must like meat, well if you don’t like meat, you can opt for just the salad bar. But you won’t ever know about this meatlovers Heaven.
Who knew that Fogo was a chain restaurant? I didn’t. I dined at the one in Austin, and I’ve been thinking about it for months. So I was excited when I spotted this Chicago location, just around the corner from my hotel.
I made a 12:30 pm reservation and arrived a bit early. We still were given a pager contraption and waited a bit. The place was packed. We were finally sat to dine near the walkway, near the entrance. It wasn’t a great spot, but we didn’t care, we only wanted to eat.
My husband immediately turned his card to green, prompting the meat to start arriving to his plate. My daughter and I made our way to the salad bar. I must say that the location in Austin had several more options. There is also a section of hot authentic foods. When we sat down to begin on our salads, we couldn’t pass up the meats as they started to arrive to our table. First was the leg of lamb, then top sirloin, bacon wrapped chicken, bacon wrapped filet mignon, parmesan crusted pork chops, lamb chops, chicken legs, etc. I must say that most of the beef was fatty and the few times that I requested medium well, the cuts still had a charred taste. So I switched to medium.
The men walking around serving the meats were all extremely nice. Even though our cards were eventually turned to red, they still stopped and showcased what they had. A few even asked if we had a special request. My daughter requested the leg of lamb and my husband requested the parmasan crusted pork chop again. Me, I was in a food coma about thirty minutes into it. I always tip a bit over my normal 20% at a place like this, I figure that the men serving the meats get a portion of the gratuity too.

I don’t know why I’ve never gone to a Brazilian Steakhouse until last week. It’s a life-​changing experience!
The market table is so much more than any old salad bar— everything you could ask for to pair with the ginormous amounts of meat that you’ll be stuffing your face with is located at the market table— caprese salad, potato salad, heart of palm (which I’ve never tried before!!) cheese, meats, apple salad, asparagus — - you get the picture. The soup of the day was butternut squash, which was decently made. There was sweet potato casserole too, but I made a mental note to go back for it, and forget GRRRR.
I had my card on green for almost the entire meal and tried almost every type of meat that they had to offer— my favorites were the top sirloin (I know nothing about steak but I have a go-​to favorite now!!) and the Parmesan pork.
Service was great, and there was always someone coming by with meat, without being intrusive or annoying.
As far as the desserts, I loved the papaya cream (but I usually love papaya— my friend who was with me was not a fan), and the crème brûlée. The tres leches wasn’t moist and wet enough for my liking.
Totally love this place and would wholeheartedly recommend it.

I guess I’m late to the party, but better late than never.
The service here was the best I have ever seen in a restaurant… ever. Your water was filled seconds after taking a sip, and the whole green card-​red card deal means that you’re waited on, hand and foot the entire time you’re there. The food was out of this world, and I love the serving style, which means you get to try a little of everything. I knew it was going to be expensive, but after going, frankly I didn’t give a damn. It was worth every penny.

Great meat… hands down.
But it comes at a price.
I am NOT good at saying no to my mouth’s desires for tasty meat. I left the puck green and let the good times flow in. It was good… quite good. Was it the kinda place you get the worlds best meat… no, but it sure was cooked well and tasted great. Don’t forget to ask for ribs!
The salad bar actually has great items that are tasty too. ITS A TRAP! Don’t fill yourself up… although you will need some veg to prevent your bowel obstruction! Overall it was a great place to take a group and we all had fun stuffing our face in a similar manner to Thanksgiving Feasts

My Portuguese waiter told me that Fogo de Chao translates to ‘Camp Fire’. I’ll get back to this in a second.
The service here is outstanding. I came with a group of friends from college and the staff took our coats off and pushed our chairs in for us. I felt royal. The salad bar is brilliant. Huge variety of fresh vegetables, meats, crackers, salads and cheese.
You get a coaster which you can flip over. The side displayed on the coaster is a signal for the staff to know if you want to be brought meat or not. If the side that says YES is on, the meat will not stop.
I had some fantastic cuts; The rib-​eye medium-​rare was a little too bloody for me so I had it medium-​well, but the rest I had medium-​rare. The Filet Mignon was probably my favorite.
My only issue with the experience is the temperature of the product. For this all-​you-​can-​eat experience I was paying about $ 60 but I felt underwhelmed by every piece of steak. This might be just personal preference but I was expecting smoking hot sizzling pieces of beautiful cuts of meat, but instead I got room temperature and often dry pieces on my plate. When you see the rotisserie outside the restaurant and hear the name Fogo de Chao, or CAMPFIRE, cold meat doesn’t come to mind and I don’t think is what I expected.
It was still very tasty!

OPENFAIL
I made a reservation on a popular online reservation system (not Unilocal’s Seat Me). Typically that is all I need to do but then I received 3 cold scripted phone calls from a male Fogo employee to confirm my reservation. He didn’t leave a name but mentioned to call at my earliest connivence. I found it amazing that each call was the same script word for word and lasted exactly 15 seconds.
I was called on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. I did call back on Friday & a girl answered the phone. I told her I had received three messages about my reservation that was coming up on Sunday. I then asked her if it was customary to be harassed via phone after setting up a confirmed reservation on OpenFail. She responded, «Sure!» I said, «Did you even listen to my question?» She then said, «I need to put you on hold!» This is where she left me. Sitting on hold & no one picked me up. I eventually got disconnected. Surprise! Not! I was so not happy at this point and I wasn’t going to waste my time by calling back a second time. I had an online confirmed reservation and that should be good enough. Why do I need to speak with the restaurant? I received way too many phone calls & then when I call back I’m treated like crap. Not fun!
Our party of 11 arrived for our reservation at 12:30pm on Sunday. I told the hostess we had arrived. She asked us to wait in the lobby. I then noticed a waiter moving tables around trying to get it set up for a party of 11 people. I realized that they were making our table which was suppose to be ready at 12:30.
I went back to her and said, «Did you have my OpenFail reservation in your computer for 12:30?»
The hostess said, «Yes!»
I then said, «Why wasn’t my table ready for my parties arrival?»
She said, «We had an unexpected table of 11 arrive and we gave them your table!»
I said, «That makes no sense!»
She then said in a snotty tone, «They’re making your table now!»
I walked away biting my tongue and not wanting to make a scene.
First of all an apology would be nice from the hostess or a manager. I got neither. We spent almost $ 600 on lunch and they start out our day acting like we weren’t important. I wish we would have walked and went to a restaurant that cared.
Secondly the hostess is a complete liar. I walked around the restaurant and there was no other party of eleven anywhere in the restaurant. Complete lies from the front of the house. This is unacceptable and rude. Don’t treat me like I am stupid and this is my first time making a reservation. Plus I can count to 11 too… thanks to my elementary school education.
Thirdly why should I have my party wait 10 – 12 minutes while we stand in the lobby watching them build our table that was suppose to be ready at 12:30pm. A complete fail. This is some of the worse customer service I have ever experienced.
On a side note the restaurant wasn’t even crowded when we arrived. Our table could have been built prior to our arrival but the restaurant choose to not do this. I’m assuming that this arrogance comes from the top down. Cold scripted multiple phone calls attempting to confirm an already existing reservation. Leaving me on hold when I do call back and a snotty lying hostess who gets mad at me for being right. This place failed me on so many levels and I was letdown prior to eating my first piece of meat.

This is the best Brazilian steakhouse in Chicago… hands down. I’ve been here 4 or 5 times and I’m amazed at how consistently good the food, service and atmosphere is year after year. Here are 3 random tips:
1) Bring an empty stomach
2) Bring a full wallet (wine, meal and dessert can add up… esp at dinner time)
3) Do not go on your lunch break unless you have no desire to be productive the rest of the day. #foodcoma
Can’t wait to go back.

Make sure make reservations for both locations. If you plan to walk-​in, be ready to wait. Reserved Sunday lunch. Arrived 10 min but weren’t seated until 1130 opening time.
Little chilly so bring light jacket for the ladies.
Enjoyed dinner night with wife. The food selections were more than enough. Received $ 25 birthday certificate from Fogo. Great times.