Restaurant Review - Fogo de Chão

Fogo de Chão

200 Dartmouth St.
Boston, MA 02116

(617) 585.6300

I hadn’t planned on doing a review of this restaurant.  Frankly, it promised to be a gluttonous experience….not in the vein of “healthy options dining out.”  My mind changed while speaking to the bartender of the restaurant, who was at work the day of the bombings at the Boston Marathon.  She shared her story with some tears, and I did the same.  The building was surrounded by news crews….and so business was off.

The first challenge was parking.  The restaurant is in the same complex as the Westin Hotel.  While there is parking there, I’ve found it is always full.  So I parked over at the Marriott, and walked down the Dartmouth Street. 

News crews were still on the corner covering the events of the day.  It was hard to get into the restaurant without remembering.

The bar was at the top of the entry stairs off Dartmouth.  Sitting at the bar, a member of the news crew came in and commented how they were tired of eating meat all week at Fogo de Chão, a Brazilian steakhouse. How can you ever tire of eating meat?

The truth is, a client requested to dine at this restaurant.  The client loves being a carnivore, and Fogo didn’t disappoint.  He warned us not to eat anything during the day, good advice before the “all you can eat” experience.

The web site sets out an expectation:

Dining Experience

Step 1: Sit down, relax, and enjoy a drink while we explain the Fogo® dining experience.

Step 2: Visit our gourmet salad and sides bar. Enjoy over 30 items including fresh cut vegetables, imported cheeses, cured meats and Brazilian side dishes.

Step 3: Turn your card green side up, signaling that you are ready for our gaucho chefs to begin tableside service.

Step 4: Choose from the 15 cuts of delectable fire roasted meats that are brought to your table, sliced, and served by our gaucho chefs.

Step 5: When you are satisfied, flip the disc to the red side until you are ready for more offerings.

Step 6: If you wish, end the meal with one of our delicious desserts.

The dining room has a large salad bar in the middle, with rooms off the side.  Dinners are fixed price, $48.50, (Salad Bar Only - $24.50).

Once seated, we immediately were ushered to the salad bar.  “Don’t waste your time with the cheap filler,” warned our client.  The truth is the salad bar had a little of everything, and had I not wanted to have some meat it would have been a fine dinner in its own right.  When you go to a meat place, salad goes along with it…and is not the main course.

As we were finishing our salads, the gaucho chefs brought skewers of
meat cut at your table. Options included picanha, filet mignon, beef ancho, alcatra, fralsinha, costela, cordeiro, frango, costela de porco, lombo and linguica.  Suffice to say the beef, chicken, lamb, pork and sausages were all served hot and sizzling, with diners needing to “help” hold slices as the gaucho wields the big knife.

Our client mentioned he wore an older shirt as it is quite possible to get some meat juice on your clothes.  I didn’t get anything on my shirt, although the tablecloth was fairly covered.

Passing on the dessert course was my concession, although the others had chocolate molten cake, papaya cream, and turtle cheesecake.

I also flipped my disc to red before the others, so while I sampled everything didn’t leave feeling bloated.  All and all we must make sacrifices! 

Hours

Lunch
Mon-Fri 11:30-2:30

Dinner
Mon-Thur 5:00-10:00
Fri 5:00-10:30
Sat 4:30-10:30
Sun 3:30-9:00

Fogo de Chão gets a GREEN LIGHT…go and enjoy. 

About the RAG scale:

       Green Light – Go and enjoy

       Amber Light – Use caution

       Red Light – Save your time and money