Working In SoCal: Day 4 -- Agora Churrascaria

We all need to be careful when we hype a place, that we don't overhype a place. This is what happened to Agora.

I was promised by a co-worker that Agora was far superior to Fogo de Chao. He stated they had oysters on the half shell (actually it was just steamed clams). And that this place was going to blow my mind (it barely filled my belly).

I will give this place credit. It did have some nice clams, mussels and shrimp on the "salad bar" along with all of the usual suspects one would expect to find at a churasscaria. But the meat selection was woefully lacking. In fact, the meat selection was quite limited:

• Tri-tip - terrible, something I've never seen at a Brazilian steak house.
  
• Skirt steak - very good, but I'm not sure I've ever seen this low rent cut at other churasscarias either.
• Sirloin tip - very good
• Beef rib - very good
• Bacon Wrapped Filets - good but tiny, about the size of a large marshmallow.
• Sirloin - ok.
• Chicken, pork sausage - didn't try, I was waiting for more beef.
• Lamb chop - ok, lamb at other churasscarias is better

And not only was the selection limited, but there was seldom more than one meat on my plate -- and often no meat on my plate. The last time I went to a Brazilian steakhouse, also for work in Minneoaplolis, the plate was piled, literally, a mile high, with meat.

And on top of all of this, their wine list was extremely small for a steak house. It was essentially pamphlet sized.

Maybe the selection is better on busy weekend nights. So avoid it during the week and go to the Fogo in Beverly Hills.


1830 Main St Irvine, CA 92614
B-

Retox: Day 1 aka Fogo de Wow

Since there have been very few times in my recent history (thank you, once again, Nortel) to eat on the company dime, there is no way I could turn down a trip to the meat orgy that is Fogo de Chao. Detox officially took a holiday as pound after pounds of perfectly cooked slivers of meat where ceremoniously layered at the bottom of my distended stomach.

Oh, and they make a tastey giant Saphire martini.

Thankfully the fog of the meat coma has lifted so that I might blog about reaching the promised land of expense account steak.

Look for a similar post about Morton's if I ever get sent up here again.