An Average Joe in San Antonio

I love eating red meat.  I also love all you can eat joints.  So when my friend said that she would treat me to a meal at the recently opened Fogo de Chao downtown in the River Center Mall.  Having heard about Fogo de Chao and Brazilian steakhouses for some time now, I have to admit that I was excited to finally get to taste one for myself.

The restaurant is located on Commerce Street just west of the entrance for the Marriott hotel.  If the restaurant business is all about location, location, location, then the newly opened Fogo de Chao has it figured out; it is in a position where plenty of tourists walk by en route to the Riverwalk and even some locals occasionally pass by on the weekend.  You can’t miss the restaurant as it has some ribs on a skewer spinning in the front window.

When our group all got to the restaurant, we were given an orientation of how everything worked.  Initially, we were told to visit the salad bar and get some of the exotic vegetables, cheese, and meats.  After we were finished, we could flip our little coaster from red to green to signal the guachos that we were ready for some meat.  They would come by and let us know what variety they had and slice as much off as we wanted.  I was pleased to find out that our waiter was actually from Brazil (as were probably a 1/4 to 1/3 of the waiters there), and having had a Brazilian exchange student stay at my parents house before, returned the Portuguese phrase of “Obrigado” upon him finishing his explanation.

For my drink, I ordered a caipirinha, which is the nation cocktail of Brazil.  It is kind of like a mojito and had a nice refreshing taste to it considering outside was pretty dang hot.  The salad bar was comprehensive, and I particularly enjoyed the different cheeses and prosciutto along with the artichoke bottoms.  But don’t let me fool you, I was there to eat the meat, so I had to make sure that I had my stomach ready.

As you eat the salad, the waiters begin to bring out four hot sides: the cheese rolls, polenta, garlic mashed potatoes, and the fried bananas.  The cheese rolls were exceptional and I would have continued to have eaten basket after basket had it not been for the fact that I was about to get some steak.  The polenta and garlic potatoes were also good, and before they had the possibility of getting cold, the waiters would snag them away and bring you a fresh batch!  While I like the fried bananas, they were not truly plantains, but rather your normal run of the mill banana you get at HEB and peel; now, I am not up on how the Brazilians do it, but I was thinking that they used plantains.

When it was time to eat the meat, I flipped over my little coaster to green.  I was immediately bombarded by a bunch of gauchos ready to slice me off some meat.  NOTE: Be prepared for some prompt service when you flip over your coaster to green and as soon as you have your fill, flip it back to red!  It was funny watching some of the people at the table, because they were getting flustered by all the waiters stopping by the table with their skewers of meat.  It was kind of like landing in Puerto Vallarta and having all the cab drivers vie for your business outside the airport!

The meat was pretty good, and I liked two cuts in particular.  First, the alcatra, or the top sirloin, had a nice taste to it.  I was able to get it medium rare, and it seemed to melt in my mouth.  My other favorite was the picanha, or the prime cut of the top sirloin.  The waiter mentioned that this was the most popular cut of meat at the restaurant, and it happened to be mine too!  I believe I got the garlic seasoned piece of the meat, and I asked for them to cut a couple of pieces; the first cut had a nice crispiness from being licked by the fire and the other pieces had the good pink color.

I was glad that I got to visit Fogo de Chao, and would say that it is something worth trying.  While it is fairly pricy (approximately $40 for the food – I mean, you could go to a nice steak restaurant for that), the experience made it worth it.  If you have any guests coming from out of town, it is definitely something that they will enjoy.

Value: 7/10 (I mean, how much steak can you eat??)
Atmosphere: 9/10 (the restaurant was really nice, however, the music was pretty dubious; I think it was some smooth jazz musak that was pretty terrible; I would like to see them either put on real music or maybe traditional Brazilian music)
Service: 10/10 (exceptional service; the waiters were constantly bringing out fresh/hot side dishes and as soon as you turned your card, there was a skewer of meat waiting for you!)
Taste: 8.5/10 (pretty solid taste; the salad bar was really good, and while the meat was good and you were able to get a variety of it, I think that you probably could get a better cut of meat at a steakhouse for the same price)
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Today I was on the North Central side waiting to meet up a friend in the evening, so I decided to go to the FAR North Central Side (way up 281 until you just barely cross the Comal County Line) to go get some BBQ from Casey’s, a place that I used to enjoy eating at when I worked on 1604 and Bulverde. I decided to take the backroads to see what developments had taken place, so I went from Bulverde all the way to 281. I was amazed as there was a sea of houses where once the vast and mighty hill country had rolled through with live oaks. I was reflecting on how cities change when I pulled up to the former Casey’s BBQ which had now become My Place Bar and Grill. Deciding to check the past at the door, I went in to see what new food would be inside.

First off, the place is completely different on the inside from the old Casey’s; I will say that they did do a pretty good job with the interior, although the bar that separates the patrons from the kitchen seemed a little tacky. I was greeted by a hostess who promptly seated me; there was the ’50s music channel being played on satellite radio. The gorgeous patio that looks out at the hill country (if you want to check it out, you had better hurry before the developers catch up…) and I believe that they still have live music. I would have sat outside, but our string of 100 degree days has just beat me down.

I decided to order the special for the evening which was the steak and jumbo shrimp with mixed vegetables; you could get the shrimp either fried or grilled, and I opted for the grilled version. For a drink I got the homemade lemonade (I am a sucker for lemonade and limonada) and that turned out to be a good choice — it was on the tart side (which I like) and you could get as many refills as you wanted.

The meal took a little while to prepare, but that was ok by me because I was just on a casual evening out.  Once I got it, I started with the vegetables which were fresh squash, zucchini, and mushrooms; they were all fresh and nothing like that vegetable medley from the bag.  There was a nice taste to them, but throw healthy out the window as they were just dowsed with butter.  If you are having problems with your kid eating their vegetables, take them here.

The jumbo shrimp were nicely prepared too; they had a great flavor to them (I didn’t even bother with the cocktail sauce), but again, I was kind of overtaken by the intense buttery flavor.

The steak was the biggest disappointment.  It was a decent sized steak, but it was a terrible cut of meat.  There was almost more gristle on that steak than there was steak; all kidding aside, I would bet that a good 1/3 – 2/5 of the steak was fat.  You could tell it was a terrible cut of meat because I probably only had three pieces where I did not get a substantial amount of gristle accompanying it.  The taste was all right, but it was again a really buttery flavor.  To top it off there was a big hunk of butter on the side.  Are you seeing a theme.

See that steak? Yeah, almost all of it was fat...

The most positive thing I can say is that the staff was incredibly friendly.  My waitress was very nice and engaged in some pleasant conversation for the majority of the meal.  She was really pretty good.

You know, things are always going to be changing; you just hope that it is for the better.  I really can’t say that the food was bad, but when I go out to eat, I want to really feel spectacular about visiting the establishment.  I think the restaurant was all right, but I would trade it to have Casey’s back any day of the week.

Value: 6/10 (my bill was $18, but then again I did get steak and shrimp and homemade lemonade for dinner; that would have been a good value had the food been spectacular, but alas, it was only average)
Atmosphere: 8/10 (like the atmosphere; the patio really makes it)
Service: 8/10 (really solid service, however, I was disappointed no one told me goodbye when I left)
Taste: 5.5/10 (The food was slightly above average thanks to the lemonade and vegetables; the steak was incredibly fatty)
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