I've just recently read the comments and reviews on Rio Sabor and, I must say I'm shocked! Did I not attend the same restaurant? My boyfriend and I drove over 30 minutes last night for what we were both expecting would be, an amazing Valentines dinner. We were both however, extremely disappointed.
Anticipating a busy night, I called hours in advance to reserve a table. Upon arriving we were told it would be a short wait. Not that big of a deal, but clearly there were open tables for us to be sat at. Our reservation time was 7:30pm and we were not seated until almost 8:00pm. And where did we sit? At one of the many tables that had been opened the entire time.
Although we were both a little annoyed and wondering why we bothered to make reservations, we let it go and tried to enjoy the rest of our meal. The night however, just got progressively worse. The salad bar was a joke. Very few choices and not that tasty. Again, we both got over it. We didn't drive all this way for a salad bar, we drove for the meat and the Brazillian experience.
But the disappointment kept coming. We sat with our card on green for over 20 minutes without any service. Being a server myself, I understand the restaurant business and things can be slow when you're busy. The thing is, they weren't that busy! The meat servers would come out, serve one/two tables (both directly next to us) and then leave! That happened a number of times before we finally had to ask someone to come to our table. I was stunned that we never had to turn our card to red. We would wait over 10 minutes inbetween each meat. It was just ridiculous. It was Valentines Day, they should have anticipated a busy night and had more than 3 meat servers on.
There was one gentleman that was very helpful and tried to make sure we got service. So to him, I say, "thank you" for at least trying! This poor guy was sweating by the end of our dinner because he was the only one who appeared to be working! The rest of the wait staff was talking amongst themselves while the customers were sitting and waiting to be served. I just thought it was very poor business management.
Towards the end of our meal we were both overly annoyed and ready to just leave. At that time, our server came over and asked if there was anything else he could do. We requested a certain kind of meat to come back and were assured it would be sent right over. I don't know if he forgot but, the meat never came. We waited another 10 minutes and decided to just get the chocolate covered strawberries and leave. When we returned to our table, our red/green card was gone and there was no way we were going to get anymore service (or the meat that we were still wanting/waiting for). At that point we really did just want to leave and go home.
We received the check and couldn't believe our eyes. We paid over $175 to still be hungry, have terrible service, and get little to no food. I was also shocked to see they had taken it amongst themselves to add in the gratuity. Normally that's not done unless the table is of eight or more. And normally, the server tells you in advance (or should).
Maybe my boyfriend and I just had our expectations too high. After eating at, Fogo De Chao, a true/amazing Brazillian restuarant in Chicago (and nine other locations), we were both expecting an experience similar to that. But clearly we were let down.
If you want an amazing Brazillian restaurant with incredible service and outstanding food, I would suggest taking the lost drive to Beverly Hills (closest one to Phoenix area) Or, look them up online at www.fogodechao.com to find a location nearest you!
