Fogo Gaucho Steak House and Lounge Bar

“Incredible restaurant”-
"Fogo Gaucho" Steak House and Lounge Bar
5 of 5 stars
Kenyan_Connoisseur 77 contributions
Africa
Jul 23, 2008
2 people found this review helpful

This is currently my absolute most favorite restaurant in Nairobi. First of all, it's in a very safe area that's gated so you don't have to deal with vagrants waiting outside to pounce on you. Then for the active, it's near Gypsy's, a popular club so you can stroll over for drinks and a dance after dinner if you can move! Pavement used to be right next door but has since closed.

People go to Carnivore for the amazing meat selection but it's been lacking in variation and quality for the past two years or so. Fogo Gaucho (literally Brazillian Cowboys) sprung up as competition I think and they have every single all-you-can eat restaurant beat, stomachs down. The place is a "meat paradise" as they advertise but the last two times I've been there, I've gorged myself silly on their salad bar and ate very little meat! Unlike Carnivore which passes out a bowl of romaine lettuce, they have salad bar with every single salad and dressing you can imagine. They also offer at least two hot plate choices from the bar. There was a shrimp bisque last time which had more shrimp than bisque!

Once seated, they tell you what's on offer and you have a coaster by your plate that's red on one side and green on the other. When you're ready to be served, turn it on to green and the food just keeps coming. Roast quail, chicken drumsticks, roast chicken, garlic roast beef, rosemary lamb, pork, deep fried shrimp, turkey, more beef, more grilled fish - the choices are too much! On top of that, they offer fried bananas (which I highly recommend in between meals) and fries. When your plate is full and you want to stop the ever roving servers, turn the chip to red. It's not like Carnivore where you have to "surrender" with raising the white flag. You can stop and start anytime. They have desserts but I confess I never got to them.

Yes, I'm a bit anti-Carnivore because the last time I went there, I spent over $30 pp, £15 (Kshs. 2,000) for a very poor meat selection (tons of beef, pork and chicken sausage which is mystery meat anyway!). I enjoyed the Dawas though.

Fogo Gaucho prices are incredibly reasonable. $20, £10 (Kshs. 1,300) on Thursday - Saturday and on weeknights.....$15, £7.50 (Kshs. 1,000)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The drinks are good but I didn't go there for them. They have a nice bar area for before and after drinks and also a big screen for the footie fans. It's a really great restaurant for the value and quality and highly recommend it. Dress comfortably!

World Cup Match Report

DPRK vs Brazil - a world cup match report, written by my sister

So my boss calls me during a meeting and I send a busy signal to him. He then sends a text saying, 'Oh well, I guess you don't need the ticket'. I excuse myself, run out of the meeting and call and voila - spare ticket to the game yesterday! Went with three staff members to Ellis Park which is in downtown, downtown Johannesburg. These are the parts you don't see on brochures. Park outside boarded up buildings with no lights but fully occupied and druggies huddling outside oil drums by the street. very brisk walk towards the police who were helping out. (The security guards contracted to do FIFA security at Ellis Park are on strike so to avert disaster, the South African Police stepped in. They handled everything from traffic to parking to ticketing and frisking. First time I've seen white cops in downtown Joburg....chuckle)

There were tons of fans - Brazilians mostly and the odd DPRK flag here and there. The Brazilians love love the vuvuzela so don't put down SA fans for this game. It was also less noticeable in Rustenberg at the England game which is a very open air stadium. Nonetheless, they blew them nonstop from security to the stadium - but to be honest, once you are in there, you kind of forget that they exist. We made it through and walked all around the stadium to get to our very cordoned off area...seated in the lower terrace below Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter!!!
First thing I see is the FIFA Vip section where our seat numbers were and as we approached the entrance, a flipping red carpet!! Turns out that the spare seats came from some CEO who received them from the US Soccer Federation. He was there with our boss and he was a pretty nice guy. This was his eight world cup and his fifth game so far in this WC!

So, game on, celebrity hunting. A number of Emirati were above us and once in a while, Michel would look down on us. The DPRK bench was about 12 rows below us so we had a great view of everything. The pitch was fantastic and the first half was good. Was a shame about the immediate goal after the second half. When Korea scored, people were thrilled with even the Brazilians urging them on. There seemed to be a bunch of their own supporters dressed in red suits.

All in all, a great game on the coldest day of the year in Johannesburg. Temps were down to 20F so I am still thawing this morning at home. It's a public holiday so I'm staying in and then headed to a braai....shiver. Seriously, it is very very cold here. If there was any moisture, it would have snowed here. It is snowing in Lesotho and on the Eastern Cape. It is raining buckets with very strong wind in Cape Town so please don't envy those headed to the coast!! The sun shines very bright and we have blue skies all day but it is freezing! And oh, South Africans don't know what indoor heating and screen doors are. Seriously. I've never been in any heated houses here or enjoyed a fly free braai.

Hope you are all well - if there was any group of people whom I would have loved to be there - would have been you. You must all commit to England 2014. I already have a friend willing to host!! With FIFA breathing down corporations for having empty seats and ALA being an investment project - I'm sure more tickets are bound to come this way...fingers crossed. I will keep you posted and will put out pics as soon as I find my camera cord.