Rio de Churrascaria in Northbrook- Terrible

I went there w/ a pary of three last night. It's located right next door to the Prime Minister ( looked crowded). The place had only a few tables occupied. We were seated promptly. The waitress asked us if we have been to a place similar to thiers and we all stated yes. She said that this is not like all of the others. She said that this is how this restauratnt works. We had to go to the buffet and get our salad items. Then a second course of filet mignon, beef stoganoff, and shrimp. Finally they will give you your "card" ( looks like a salt/pepper shaker) which tells the gauchos to serve you the meats. She then took our drink orders. I asked if we can start w/ the meats and promptly said no. You have to start w/ the salad. Thumds down already

We went up to the buffet. It looked ok. Not up to par like Sal's or Fogo. It had salad items, marintated shrimp, and tuna salad ( OY!). It reminded me of the salad bar at an Old Country Buffet.

The "second " course came. The stoganoff was good. The filet was tiny about 2 ounces smothered in beef gravy and on fired shrimp. The beef had so much gristle on it it was almost inedible.

The gauchos started coming to our tables and offering the meats. The meats were not very tender at all compared to their rivals. The meats were either blood rare or well done. Some of the rare meats were very cold as is they had just been in the freezer. The quantity of the meats were miniscule on the skewer. The only think that was good of all the roasted meats were the pork ribs. The beef ribs were ths size of a big mac on a stick and was way past its cooking time. The menu card said there was filet mignon. The only had filet wrapped in greasy bacon. You had to ask for the filet which was smothered in gravy. Gauchos came every 10 minutes.

They did serve roasted pineapple. When the gaucho offered it to us we all agreed. He sliced a piece to my companion. Then he proceeded to ask us if he could serve the other bigger table first then come back to serve the rest of us. We politely said no and to serve us first bec he offered. He said that this is how he does it. He will then come back to serve the rest of us. When he came back to us all what was left was the core of the pineapple. We then told the waitress what happened and she snapped back that this is how it is done here and took off. She came back two min later if we wanted the check. We were already upset by sevice and decided to go. She charged us for 4 people. I brought this to her attentions and blatantly said there is for out you that ate dinner. I then told her you came by a few times to our table and was there a 4th person? She took the bill back and we waited for 20 more min. Not once did she apologize. Our bill was about $150 w/ one Grey Goose, hot tea, and a Coke.

Once we rec the corrected check she had the audacity to ask how her service was. We said no comment. The person next to us started to laugh and he said that this was the worst place he's been to.

I do not think this place will be open for long. Anyone benn here yet? Please let me know your thoughts.

pio007 wrote:It's located right next door to the Prime Minister ( looked crowded).

Have you been to the Prime Minister? I always get a kick out of the name.

My gosh. That may rate as the worst restaurant experience I have ever read about.

I pass that place everyday..I had to laugh as that is like the 4th brazilian style steakhouse thats opened since Fogo came to town. I still think Fogo is best ..Sal y Carvao in Schaumburg was good when they first opened but the last time I was there over summer it had fallen considerably in food quality and service

I had an excellent experience recently at Asado in Evanston, which costs about half of the downtown places.

Asado Brazilian Grill
847/425-4175
1012 Church St.
Evanston, IL 60201

Well, I was considering that place for my meat-a-holic sons' graduation and confirmation next year, but I'll find somewhere else now.

I'm curious what they did to the former McMahon's space: It was designed as a very noisy sports bar where most of the space is this central high-ceiling-ed barn. What's it look like now?

I agree 100%. It's terrible and it won't be open long.

We were there about 3 weeks ago and it was a memorably bad experience. And, a lot of the memories I'd blocked out, your thorough post brought vividly back to mind. Just reading your words took me back to our evening there, instantly.

I've been working on a post about it but keep getting pulled away from it by other stuff. In any case, here are a few of my notes, distilled:

Our entire experience was poor. We had a reservation and even though the place was virtually empty, the hostess attempted to seated us upstairs, away from the salad bar. This would have been irritating enough but our party included my 78-year-old MIL who, needless to say, doesn't take stairs very well.

