brandon fuego: steak on a stick
jasonMy wife and I just happened to be in Brandon with empty bellies, so we decided to stop at Fuego. Fuego is a new steakhouse that occupies the building formerly home to a TGI Friday’s that nobody was too upset to see close.
I knew nothing about this place, but had a clue that it was not a standard sit-n-order situation when the hostess didn’t provide us with a menu. She attempted to explain the concept as we were walking, but I was too busy dodging well-armed waiters to concentrate. Our waitress was kind enough to explain…
We were told this is a Brazilian style of eating, and I am in no position to dispute this. The standard meal is a series of courses - soup, bread, salad, five different bowls of sides, dessert, and the main course - for $24.95. The main course consists of a rotating stream of waiters serving different meats they cut at the table. It isn’t for everybody. We watched as a couple sat down. Once they heard the deal, they immediately got up to look for a more standard format.
I thought it was a lot of fun. The breads include a bowl of small rolls that are easy to pop into your mouth or dip into the broccoli cheese soup. A salad was fresh but nothing spectacular - think Olive Garden with no dressing and you’ve got it. The sides were well prepared but overall pretty standard fare. Rice, mashed potatoes, and black beans tasted good but not worth the price I was paying. The fried yucca was good but the plantains were absolute heaven.
But the real attraction to any steak house is the meat, and in that regard Fuego comes through for you. After your sides and three various dipping sauces arrive, you are told to signal the waiters. Your drink coasters are green on one side and red on the other. Flipping the coaster to reveal the green side draws the red shirted waiters with the skewers of steak, sausage, chicken wrapped in bacon, and pork loin to your table.
Dessert is oddly American I thought, cheesecake, chocolate cake, ice cream, etc. but they offer two different types of flan that looked excellent, although I didn’t have the room to sample them.
If you are in the Brandon area, and in the mood for something a little different, swing by and try it. But if you prefer your meals coming on one plate at one time or don’t care for the periodic interruptions by passing gauchos then it might not be for you. Bring your appetite because although the food isn’t overly heavy it is unlimited and trying to sample all the choices will leave your belt groaning with effort.
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May 30th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Tommy this seems the place for us…Thrusday night!
Wifey
May 30th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
A new form of marital communication - blog comments! Works great - there’s a record of the conversation, and there are witnesses.
May 30th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Why soes this sound delicious? Time to go to B-town and visit mom…
May 30th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
…salivating so I can’t even spell!
May 30th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
I’d love to comment, but Gary and I are already in the car on the way.
May 31st, 2006 at 6:53 am
btw- I just realized the story really doesn’t spell this out but it is $24.95 per person, not in total.
May 31st, 2006 at 8:46 am
Thursday it is, sweetheart.
May 31st, 2006 at 9:22 am
Honey, We’re Killing the Kids.
May 31st, 2006 at 10:34 am
…but what a way to go.
May 31st, 2006 at 12:11 pm
sounds like salmonella waiting to happen to me.
May 31st, 2006 at 2:26 pm
“Honey, We’re Killing the Kids.”
is that the new Rick Moranis movie?
May 31st, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Sounds similar to the famed Carnivore in Nairobi. Only I think if you have the red side up it’s zebra.
June 1st, 2006 at 12:13 pm
No, Jason, it’s a show about how fat trashbags give their kids several thousands of empty calories every day and then let them sit on the living room floor watching TV all the time while some lady tries to explain to them why fat and lazy sucks.
Try for two thousand calories a day, people. You don’t need a five-course meal where one of the courses includes five portions. Gluttony a sin, not to mention incredibly unappealing.
June 1st, 2006 at 9:14 pm
It was only OK. We only at a bite or two of each type of meat. It reminded me of a buffet but brought to the table for you instead of walking to it. Really it is more of a waste of food than anything, I felt bad about the amount of food that was not eaten. On a good note, we tried something new and that is always a good thing!
June 4th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Try going to Brasa Grill - 6507 W. Waters Ave. suite 9.- 813 886 7858. There not only the all you can eat meat deal also includes a huge selection of a buffet that includes hot plates, salads and dressings, desserts, bread etc, for $ 21.99, but we also offer many entrees with the meat of your choice, such as top sirloin, filet mignon, ribs, lamb, sausages, etc. You also have the option of only getting the regular buffet which also includes 3 to 4 kinds of meat - salads, veggies, side dishes, fruits and desserts - for 7.50 weekdays/ 8.99 weekends. You can also get only the meats or only the salad bar. As you can see there are options for everyone. Check our reviews at tbo.com and weeklyplanet.com. Brasa is the first one of this kind in Tampa and we have more meats than any other “churrascaria”. Try us. Bring this comment and get 25% off.
The 25% discount expires August 31, 2006.
June 7th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
I was introduced the “Brazilian Barbeque” by my latin boyfriend. We came to Brasa for dinner….and I loved every minute of it. It was very cozy and friendly, the food was amazing-delicious!! Can’t wait to come back.
Keep up the great work.
Fresh food+Friendly Service=Happy customers. Thanks!
