Saturday, February 19, 2011

RED on Bluray

Just bought this last weekend.

The Bluray is kinda disappointing. Most Bluray disc's have all kinds of extras and stuff on them. This one is very lacking.

Still a good movie Though.

Fogo de Chão; Second Coming

Grade: C

For Valentines Day, she decided we'd go to Fogo again to give it a second chance and such.

We went on the Friday evening before Valentine's, had an 8pm reservation. We arrived quite a bit early actually, so sat in the small bar area again while we waited for our table.

They were very busy just like last time, even this late at night on a Friday.

If you've read our previous review, then not much has changed.

The salad bar was the same as before.

The meat however was better. I don't know how or why but every piece of meat of every type had such flavor! Tasty, juicy, so very tender. Until it cooled off a bit that is, then all you tasted was meat and salt. Lots of salt. The cooled or cold pieces were next to inedible they had so much salt on them. We know about cooking meat with salt and do so ourselves. The apparent difference is that we don't use a pound of salt on a pound of meat. Really, it was that bad.

We also had similar service issues as before. We asked for a wine list and after getting it we were ignored. We had to flag down a server to order a bottle. Also, she had finished her salad portion before I did (I was eating slow) so she received a new plate and started getting meat right away. When I finished, I had to wait and wait. It was when we finally made order bottle order that we had to mention that I was ready for the meat course, after which I got a new plate. 20 minutes this all took, and that's just plain ridiculous.

The other issue is that many times, when we both had our cards turned to green (meaning 'please bring me more meat'), someone would stop and offer meat to her, but not to me. This didn't happen just once, but four times. Our cards were both on the same side of the table, both plainly visible, and yet I wasn't getting any food. The other issue follows this same line as meat would come out of the kitchen and walk right past our table. Repeatedly. We had right about 15 minutes at one point where we were not offered or asked about meat, and no one stopped at our table.

Speaking of tables, why are they so very close together. There is no hope of a private conversation (see our last post about the noise; still present) and since the tables are so close, the servers and meat guys and such were persistently bumping or moving my chair all evening. Makes it hard to eat when your chair suddenly moves as your raising your fork or glass.

All and all, it was a mostly pleasant evening, and she enjoyed our dining experience. I was a little distracted by lack of food, lack of drink at one point, and constantly being bumped and shoved, but the food was still quite good.

At this point, I think Fogo will become a once or twice a year visit for us. Other places offer better service, some offer better food, etc. but the experience of Fogo is part of the draw I think, and just for that change of pace would be the only real reason I'd go back again. For this visit, I don't think it was quite worth the price for all the hassles and failures.