Overindulging at Fogo de Chao in Irvine

 Fogo De Chao

623 Spectrum Center Drive 

Irvine, CA 92618

The Irvine Spectrum Center has stepped up its restaurant game in recent years. Gone are the days when Red Robin, Ruby's, and Fox Sports Grill ruled the roost. Now this Irvine center at the interchange of the 5 and 405 freeways is drawing some big names to their roster of eateries. Din Tai Fung and Mastro's Ocean Club are confirmed to be coming soon, joining already operating big hitters like Cucina Enoteca, Habana, Paul Martin's, and Shake Shack. I visited recently to try another spot I had always wanted to try out, Fogo De Chao. 

I'm a little embarrassed that this Fogo De Chao location has been open for more than five years, and this was the first time I had eaten there. It seems like just a year or two ago, I was at this location attending the grand opening party of Kona Grill, a restaurant that only lasted two years. That party was nine years ago though. Man, time does fly by. 

Back in the present day, my good friend George had the great idea of visiting Fogo De Chao during their Best of Brazil event, where you get to try a slightly pared-down version of the whole Fogo experience. For the set price of $44, you get to partake in eleven of their fire-roasted meats carved tableside until you cry uncle, you also get unlimited trips to their Market Table, which consists of salads, seasonal recipes, smoked salmon, fogo feijoada, which is a black bean stew with sausage served over rice, and a load of other items. My competitive eating days are behind me, but I put on my stretchy pants and headed to meet George for this gargantuan meal. 

When we arrived at just past 6 p.m. on a Wednesday, we were seated near the bar, on the outskirts of the dining area. I was afraid the gauchos who sliced the meat would pass us by. If you're a lighter eater, they have a couple of seafood entrees and an option to choose just one of their cuts. They are served continuously, and the market table is included with this selection. Our server greeted us, and we took off for the market table. 

I was blown away by the market table, but I knew I was here for the meats, so I only tried a small amount of the Fogo Feijoada, the black bean stew in the picture above. It was excellent, but very filling, so I only had a small amount. The rest of the table items looked fresh and were refilled quickly. Maybe someday I will revisit Fogo just for the market table, but I doubt it. Bring on the meats!

Remember when I said the Taste of Brazil menu offered eleven options? We were only presented with five, and although they did come around quite often, I would have liked to have tried their pork offerings, which were missing entirely. I have heard that some meats are done at different times, so maybe we were too early for the pork ribs, pork chops, and parmesan-crusted pork. Also absent was the Fire-grilled Brazilian cheese served by the gauchos. 

The quintet of meats that we were served were all good. My favorite of the five was the Picanha, the prime part of the sirloin, and the signature cut served here at Fogo De Chao. Like all their meats, they are seasoned simply with a liberal amount of salt added. This allows the natural flavor of the beef to shine through. The Alcatra is also top sirloin, but is sliced much thinner to ensure tenderness. The Linguica was coiled around the skewers like a snake, and very photogenic and delicious. The Chicken was surprisingly tender, and the portion size was very generous. The Bacon Wrapped Steak was probably the weak spot. Some pieces were good, while others needed to be left over the fire a bit longer to help the bacon get a little crisper. 

Another way they try to curb meat intake is by bringing garlic-mashed potatoes, caramelized bananas, polenta fries, and pao de queijo, more commonly known as cheese rolls, to each table. When these things are brought to your table, you subliminally feel like you need to eat them—at least, that's how I always feel. I picked at them a little bit. I liked the mashed potatoes and the rolls, but left the polenta alone after my first bite. It was kind of boring. 

Fogo De Chao is one of the best Brazilian churrasco restaurants I've visited. Even though I did not get the whole experience here, since they had limited meats and I chose to take advantage of their Best of Brazil special, which is limited in the kinds of meats you can get, I still enjoyed my time here. I checked the Fogo De Chao website and they have just started up the special again, but this year it's going for $54, which is still a good deal for all you can eat meats. To save even more money, Costco usually has $100 Fogo gift cards for $80, a $20 savings that gets this closer to last year's price. As I had predicted when we sat down, the gauchos sometimes skipped us because of where we sat in the dining room's outskirts. However, our server took excellent care of us. Fogo is definitely a special occasion restaurant, and I want to try them again.  

Out of five umbrellas (because Brazil is home to the largest rain forest in the world, the Amazon is roughly the size of the 48 contiguous United States, so you better have an umbrella when visiting it), five being best to zero being worst, Fogo De Chao gets 3.5 umbrellas. 

For more information about Fogo De Chao, head to their website by clicking here: https://fogodechao.com/