Tucanos Brazilian Grill

I was planning on writing an essay about all of the crap that went wrong here last night when my family and friends gathered to eat a nice dinner together after a long day of wedding festivities BUT I decided it was just too much. Basically– don’t ever try and make a reservation for 30+ people on a Saturday night because they will inevitably screw it up like they did with mine. Don’t try and figure out what the hell happened either cause the manager will place blame on you and then you won’t see him again for the rest of the night. Definitely do not expect any sort of discount for the total and complete inconvenience because that won’t happen either. The food is always great– that’s pretty much the only reason I can give one star. As far as wanting to have a nice dinner and dining experience with my friends and family together– huge disappointment and I honestly wouldn’t recommend this location to anyone. They are incapable of accommodating their guests especially on a busy Saturday night and you will be left there at your table wondering what in the world is going on. It will probably be shut down like all the other restaurants at The Gateway cause they are slowly going down hill.

«Get the glazed pineapple, get the glazed pineapple!» Thanks Unilocalers for your recommendation! The glazed pineapple was fabulous and yes I had two. Or three helpings.
Everything here was wonderful except the chicken hearts. I’ve had a lot of chicken hearts seeing as how being Filipina, we eat them all the time and here they weren’t that great. The chicken hearts were tough and dry instead of moist and tender. The chicken hearts needed more seasoning but everything else was perfectly seasoned.
I tried everything and my faves are the teriyaki beef and sweet and spicy chicken thighs. I had way too many helpings of them both to the point where you start to question whether or not it’s natural for a girl my size to fit all that food in me. Where does it all go? Perhaps I have a hollow leg?
The turkey wrapped bacon and garlic sirloin are also delicious in their own right but I have a sweet tooth so all things teriyaki and glazed are my go to.
The service is fast! There is nothing wrong with prompt service. I have to commend the manager because the staff is well trained, groomed and polite. The atmosphere is loud and fun so bring a tons of friends and family.
I didn’t visit the salad bar as often as I would’ve liked because I was too busy being a carnivore back at my table but I just have to say OH. EM. GEE go to the salad bar and get the «Brazilian cheese» (I believe that’s the name) and thank me later. It’s cheese goodness. It’s fried cheese rolled up into a little ball. It’s milky! It’s cheesy! It’ll make you gain 5 lbs if you eat a handful of them but you won’t stop.
I had a plate full. I felt no shame. I indulged like it was my last day on earth. For eating a plate full of these treasures I now have to go on a juice cleanse for the entire week. Yes I’m serious, but it was all worth it.

I came here with my boyfriend for a birthday dinner because when you are a part of their Birthday Club, you can come in any time during the month of your birthday for a free meal.
This was our first time having an all you can eat Brazilian BBQ in Utah and the food was good. They had a large buffet area with a variety of salad choices, pasta, dessert, and sushi and way more. The best thing at the buffet were the cheese balls. They have a bunch of different meat cuts as well as seafood. The best part were the grilled pineapples and I would come back to Tucano’s just for the pineapples and the cheese balls.
If you are going to go on a Saturday, definitely make a reservation as this place gets crowded. Luckily I made a reservation, but i over heard others waiting 1.5 hours for a table of two.

Linda needs to cool it with the hard sell. I’m trying to have dinner, not attend a timeshare meeting. You can’t always be shocked that people don’t want dessert after gorging on barbecue.
The food is great. Plenty of well cooked meats and a solid salad bar make for a delicious, hearty meal.
There was plenty of seafood and it was great. The only exception was the very fishy-​tasting swordfish.
Other than the annoying up sells, we had a great dinner, but I’m going with only two stars, because the pushiness really ruined the evening.

Used to be one of my favorite restaurants. As the popularity of the restaurant has gone up it seems like the price has gone with it, and the quality of food and service have gone down. In my opinion it’s no longer worth the $ 30 you end up spending. $ 2 for the Pineapple?! That broke my heart; goodbye my almost lover.

I’ve been to Tucanos a lot. They’re a little pricey, so make sure you take advantage of their birthday discount (buy one get one free).
I lived in Brazil for a couple years and so I was really excited for the rice and beans. They did a good job with it.
The meat is ok. A lot of salt and garlic. It’s not the best cuts you’ll ever had, but it’s decent. Warning: don’t get the sword fish… I was burping that stuff up for hours, it overpowered the garlic.
The atmosphere and experience is really good. There’s not many restaurants like it with the meat being brought to your table.

