South Bay: Fogo de Chao

For Abby's medical school graduation lunch, I made reservations at Alexander's Steakhouse.  Only for Abby to complain bitterly about how it wasn't worth the expense and how she would much rather eat at a buffet like Fogo de Chao instead.

Since it was her graduation and not mine, I grudgingly changed the venue:

For a Wednesday afternoon, the restaurant was pretty busy:

There were definitely other parties celebrating graduations judging from their balloon choices.

We had no balloons for Abby.

Feeling petty about Abby not letting us eat at Alexander's, I ordered every non-alcoholic drink on the menu.  (There were only four.)  First was the Guarana Antarctica ($4), which, according to the menu, is the national soda of Brazil and is made with guarana berries:

Even I had to admit that paying $4 for a canned soda was a bit excessive, but whatever.  We were celebrating.  I'm not sure how to describe Guarana Antarctica except to say that it reminded me of ginger ale.

Brazilian limonada ($4.75) is apparently made with fresh limes, condensed milk, and sugar:

Anything with condensed milk in it, I'm a fan.

The grapefruit elderflower spritz ($4) was made with fresh grapefruit, basil, tonic, and crushed ice:

Personally, I enjoyed the pineapple mint lemonade ($4) the most:

Even though the sole reason why we went to Fogo de Chao was to gorge ourselves on meat, we couldn't resist checking out the salad bar as well:

I kept it light though.  I wanted to save stomach space for the proteins to come:

The churrasco experience at Fogo de Chao cost $39.95 per person for lunch.  It included unlimited warm pao de queijo or cheese bread:

In addition to unlimited crispy polenta, caramelized bananas, and mashed potatoes:

But those were just fillers to distract us from the good stuff: the meat. 

At Fogo de Chao, servers wandered from table to table with their cut of meat.  If you wanted some, you would get your mini tongs ready to grab the meat as they sliced it table side:

Lunch options might be a bit more limited compared to dinner, but there were still a lot to choose from.  There was filet mignon, different cuts of sirloin, bacon wrapped steak, pork ribs, lamb steak, and beef ribs to name a few.

I tried everything (other than chicken because who eats chicken at a steakhouse buffet?) once, but then I focused on what I liked.  Which was mainly the filet mignon, sirloin, ribeye, and lamb:

On one hand, we wanted to eat our weight in steak to get our money's worth.  But on the other hand, we had to fit into our dresses for Abby's graduation ceremony that evening.

Ugh.  Such a fine, fine line.

I definitely could've eaten more that day.  I guess this means I'll just have to go back another time when I don't have to fit into a dress and do it right.

I also need another excuse to take Abby to Alexander's Steakhouse.  This time, I'll spring it on her last minute and not give her the chance to change the venue again.  Humph.


Fogo de Chao
377 Santana Row #1090
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 244-7001
https://fogodechao.com/