As has been mentioned, the entire concept of the "forced" 1st and 2nd courses felt manipulative and unfriendly. Frankly, there is no difference between my not eating salad and taking a plate of it and leaving it, uneaten, on the table. As it turns out, I did have salad -- I wanted to try it -- but that is, or should be, beside the point. I thought the salad bar, while not great, was still better than I'd expected. I tasted tiny portions of virtually every item and while there weren't any great ones, I liked a few of them.

The 2nd course felt like it was designed and intended to obstruct. Serving me (or any diner) a plate-full of items I have no interest in eating without allowing me to decline is just wasteful. Here though, I got the feeling that the low-cost course was served solely to fill us up. Why would I want to eat a savory muffin filled with mystery meat when supposedly great, grilled meat awaits.

The meat was, for the most part, not cooked well and in some cases actually tasted off. It was clear to me that frozen meat is served at RdC without any qualms. As was mentioned above, the pieces on the spits were small and the intervals between gauchos were long. After we'd tasted what I assume were all of the selections, there were a few we wanted to have some more of. We specifically asked for more those items but they never came. In fact, while we were waiting -- with our indicators set to green -- our waiter came over to the table, asked us if we were done and began to remove our plates. Of course, we said "no" but luckily for him, he wasn't listening. He'd also never brought the 2nd sprite I'd ordered for my son. At that point, I told him not to bother with it and he didn't but it still ended up on the bill. When I called him on it, he acted as if he had no idea he hadn't brought the beverage. Perhaps an innocent mistake but it felt sleazy to me.

It's worth also pointing out that selection of side dishes at RdC is woeful compared to the good places. Other than horribly under-ripe grilled pineapple, the only side dish our table saw was some fried bananas. Where were the black beans, rice, fried polenta cakes, mashed potatoes, seasoned bread crumbs, spicy gardeniera and chimichuri sauce? Your guess is as good as mine.

My nick-name for this place is Faux-go de Chao because it so completely and thoroughly lacks the quality, attention to detail and robust spirit found in a quality churrascaria. It only seeks to imitate and cash in. The problem is, the folks who are running this place are either clueless or feel that their customers are. I feel bad for anyone who's never been to a quality churrascaria and ends up at RdC. I could foresee those folks scratching their heads and asking themselves "what's the big deal?" Hopefully, those folks will someday end up at a quality joint and learn for themselves what the big deal is.

This could possibly be my worst restaurant experience in 2005 and if not, it's certainly in the bottom 3. Terrible, pathetic and at $42/pp an almost complete rip-off. Worse than leaving unhappy, you'll leave angry. That's how bad it is.

=R=

Out of curiosity, when you guys have experiences this bad, where the service is as bad as anything, what do you tip?
-Will

Aaron Deacon wrote:

pio007 wrote:It's located right next door to the Prime Minister ( looked crowded).

Have you been to the Prime Minister? I always get a kick out of the name.

I've been. It's fun, kind of a Twin Peaks atmosphere, especially if you sit in a booth in the bar area. The food is pretty predicable given the name. I don't like to eat stuff like prime rib out-- I get enough red meat with my boyfriend cooking steaks all the time-- but the fish dishes have always been just fine. However, for that kind of cozy atmosphere, rich food etc., I'm apt to go to Cafe Lucci just a few minutes to the south. They have a really neat bar and excellent service. I might feel different if I was into eating big cuts of meat, though.

WillG wrote:Out of curiosity, when you guys have experiences this bad, where the service is as bad as anything, what do you tip?
-Will

Normally, I tip 20% or more and when service is bad I still leave 15% because people have to make a living.

However, in this case, since we'd been all but cut-off from the meat service and charged suspiciously for a beverage we'd never received, I was feeling a bit less obligated and left about 12%. In spite of their unfriendly policies, most of our issues were directly related to poor and unresponsive service, so I felt it was appropriate. That said, I felt a bit guilty about it after the fact but that's my burden to bear.

=R=

Out of curiosity, when you guys have experiences this bad, where the service is as bad as anything, what do you tip?
-Will


I tip 25% or more after taxes if the service is way above par, 20 % is my norm, 15 for minimal service. For the way we were treated here, 0.

Did yah all know their opening up a Texas de Brazil (sp?) in Woodfield Mall? And what is the count up to? Fogo, Sal, Brazzaz, Rio, Asado, Texas de... HmmmMmmmm. How many more can they open before the market is saturated?!

By my count they're about four past it.[/b]

mby385 wrote:Fogo, Sal, Brazzaz, Rio, Asado, Texas de...

And yet, we don't have any non-churrascaria Brazilian restaurants at all, unless you count Sushisamba rio.

We even have our own version in the southern suburbs! Sabor do Brasil recently opened in Orland Park, although I have not yet tried it.

Judging from what I've seen on this board about some of the other Fogo wannabe's, I may just stay away and let someone else explore it.

Suzy

Sabor do Brasil
15750 S. Harlem Ave., Orland Park
708-444-2770

sdritz wrote:Judging from what I've seen on this board about some of the other Fogo wannabe's, I may just stay away and let someone else explore it.

But here's your opportunity to take one for the team!

Taking one for the team was fine when I was out the couple bucks for the Ghetto Fries at Max's. Dropping 40-50 clams on a plate of overcooked grsitly meat is simply not in my budget.

Suzy,

Some people from my office went to Sabor Do Brasil the other day. Their comments were, that it is a little less expensive than Fogo and Sal, the salad bar was not quite as good or had as many items, the rolls weren't as addictive. The good point was that they were around much more often with the premium cuts of meat, and that was very good.

We are likely going to have our holiday office party there next month.

Glenn

mby385 wrote:Did yah all know their opening up a Texas de Brazil (sp?) in Woodfield Mall?

Yep, here's their website.

http://www.texasdebrazil.com/index2.php

Ronnie, your nickname made it into Dish this week:

Speaking of Brazil: Folks on LTHforum.com are none too thrilled with the new Rio de Churrascaria Brazilian Steakhouse (3315 N. Milwaukee Ave., Northbrook; 847-299-8391), and have nicknamed it “Faux-Go de Chao.”

I'd missed it in the thread originally. Great line!

Thanks, Ed.

I'm just glad that word about this place has now spread beyond our internet confines. It really was an awful experience, in spite of the bit of inspiration it brought

=R=

The trib reviewed the 9 (9!) churrascarias in the Chicago area today.
R de C was their bottom ranked, and they tried very hard to not say bad things, but they (a) could have skipped the platter of 'small meats' brought to them, (b) found the gauchos to be too few and far between, (c) found the salad bar boring. They did like the skirt steak a lot.

Score: 1 skewer out of 5. The 5 was Fogo de Chao.

Here's the article Joel is talking about:

Rio en Chicago

Registration almost certainly required, but for that, there's BugMeNot

JoelF wrote:. . . They did like the skirt steak a lot.

Score: 1 skewer out of 5. . .

Skirt steak?!?! We never saw any skirt steak!

=R=

Man, the review as it finally ran is two or even three star-level. I'd like to see the draft that originally went with the one-star rating.

Is Rio De Churrascaria still open??? Sadly, my wife has a tenative meeting scheduled there. She's been calling all week to cancel but their phone goes to a voicemail. Are they gone? Need to know, Thank You!

Anyone??? Save me a drive just to prove it's probably gone. Thanks!

grant wrote:Anyone??? Save me a drive just to prove it's probably gone. Thanks!

Our department is having our holiday lunch (3 weeks late) there and since they are just a little ways down the street from where our organizer is, I'll ask him to check it out. I hope it is closed, so we can go someplace good.

Called again, nothing. Can anyone confirm if they're out of business? Thanks

grant wrote:Called again, nothing. Can anyone confirm if they're out of business? Thanks

I have confirmation. My coworker went over there today during lunch.
He reports:
"...the door was locked a someone came to the door. I ask, they confirmed ....the joint is closed for good."