June 11th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
It was awful and we didn’t even try the food. After waiting for over an hour to be seated we ended up at a table by the bar. Apparently EVERYONE was told to wait by the bar because the aisles were blocked. Not even their own staff could get through to the kitchen. We had people constantly bumping into our table and into us. We could not hear the waitress when she was trying to explain the concept and how to order. After more people began crowding the bar with their screaming kids we got up and left. Kids sitting on the floor and people bumping the butts into my shoulder does not make for a good dining experience.
June 15th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
We haven’t been here yet but love churrascarias. Been to them in Orlando, Miami, NYC, Rio and several smaller places in Brazil. Can’t wait to get over and try this one. Hope they use real pinga in the caipirinhas. Oh and the one on waters is small and good too! 2 dinners and a bottle of wine for 50 smackerz when we visited. Yum.
June 15th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I cant say enough about this place, I went in a little skeptical, you get a lemon ( to squeeze) on the salad + oil so i was not truely impressed … the sides were alright … but when the guys come around with the meats … loosen youe belt … holy cow ( now pun ) this place had a lime seares steak that is da’bomb !! Everyone must try it !!!
June 15th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
p.s. you will get a selection of desserts w/ the meal but for an additional cost order the Bananas Fuego !! no disappointment there !!!
June 19th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Well we finally got an afternoon to pop by Fuego. The place was hopping and crowded around 2:45 on a Sunday. Nice spots for parking under the oaks out back. We were told a wait of 30 minutes but it was much shorter, 10-15 so we were off to a good start.
The Ambiance
We sat down to a wood table that was kind of oddly shaped, a rather large square for two folks with a third chair in the aisle. Sadly, too far away from the wife for our usual banter or touchy feely … Some tables had bright red tablecloths and some didn’t. Those that don’t are one upgrade from a picnic kind of table. Polyurethane coated two by fours it looked like to me. Get the tablecloth. Then we figured out why we were told a 30 minute wait. We sat … and sat … Finally our “Girl Sunday” showed up and we requested a tablecloth. It arrived quickly when another Sheila saw we were indeed in need, just happened to be passing by. The walls seemed of brick and gypsum with yucky acoustic tiles overhead. Not dirty inside, but not clean and new looking either. Very little decoration and darn noisy. Just conversation noisy. Too many hard surfaces. I’d get some fabric on the walls to tone it down. Even a bunch of cheap canvas pictures would help. The music, if that’s what is was, is a dull thudding in the background. This doesn’t seem the place for romance of any sort.
The Food
We had a salad before our drinks arrived which was unusual but ok. A large bowl of greens adorned sparingly with a few olives (pitted was good), a couple cherry tomatoes and a few slices of avocado. The additions all tasted fine, in fact the tomatoes were like sweet candy – yum; however, the greens were quite bitter. An oil and lemon (I mean a bottle of oil and a big yellow lemon – heh) dressing might have accentuated the problem with the greens. Nowhere near as good as say an Olive Garden salad which is about all I can think of to compare it to given the large bowl delivery type concept. Sadly, for a churrascaria they have no salad bar which is what I love about every other one I’ve been to. Normally the salad bar provides seafood and lots of alternatives to the red meats. The little bread bites were funny looking and smashed up but they tasted great.
Soup arrived next and we got one bowl to share which wasn’t how that should have worked. While I love my wife’s germs, who wants to share a soup bowl in a restaurant, especially when I already felt there was too much distance between us? They offered another bowl but since the first one was unfortunately cold, we passed.
Then our cocktails arrived. Beer was a fine choice for me (they have a lot of good beers) and they serve a typical American style caipirinha. We don’t really have the proper limes in good ole USA and restaurants most always leave the peel on which makes them a little bitter. There’s nothing better than a great big pitcher of caipirinhas on hot day. Yes we peel the limes, but leave the sweeter white part between the peel and the juice sacks. Hunt down a good coarse crystalline sugar. We had long waits for drinks, but I think that was a server issue. Otherwise the drinks were fine and the big glasses of water were appreciated. Well almost fine, when my wife ordered a Blue Moon beer we were told the tap was broken.
You get a family style setting of yucca fries (good/good), white and yellow rice (surprisingly moist), tasty black beans and mashed garlic potatoes (cold and inedible). Fried bananas were great. The salsas/etc. were crunchy and delicious. The meats were all flavorful, pretty lean and tasted good. A lot of sausage was offered (we passed on all but a taste). The house steak looks like a rib eye and you can pick from rare to well done (as you can on most of the meats). Flank steak was good, the garlic chicken was spicy and I liked it. Wife found the chicken way too salty, which it was, but I dig salt! Tiny filets in bacon were fun to munch. All the meats were fine with the exception of the lamb which was severely overcooked and rather tuff.
Never saw ribs, pork (other than sausage) or any fish, which was too bad. All in all the meats they offered us did taste fine, but the selections if you ignore sausage were pretty limited.
Now for the men with spears … the carvers did a great job. While the place overall didn’t seem to have any of the intimacy you might feel in other similar style locations, the young fellows serving were very pleasant and efficient. And they all speak English – lol.
They do have a great selection of deserts. The wife tried the flan and she liked that. Early on I teased the waitress by ordering two aqua’s, no gas and maybe that’s where I lost her.
