Fogo De Chão

Early this month, I had the pleasure of eating at Fogo de Chão with Brandon for his birthday. Fogo de Chão is a Brazilian steakhouse known as churrascaria in Portuguese.  Churrasco is roughly translated into barbeque in Portuguese and comes from the South American traditions that resemble rotisserie cooking. Meat is placed on large skewers and cooked to perfection over hot flames.

Fogo de Chão has multiple locations all over the United States and in Brazil. The décor is loud and striking with purpose and refinement, but the main attraction is the servers carving large or small portion of about 15 different styles of meat from various succulent cuts of beef, lamb, chicken, pork and some sausage.  When we arrived for our 8 p.m. reservation the bustling dinner service was already in full force. The very large dining room was filled with Los Angeles’ various groups of people—from the large table of business men, to the medium table of birthday celebrators, and the small two-top enjoying a comfortable couple’s evening out. As we were greeted by our waiter, he informed us that we were to start at the buffet, which included many different side dishes, some cured meats, cheeses, vegetables, and various other items to snack on and accompany the rest of the meal. After we helped ourselves, we were then to flip a small circle of paper that had green or red on it—the green was to inform the servers that they could bring around meat at their leisure and the red would indicate that we were finished.

From the filet mignon, ribeye, fraldinha (skirt steak) and picanha (top sirloin), to the cordeiro (lamb), everything was prepared well and very delicious. The key to this type of eating is to pace yourself and eat what you really like. So I stayed more in the prime beef cuts and the lamb, rather than going to chicken and pork, which can sometimes be dry with this type of cooking style. The theatrics of the gaucho style servers is really part of the fun and charm of Fogo de Chão. The meat is delicious and the other bits and pieces make for a delicious hearty meal. Come hungry for good meat and you’ll leave very happy. I had an amazing meal with my very dearest love on his birthday, you can’t beat that.

cheers

-Unrivaledkitch