By Dan Kolodrubetz, SP House Cup Coordinator

Fogo de Chao, 200 Dartmouth Street, Downtown Boston. Picture courtesy of the Boston Globe.

Now, my Portugese is certainly weak, but I’m pretty sure that a direct translation of the name of this restaurant imported from Brazil is something along the lines of “We Love Meat!” If you feel the same way and are looking to treat yourself to some of the highest quality cuts of animal flesh to be found around Boston, Fogo de Chao is the restaurant for you.

Fogo follows the same simple format as other Brazilian churrascaria’s. You pay a flat (and admittedly high) rate for an all you can eat meal. Waiters roam the restaurant with giant skewers of meat, stopping at each table to cut off individual slices prepared the way you like. There are also a hot side dishes at the table and a fairly extensive salad bar.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise here comes from the salad bar, which I went in thinking would merely be an afterthought to my main carnivorous goals. However, with interesting choices like hearts of palm, a giant wheel of parmesan cheese and tabbouleh to accompany some more standard salad fare, it was impossible to resist returning several times to the chilled dishes that dominated the middle of the restaurant. Personally, the raisin apple chicken salad (perhaps not particularly Brazilian, but damn delicious anyway) was a perfect compliment to the heaviness of the meat.

Not everything was as stellar as the salad bar options. The hot sides that were brought to the table were good, but did little to blow me away. While some people swear by the cheese bread, I found that it was basically a standard roll with a bit of a cheese taste. Additionally, the polenta, mashed potatoes and caramelized bananas were all tasty, but lacked the wow factor of most of the other things I ate. Of course, that didn’t stop me from eating a ton of them in between bites of meat, but I think that says more about me than the food.

Meats being fire-roasted at Fogo de Chao. Picture courtesy of the Boston Herald.

Finally we come to the star of the meal, the glorious hunks of flesh that are appropriately paraded around the dining room with the respect they so rightfully deserve. There are around a dozen different cuts of meat. Most are seasoned very simply to allow the flavor of the animal to shine through. While the choices are dominated by beef, there is also some pork and chicken making the rounds, as well as perfectly seasoned lamb, which was probably the highlight of my meal (I’m pretty sure the guy carrying around the lamb thought I was into him baed on how many times I tried to get him back to our table). The other choices that stood out were the filet mignon wrapped in bacon (though this should surprise no one) and the top sirloin, sliced for me to be exactly medium rare, emphasis on the rare. Though those were the choices that I requested from the waiters again and again, I didn’t have a bad piece of meat among the many (many many many) that I sampled.

Overall, Fogo de Chao provides an unforgettable experience. It is a bit pricey, so skip it if you don’t like meat or aren’t prepared to really take advantage of all the options (i.e. act like a glutton while you can). Another excellent tip is to go for lunch, when the price point drops significantly. No matter how hungry you come, you won’t leave that way and probably won’t want to eat for at least 24 hours. Of course, I’m sure you’ll find room for the delightful after-meal chocolate mint, located near the door. You will want to savor every minute of this meal, because once you exit Fogo de Chao, you are reentering a world where you cannot simply get all of the delicious vegetables, cheese and mouth watering meat that you want, and that is a hard world to rejoin.