This review is for the Tucanos location at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City, UT. Ahh Tucanos… I hate to love you, or is that I love hating you? Either way I have mixed feelings about you. It’s not you, it’s me? Seriously though, Tucanos is actually a great place to go out if you are either screaming hungry, or having a celebration of some kind. This time around we went around 5pm on a Saturday night which, of course is going to be crazy busy but we figured 5pm was early enough and we also called and made a reservation just to be safe. Arrived about 5 mins. late because of traffic and had to ultimately wait for about 20 mins. for them to seat our 4 top. Not bad but should be quicker having a reservation, no? The poor bastards who were walking in were all told an hour and a half!
I’m sure most of you know how it works in this type of Brazilian restaurant. You pay one price and you have full access to their salad/​pasta/​fruit/​sides buffet. You also get a wooden marker that is green on one side, red on the other and yellow in the middle. Put it green side up to keep the guys in the outfits — carrying skewers of 9 thousand different types of meats, veggies and sometimes grilled fruits — coming to your table until you have so many different things on your plate you begin to get dizzy with the meat sweats and can no longer remember your name. Once you get to this level, it’s a good idea to turn the marker over with the red side up.
On this particular visit, I had bacon-​wrapped everything, 3 types of chicken, 3 types of steak/​sirloin, linguica sausage, grilled pinapple, etc. All of it cooked more or less perfectly and crazy delicious. My personal fav is the bacon-​wrapped turkey and garlic grilled tri-​tip. Also tried the chicken hearts. Meh.
Their Brazilian lemonade is fantastic and their buffet has some great choices of sides, fruit, meats and cheeses and salad. We also tried a crème brulee for desert which wasn’t the best I’ve had, but still okay.
Our waitress was obviously new or new-​ish and didn’t speak English well but she tried very hard. We had problems with splitting the checks at the end but the manager came over to fix it. Other than that it was overall a great dinner and we had a good time. Four stars due to the wait to get in and the check mix-​up.

Hello tucanos, we finally meet. I’ve had my eyes on you since God knows when. Probably when you were still a brand new concept. But now ive come to try you out.
I still don’t get how hosts determine where to sit their customers, cause I swear, one thing I hate the most is being sat right next to the wait staff station when there are perfectly good tables everywhere. Maybe it’s just me. We were reseated, and now we’re ok.
Anyways, let’s get to the skinny on things. The salad bar was really pretty good. Plenty of things to try, I suggest the sea food soup. It has great flavor and the clams and mussels are to die for.
There’s a thingie on the table, flip it to green if you want meat on top of meat on top of meat, some fish, and some veggies too. Their chicken pieces are pretty good, nicely seasoned, the beef is a little too well, plus needs a bit more seasoning.
Most memorable thing that they ran through was the chicken hearts. My world totally went googoo-​gaagaa when I saw that. YES! YES PLEASE! And please remove the bacon wrapped turkey off the rotation. That’s just for the basic Americans that eat rabbit food and chicken fingers all day.
I enjoyed you Mr Tucanos. Thank you for the wonderful experience.
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I enjoyed meal. The meat choices were excellent. Servers fast capable and efficient. Didn’t wait long between offers. All meats off skewers and warm grill pineapple a must. Salad and side vegetables were good. Only critique I would say that the soup wasn’t warm enough and neither were the mashed potatoes.
Would come back. Be hungry!!!

Personally, I think Tucanos is the best «bang for your buck» Brazilian churrascaria in town. This is where I go for my annual birthday meal. Does it have the best meat? No, but for the price it’s fantastic.
The service is excellent and the majority of the options are authentic. The pao de queijo is spot on. I lived in Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil, so I have some experience eating at a real churrascaria. You must get the Brazilian lemonade. My personal favorite is the passion fruit blend. You will thank me later!

I LOVE tucanos and wish they had one in Vegas. I have eaten lunch here on a few occasions when I am in Salt Lake City and they don’t disappoint. Especially for their lunch price (compared to Vegas Brazilian steakhouse prices). I love their juices too.

Another great meal at Tucanos with great service! Meat server’s Anthony (an old fav of ours), Scott and Parker were all great and attentive! Thanks guys for all the service and bringing what we asked! You rock!

This place was outstanding. Is a great restaurant to go to when you have large parties as well. I am a big fan of Rodizio Grill and can say this is better.
Salad bar has a great selections and their meats are awesome. The staff is super fast on bringing choices around. Definitely recommend this place to anyone.
Super busy on weekends so make a reservation or plan on waiting a while.

