Fumaca Brazilian Steakhouse

September 3, 2018

Fumaca Brazilian Steakhouse is the latest restaurant to take over the property that has been home to various eateries over the year. Overlooking the River Valley, Fumaca serves up a full Brazilian ‘Rodizo’ offering all-you-can-eat meat (14 cuts to be exact + grilled pineapple), as well as a salad bar. Their meats can be found during lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. Most people would compare Fumaca to it’s one and only competitor, Pampa. I’ll talk about my verdict between the two restaurants later on in my post.

Disclaimer: although I was invited in by Fumaca for a complimentary meal, my review is 100% unbiased and based on my own opinion.

Interior

Salad Bar – Cold Items

Salad Bar – Cheese Board

The hot and cold salad bar consists of over 50 items. For those who want to dine here and fully enjoy the salad bar without the meat option, it will cost $29.99 per person. I was starving when I went to Fumaca (but who doesn’t starve themselves before AYCE??) which meant that I ate with my eyes at the salad bar and filled my plate up more than I should’ve. For cold items, you can choose from different salads, beef carpaccio, devilled eggs, assorted vegetables, and more. Their hot items were mainly carbs such as mashed potato and truffle mac & cheese (which I couldn’t stop eating when I should’ve been eating meat instead). The salad bar had a lot of options to cater to different tastebuds but my advice is to not load up your plate here and save your stomach for the different cuts of meat instead!

Beef Rumpsteak

Time for the main course and main review… the meat! There are 14 different cuts of meat + grilled pineapple, and yes, you do get to try them all in one sitting. How it works: each person at the table gets a small card where one side is green and one side is red. Waiters walk around the restaurant with a different cut of meat and slice it off for you, onto your plate. How do you determine when you want and don’t want meat? If the green side of the card is flipped up on the table, the meat’s gonna be coming towards you. If the red side is flipped up, that means ‘stop’ and the waiter will pass by you. The meat is limitless so if you want a specific cut twice, just ask the waiter to bring it over again!

The different cuts of meat offered:

Beef: rib eye steak, top sirloin, bottom sirloin, rumpsteak, garlic steak, striploin steak, roasted beef ribs

Pork: pork sausage, parmesan pork loin

Chicken: chicken drumsticks, bacon-wrapped chicken, chicken hearts

Other: garlic marinated shrimp, leg of lamb, grilled pineapple

My main favourites were beef rumpsteak, garlic steak, grilled pineapple, and chicken drumsticks. Beef rumpsteak is the most popular cut at Fumaca and I can see why! It was very delicious and succulent – definitely something that you’ll want twice of. The garlic steak was very tender, and I honestly love anything that is seasoned with garlic! Their grilled pineapple stood out for me. Lightly covered with cinnamon and brown sugar, the waitress referred to it as a “healthy” dessert but I thought of it as sweet with savoury. It was sweet, but paired well with the savoury food. It was tasty and unique! The chicken drumsticks were also one of my favourites because it was one of the juiciest drumsticks I’ve ever had. There was no dryness at all and it did not lack flavour.

Garlic Steak

Grilled Pineapple

Chicken Drumsticks

For the rest of the cuts, I enjoyed them as well although there were two that I didn’t try because I was too full (chicken hearts and leg of lamb). My only critique would be that some of the beef cuts tasted the same to me (top sirloin, bottom sirloin, and striploin steak). Photos of the rest of the meat cuts can be viewed after the next two photos.

Fumaca Cake & Creme Brulee

To finish off a very filling meal, I shared a Fumaca cake and a creme brulee. The cake was very chocolatey with layers of chocolate cake separated by a chocolate icing, then drizzled with more chocolate! I’d recommend sharing it with someone unless your sweet tooth is very strong and you want it all to yourself. The creme brulee was good but tasted like it did at any other place, nothing special about it. Their other dessert choices are cheesecake, apple pie, chocolate mousse, and sorbet.

So how would I compare Fumaca with Pampa? I personally enjoyed Fumaca more, as well as my parents who I had shared this dining experience with. Fumaca has more meats to choose from for a better value ($44.99 for 14 meats + grilled pineapple vs. $51.99 for 10 meats at Pampa). I found all the meats at Fumaca to be delicious but during my last visits to Pampa, I noticed that some of the meats had been dry or bland. I’d say that the salad bar at both restaurants are of equal quality. Parking wise, Fumaca has a parking lot right in front of their restaurant whereas at Pampa’s Downtown location, you have to find street parking or drive through the back alley to park underground. I do enjoy Pampa’s atmosphere more because it’s livelier, but if you prefer a quieter environment to dine in, then you’ll like Fumaca’s. I know that some people will still enjoy Pampa more than Fumaca, so it’s up to you to try both restaurants and see which one you like better!

Fumaca also offers lunch and Sunday brunch if you want to try a smaller selection of their meats. For complete information and pricing on lunch, dinner, and brunch at Fumaca, please visit their website at https://www.fumacasteakhouse.com/.