The Meltdown.
Not sure what really happened but our waitress, a nice smiling young lass disappeared. After who knows how long a manager type asked how everything was and I gently explained what we liked, what was cold, etc and pointed out our server was MIA. I always offer good comments if I have some bad to share. He sent another girl over and our first lass was no more. Things actually moved along a lot better with our second girl so we guessed the first chickadee was rather new and in a bit over hear head. The manager type was apologetic and offered us 20% off for things being a bit screwy but nothing was reduced on the bill. Well, to us it wasn’t about the money as much as we had really high hopes a great churrascaria steakhouse would come to Tampa Bay. I think we are going to have to keep wishing based upon our first visit (and given our tastes).
I guess so far we will stick with Casa Brazil on Waters, which isn’t much on atmosphere either, but you can actually enjoy a bottle of wine with your sweetie. I’d say the food is similar, although I’ve never been served cold stuff there. It’s decidedly more original in South American feel and the people are much warmer and colorful. You can talk and listen to the music. Overall I’d say both are ok, but you’re going to have to go to Orlando for a better dining experience (at least based on what we’ve tried).
I think Tampa can actually support a first rate churrascaria and perhaps one day the Grilling God’s will smile upon us. If you get to NYC try Churrascaria Plataforma. In Miami we like Porcau. Texas de Brazil in Orlando is worth a visit (sign up for discount email junk). All of these are probably a bit more expensive than Fuego, but the overall experience is totally different. I guess I’d sum this place up as the first churrascaria I’ve been in that seemed decidedly Americanized. I think our bill was around 70 bucks.
If, like us you just need a beef fix, Feugo is there as is Casa Brazil too! Try them both and you can decide. Now given the 70 buck bill, and considering about all we really got was beef I’d hustle over the Charlie’s and get calamari, a great steak and if we don’t drink like fish a night where we can flirt with each other and have an excellent meal for maybe no more money. Course you can run up the tab easily (stop that wine-ing) so choose carefully! Heck even Outback offers more value and if you catch martini happy hour - wheeeeee. But we had high hopes!
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:31 am
I like trying new things, i was in the Navy for 8 years and have been all over the world and have eten all kinds of food good and bad (some realy bad).
This place would fall into the Realy bad catigory.
first off the table they seated us at was dirty, we then got moved to a cleaner table. however, the dishware that we got could have used a better cleaning…
as for the food… The Salad was OK as was the soup. The 6 sides were substandard, you can get better at any cuban place in Tampa or Brandon. every pice of meet that we got was cold and i am not sure that it was fully cooked. the desert was OK but nothing special.
i would say it was in no way worth the price and now that my wife and i both have food poisoning i would say you will never see me back in this place! Yep thats right both of us are sick!
Save yourself the money and agrivation (and doctors visit) and go to outback if you want a better steak!
August 30th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
This place sucked. Don’t think this place is anything like Sal Grosso or Fogo de Chao. First of all it looks like a renovated Pizza Hut that serves chicken hearts on a stick…no kidding. It took about 45 minutes before any “beef” was even presented and even then, it was cold and tasted like it was purchased it from the cheapest butcher in town. This isn’t a brazillian steakhouse but rather a cheap cuban immitation attempting to fill you up on rice, beans, yuca, plantains, and mashed potatoes for $25.
February 6th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
I was starving and just about had it with all the resturants around the Brandon Area. I stopped by Fuego since my friends had been hounding me to try it… I have to say, it was AWSOME!! We were treated like queens and didn not have an empty plate fo more then seconds. The servers pass by every so often with freash cooked chicken and steak and I couldnt get enough…
February 7th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I’ve been there several times and every time i go it just keeps getting better if i know i’m going there i will try to stretch my stomach out a couple days prior so i can fit more steak in there!
May 31st, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I dont know what is wrong with half the people here. This isnt Brazil. Its Florida, which in case you havent noticed is in the USA. Fuego more Brazilian than Olive Garden is Italian. I’ve never had a bad experience there, the Mojitos are fantastic, the cheesecake (yes, decidely American) is unspeakably good, and the steak - the steak - the steak! They, unlike almost every place in Brandon, take reservations - so make one if you have a problem waiting. Give me a break. Fuego beats Outback by 100 miles.
June 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
I’m sure Fuego is good, I’ve never been to a bad Brazilian steakhouse. I’d never eat there just because I can’t find out one damn thing about the place on their website - http://www.fuegobrandon.com. It’s an abyss of endless links to other crap you’re not interested in.
October 27th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Your site sucks, I’ve been trying to get directions to your restaurant, but there ain’t one.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I tried Fuego with my dad. The soup was cool, but we both enjoyed it. The salad was good, the dressing was both sweet and spicy. The sides were way too much for the two of us. We mostly just ate the potatoes, bananas, and carrots. Next came around the meat. We loved most everything that was offered. We had 3 types of steak, 3 types of chicken, lamb 2 ways, sausage, pork ribs(undercooked), and pork chops. Next was desert, carrot cake, which we took home. All in all, LOVED IT! We will definitely be back.