We have eaten here several times and usually have a great experience. We stopped in for lunch on Friday and we happened to hit them at a very busy time. It was like they had no idea how to deal with a rush. There was a bit of a wait just to find out what our wait would be, and the girls at the desk seemed very put out at us bothering them with our desire to eat lunch there. When we finally found out how long it was going to take we decided to go somewhere else as our experience to that point had been so unpleasant.
UPDATE: I was contacted by Ben, the manager, and was very impressed. He thanked me for my review and explained what they are doing (training etc.) to make sure dining there is a good experience. He even said that he would like me to ask for him the next time I go so he can make sure I was satisfied with my experience. I’m updating my rating from 3 stars to 5 stars; good job Ben for turning a bad experience into a good one!

We went here for lunch. What great service and food. Our bill was even more amazing for around $ 20. What great value for great food!
Highly recommend going. We were only there for lunch and arrived early. It got busy because a convention was in town.

Poor, poor Gateway. The place is looking more and more like a ghost town, but there are a few bright spots, this place chief among them. As far as Brazilian steakhouses go, this is up near the top, but as far as restaurants in general go, this is near the top overall as well. They remind me of Spencer’s, which is a high compliment as there was very little left to chance. The interior is spectacular and very comforting, which is good, but ambiance is something you expect at the higher end places, which this obviously is.
The servers must lose a ton of weight each shift as watching them deftly balance, spin and circle around to the various tables, frequently having to move drinks to dispense the meaty goods and never losing a step is something to behold. That they are always concerned about their guest’s happiness, all the way down to the boppy, enthusiastic server we had, is a testament to the very skillful management, as is the frequently refreshed salad bar offerings.
As to those offerings, look, I don’t go to a place like this for the stupid salad and other stuff that gets in the way of the star of the show, which is definitely the meat. More on that in a minute, but their Brazilian cheese bread and marinated olives are both borderline spectacular and everything else is ok to very good. Nothing was outright bad, which I can’t say about several of the other restaurants of this type. They also have Diet Mt. Dew, so good on them there.
As to the meat, most of it was cooked to perfection. A few of them weren’t flavored to my taste and they do both the pineapple and chicken hearts much less skillfully than does Rodizio, which is still the overarching king of this food type. The beef seemed to fare much better than did the other meats, for what that’s worth. It might be different at dinner, but this was definitely the case for lunch time. I wished more than once they had a greater selection for that as well. Dessert was kind of a throwaway, except for the sorbet, which was overall nice, though a bit heavy and clunky at times.
All in all, I’d go back, but these restaurants are mostly an annual event for me these days, so not in any hurry. They do a very respectable job at this, almost enough for me to forget temporarily the agony of having to go downtown to get there.

We usually go to their Provo location since we live close there and thinking this location might be more busy being it in downtown… Worried we won’t get enough food but surprisingly enough the service is extremely amazing and the meat/​food comes to our table so often.
Love their fried bananas and green collard from their salad bar area. I think I like this location better than the one in Provo mainly because they are really fast and take care of you. Seriously there was no waiting period the food comes like in perfect timing.

Place is still great and consistent. No complaints whatsoever. Service is spot on and the guys bringing out the meats from the churrascaria always ask us what we would like to have, and shortly after here it comes.
We are a regular here and many times I forget to check in on Unilocal

It’s awesome that Tucano’s offers a free meal during your birthday month if you sign up on their website, but outside of that offer, I just can’t see myself dining here very much at all.
The food was okay. Some options were over salted and some were under seasoned. The variety of meat and salad bar selections are slimmer than their competitor, Rodizio Grill. The cocktails we had were overpriced and not prepared well.
Although service was friendly, I felt rushed during my entire one hour visit. We barely had a couple pieces of meat before being asked if we were ready for dessert.

Good price for the Chrusaco experience. $ 40.00 for full Churasco service, added a shrimp skewer, and had a beer. The cuts of meat were full of good charred flavour, the salad bar is huge, with lots of options like sushi, various pasta salads, hot sides like mashed potatoes, stroganoff, rice, beans… tons of stuff. At one point they brought out this breaded fish that was amazing! The shrimp skewers were $ 9.00, and were my least favorite. They had absolutely no flavor.
Although things were pretty good overall, this time the place seemed not as clean, or as well put together as I seem to remember. It had more of a tacky, messy buffet feel. The back of the restaurant toward the exit seemd cluttered with stuff, and they need new carpet. One of the guys grilling the meat wasn’t wearing a uniform, he was just in plain street clothes, looking rather sloppy back there in jeans and a t-​shirt, and wiping sweat from his head with his arm.
I know that last part might seem picky or snobby, but a Brazillian Steakhouse should be a really nice place. Two weeks ago I was at a Fogo De Chao in Scottsdale, AZ and that was a nice presentation.
I had a server in training, who didn’t give me back my credit card at the end, and I didn’t notice until the next day. Fortunately they had it there in some place safe, and I was able to go back and get it.