Fogo de Chao - free lunch today, WOO HOO!!!
 

Yep, a vendor is taking my group to lunch at Fogo today.

I'm preparing for the meat-coma that I'll be experiencing later.

On a Wednesday? Not a very nice vendor!

Love that place! Enjoy!

?? What's special about Wed?

I was under the impression that any day was a good day for Fogo.

You can't go home right after lunch and have a weekend to recover when it's Wednesday!

Hahah, true, but then I couldn't go immediately home if it was a Fri. I'll just be a zombie the rest of the day.

Can I meat you there?

Is there one in Houston now?

I went to the one in Dallas in 2002. My life has been forever altered. I try to get to the one in Chicago once every-other year (all my colon can handle).

There has been one in Houston at least as far back as 2004, when I moved here.

oh my word. zzzzzzzz what, huh? sorry, dozed off there for a sec.

I'm happily miserable or miserably happy.

Holy carp, feeling way, way over full.

Never been to one...

We don't have one here but there is a Rei do Gado that is very similar. I love that place.

If you like meat, steak, beef (mostly), then you owe it to yourself to try one once. I think dinner is $50. Lunch price is $32.5. It's all you can eat meat, filet mignon, bacon wrapped filet, ribey, top sirloin, bottom sirloin, Parmesan crusted pork tenderloin, pork ribs, beef ribs, chicken legs, sausage, garlic beef, lamb leg, lamb shank, etc...

The pictures below aren't mine. They're just random pics from the 'net. I thought about taking pictures, but when the food shows up, instinct takes over. The animal within doesn't know how to use a cell phone.

They have guys that walk around with giant skewers of meat. A different guy with a different skewer will come by your table every 30-60 seconds.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wLYs6nAz-ac/SE...ffe52d3d_b.jpg

If you look in the picture above. The round green spot in the lower left corner of the picture is not a coaster. It's you "I want more meat" or "No more meat for me" dot. One side is red, and the other is green. You can switch back and forth from green to red and back again as much as you want.

http://thehoofbeat.com/wp-content/up...0/FogoMeat.jpg

The above is the plate of an amateur. You can fit a lot more meat than that on your plate.

Right, I think there are a few other places in Houston that are basically the same.

I believe they are all supposed to be loosely patterned after Brazilian churrascaria steakhouses.

I have never been to one... How is the quality of the meat? Is it aged/tender? Is it seasoned? is the seasoning any good?

People would not fill the place up all day every day at $35-$50 a plate if the meat wasn't good ;)

The meat is very tasty. I think that most of it is minimally seasoned. There are a couple of things that are bacon wrapped or made with lots of garlic or parmesan cheese. The Chicken tasted like it was seasoned. The beef was mostly just savory. Maybe just some salt and pepper, but I wouldn't think much more.

Did you get the chicken hearts? Quite the Brazilian delicacy, but they don't always serve them.

Absolutely top quality. I'd take Fogo de Chao over Ruth's Chris or Morton's any day.

The service is also absolutely top quality. Their waiters work their way up through the steakhouses in Brazil, and only the top of the top get offered positions in the States. There is literally one wait person for each table in the restaurant, but tables are not strictly assigned to waiters. The waitstaff will literally do anything they notice needs to be done, at any table. Need water? Someone will get you some before you take a second sip from your glass. Looking around for something? Someone will stop and get you whatever you need. I've noticed that they seem to operate on kind of a dealer/pit boss type system, and they are constantly throwing hand signals across the restaurant or speaking quietly in Portuguese to address every issue, from a spilled drink to a patron who wants his filet mignon a tad more rare...

i was a foolish rookie..i ate way too many of those fried polenta patties. effen delicious..but what a filler.

and that damn salad bar is pretty much the "oasis" for your colon after pushing all that meat thru it.