text: I went to Fogo de Chao last week during AZ Restaurant week with a couple of friends. Unfortunately, this place didn't really rise much past mediocre (read on)\n\nFogo de Chao is a typical, although nicely done-up Brazilian steakhouse establishment. The building is grand and colored in nice deep earth tones. It was a Saturday so it was packed, but nonetheless, we had reservations and were seated quickly once the whole party arrived. Brazilian steakhouses aren't really my thing, but I've striven to be impartial on this review. \n\nFirst, the salad bar. There is a nice selection of things here including fresh vegetables, prosciutto and a giant parmesan that people hack into. So, on to the first two major demerits:  There was smoked salmon on offer, but the particular slab on offer here was frozen. At these prices ($19.50 just for the privilege to graze the salad bar, but comes with the normally $46.50 free-for-all per person price), this is a screw-up that is not even close to being acceptable for a simple salad bar setup, and of course the price compounds the level of disappointed that I reach. I know that Americans are into big, but the parmesan was puzzling given that this is a block of cheese that is either shaven or grated, or enjoyed in deliciously rich chunks. It was impossible to get a nice shaving out of this thing as there were no decent implements to get into the parmesan well. \n\nSecond, the meat service. There was a nice meat selection, and overall the meats were of good quality and quite tasty. However, I did notice that the cheaper cuts of meat were much more plentiful and forthcoming. Our table actually had to actively ask for them to send over the lamb, pork tenderloin, and beef ribs. We were also told that some of the cuts were unavailable. The complimentary sides were delicious. The cheese bread, polenta and bananas were lovely. \n\nDessert was just uninspiring, boring, pre-fabricated crap. It was free so I can't complain too much, but in normal circumstances they're probably charging in the high $9 to mid $10 range for a thin, crappy piece of what I think is anything but homemade cheesecake with an uninspiring combination of HFCS, sugar, red food coloring, and a couple of strawberry seeds that was the sauce. My friend had the chocolate mousse cake which was equally uninspiring and crappy. I'm not expecting a superstar dessert, but at least make an honest attempt at quality. \n\nThe booze is WAY overpriced. $12.25 for a \"Premium Caipirinha\" ... are you kidding? And, to boot, one of the things that pisses me off to no end (and results in major loss of critique points) at high end restaurants ... BILL ERRORS. We had a total of two cocktails and were billed for four. Simply, unacceptable. We weren't even brought a revised check before we handed over our credit cards for payment, and what's worse, not even an apology from the server regarding this $25 whoops on the bill. The only saving grace of that incident is that we were charged correctly in the end.\n\nSo, \n\nOverall:  C to C+ \n              Fogo de Chao has a lot of potential to be a great Churrascaria\n               as it bills itself to be. On this particular occasion it didn't really\n               rise much past mediocre given some borderline egregious \n               failures in service and food quality. Some plus points for\n               great interior design though. \n\nFood:     B-      (Big plus points for great meat. Minus points for the \n                         piss poor attempt [if I can call it that] at dessert, and \n                         frozen smoked salmon on the salad bar) \n\nBooze:  C-      ($12.25 for a Caipirinha? Give me a break!)\n\nService: C     (Service was overall good. Near failure in service for\n                       the bill error. The only saving grace was their \n                      responsiveness when we asked for something specific)