What I Ate: June 30, 2010 (Fogo de Chao)

Dinner: I attended a food blogger dinner at Fogo de Chão (309 East 3rd Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 472-0220‎) a south Brazilian churrascaria which started in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1975 and has now expanded to sixteen US locations (as well as six Brazillian locations).

We started with Brazillian cheese bread which was very good - the interior was soft and chewy and the exterior like soft bread. The flavor was a tad too salty to eat continuously, but a few up front is a great way to wait for the meal to begin.

Meals at Fogo de Chão begins with the salad bar which could be a complete meal on its own.

Here's my salad plate. The salad bar at Fogo de Chão is all you can eat, so multiple trips can be made, but after tasting a little of everything I was ready to start the meat course (which is also all-you-can-eat).

We each had a disc which when flipped to the green side let the servers know to stop and offer the various cuts they might be carrying. The other side is red and informs them that you need a break.

Meat is sliced off skewers and either plopped on your plate or picked up with tongs when it's difficult for them to plate the meat for you. It also makes it a little difficult to photograph since my camera takes up valuable space that the servers need to slice the meat at the table.

I tried almost a little of every meat they had and the best of what I tried was the top sirloin cap called the picanha. I also really, really liked the garlic encrusted picanha. Tina's favorite cut was the lamb chop which had a strong gamey quality but was exceedingly tender. My filet cuts were chewy, chicken had too much alcohol flavor, and ribs were too dry. I have to say that even if I just had the picanha and lamb, it's worth it. Or is it?

I believe dinner runs around $44 at Fogo de Chão which I think is a good deal. The salad bar is fresh and has a lot of selection. The meat selection is great with fourteen different cuts to choose from (although I would focus on the picanha and lamb next time). Both of these are all you can eat. (Dinner doesn't include beverages or dessert which are extra.) If I was to go somewhere else for, let's say, lamb chops I might end up paying a similar price for appetizer/salad + four lamb chops. Of course, my expectation for those lamb chops would be a little more sophisticated of a presentation and saucing. However, at Fogo, you can eat as much and as varied as you'd like. Which is where I think the problem lies for me. Because it is all-you-can-eat, I feel that, in order to get my money money's worth, I need to eat as much as I comfortably can. Unfortunately, I also notice that (at least some) other people are eating more than me. In that sense, I'm not getting my money's worth - in fact, there's a part of me that feels like any all-you-can-eat or buffet restaurant is not a good value for me. But, as long as I compare the food to other meals of comparable value and am intelligent about what and how much I eat, it is a good value.

Lunch: Because I knew that I would be eating a lot of food at dinnertime, I just ate a bowl of instant noodles for lunch - Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun.