Four Reasons Why Fogo De Chao’s $15 Lunch Is So Great

At first I thought about adding a blurb about Fogo De Chao’s lunch to my Minneapolis Skyway food post. However, Fogo’s Market Table lunch is so glorious that it deserves a post of its own.

Fogo De Chao is a Brazilian steakhouse chain. Servers wander the dining room with metal spears of meat that they slice table side. You can choose from a wide variety of steaks, and cuts of chicken, pork, and lamb. The options are practically endless. Bacon-wrapped, ribs, parmesan chicken, filet mignon, top sirloin, you can have it all. Servers will also ask what doneness you prefer. The well-done people can have their well-done steaks without preventing everyone else from eating medium rare.

As if all of the meat isn’t enough, all meals come with the salad bar Fogo calls the Market Table, feijoada and soup bars, and side dishes.

The cost for the full churrasco dinner experience is $52.95 per person before tax, tips, and beverages. Not your most casual dining experience, but fun for a special occasion. We went once for a family birthday and had a blast.

Weekday lunches are the most affordable times to visit. Fogo seems to consider that customers may be on work lunches. Servers circulate frequently with meats and inquire about special requests.

Other more affordable times to visit are brunch, happy hour, and restaurant week

God bless the person who can indulge in the churrsasco experience and go back to work. We called it a short day.  If you aren’t up for the entire churrasco parade of meat, consider the midweek Market Table-only  lunch.

Here are four reasons why the Market Table lunch is so great:

  1. The price. It’s $15.
  2. The variety. Fogo de Chao’s Market Table isn’t an ordinary salad bar. Sure, you can find a variety of green salads and things to put on top of them. But you will also find trays of fancy cheeses and fig jam, silky smoked salmon rolled into little curls dotted with capers, prosciutto, parma ham, grilled vegetables, marinated and pickled vegetables, fresh fruit, prepared salads and maybe the best chicken salad ever. I got my money’s worth alone in smoked salmon.
  3. The feijoada bar. The $15 lunch also includes the feijoada bar. Help yourself to steamed rice and flavorful black bean stew with sausage and garnish with the fresh hot sauce and farofa (baked yuca flour with bacon). The bar also features sliced bread, butter, and a daily soup like carrot-ginger at the feijoada bar.
  4. You STILL get the side dishes even if you don’t order the full churrasco meal. Experienced Fogo De Chao’ers may caution you against letting these side dishes seduce you into giving-up room for meat , but if you’re not saving room for meat, who cares! Fogo De Chao designing them as fillers is brilliant because they’re not throwaway starches. Every table receives crispy logs of fried polenta, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet caramelized bananas and my favorite, pay de queijo, little puffy cheesy rolls. According to the website, all of these dishes are gluten-free.

Takeaways: Remember that with buffet-style dining, you can’t take leftovers home, parking in a ramp mid-day is expensive, and a caipirinha will run you $15, the same cost as your entire meal. I suppose they’ve got to make money somehow! 

6 Comments

  1. Feisty Eats

    Man, I think just the salad bar sounds great. What a good deal.

  2. Beth Ann Chiles

    I never feel that I can eat enough at one of those Brazilian steakhouses to pay the price but this way sounds like a great deal. I usually walk out in a meat coma so the lunch idea sounds like a great idea–especially if you don’t have to go to work afterwards.

    • Jeni

      I can’t eat enough to get my money’s worth either. Plus, I love leftovers. But it’s fun for a treat.

  3. Josh

    Nice! Been to two different fogo de chao’s… Great eats. The one in DC if I remember correctly and the one in Minneapolis. So fun. Thanks for the memories sister! Been to one other Churrascaria in Massachusetts that lets you pay by the pound. Better value & helps promote portion control, which is hard in a Brazilian steak house!

    • Jeni

      Oh, pay by the pound! That sounds like a great approach too. I can never eat enough to get my money’s worth. Would love to try another Brazilian steakhouse.

  4. Lisa

    I’ve never been to a Brazilian Steakhouse, but this makes me want to go!

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