Bonfire Brazilian Grill

4.3 Below Average

Food  8      Ambience  3      Service  3      Value  3     

The Food was great, no complaints there. But I was disappointed with every thing else. I really wish I had the reviews on this before going. I live locally and had seen banners of the brazilian All you can eat so we thought we try it out for my birthday.

Firstly, They couldn't even get the correct spelling of the name the booking was made under, secondly I booked for 8pm they decided to book me in for 8.30 (because it was convenient for them)

Now, as far as value for money goes the "All you can eat" is not all you can eat. I was so disappointed. It was my first time there and we ordered the Supreme all you can eat. Firstly I think the menu was misleading because it says the seafood was part of it, but instead all we get are small ramekin size side dishes of garlic prawns and a few pieces of crumbed fish.

Mind you we had a table of 10 booked. The potato and salad dish was the same, how the hell do you share a small ramekin size dish of potato salad among 10 people. Same goes for the rice dish. There was alot more mentioned on the menu that was not presented.

Then they started coming around with the skewers of meat cuts. A tiny 2cm cube of some meat cut was taken of the skewer and placed on my plate, assuming I would receive a second piece as it is only very tiny, the waiter moves to the next person leaving me holding my plate in mid air as if I was begging for more. It was embarrassing and disgusting. Skewers of the same cuts of meats came around about 3 times before it was all over. How is that "All you can eat". Definitely not value for money.

It was my first time there and my last to order the supreme. But because the food was cooked well I will give their A-La Carte menu a try and hope the servings are better this time.

I hope I don't regret it.

May 20, 2012 

3.8 Below Average

Food  4      Ambience  3      Service  5      Value  3     

Not Happy Jan. The only reason we went there is because we had been when It was Vardys, which had been Ok. I wish I had read the reviews before going. My friend and I were very disappointed with the whole experience. The place was cool (lucky we had warm clothing on). We thought the menu was expensive for what we got. I had ribs and steak (not much meat on the ribs and the steak was overdone and chewy). My friend could not eat her steak too. Not much choice re the sweets but what we had was good. We are locals and will not be returning.

May 18, 2012 

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  1     

I have Never Ever been more Disgusted with a restaurant in my life. A friend had recommended the place and said the 2 for 1 special was worth it, so we decided to give it a go. We had previously tried a brazilian BBQ in leichardt which was great so we were eager to try other similar restaurants.

Upon booking my boyfriend rang and was told they were completely booked out until 8:00pm, naturally we got excited, this seemed like a good sign. How wrong we were. We arrived right on 8pm and was shown to our table where we and our two friends were informed of the 2 for 1 special.

We waited 40 Minutes for drinks and sides. We were told by the sweet waitress (she was lovely and I felt a bit sorry for her) that she wasn't sure what was going on tonight and her boss had decided to do things differently and she was sorry. We let it slide, until we tried the sides. We ordered the Supreme menu, where do I start?

The beans were cold and tasted like water. All the fried food (polenta and banana) were Drowned in oil and literally dripping with it. All red meat was Cooked rare (and I usually Love my meat pink but this was literally Rare Rare, the meat wasn't even Hot from cooking). It was so rare that my other female friend and I could not eat another bite and would not put anything else on our plates for fear it would be soaked in blood from the meat.

We didn't receive all the sides promised on the supreme menu, we had to ask Several times for sides as we were initially presented with just banana and polenta, thats it. Then we kept asking and even then we Still weren't given everything promised on the menu. The prawns were cold, also this was the Only seafood we received even though the menu promised more.

The "salad" was bits of iceberg lettuce with spanish onion on top, hardly a salad. The scotch fillet were Meager flimsy pieces of meat, not even the size of my palm, the portuguese chicken was Stone Cold as if it had been refrigerated! yuck! Beef ribs were oily as chorizo/honeyed ham was cold and tasted like coles meat. Pork ribs were dry.

When someone did notice you and came round to your table we were served Tiny Meager portions of meat And several times the waiter dropped food on the table or floor and didn't bother to pick it up. Cheese balls were cold, stale = just pathetic.

The only mediocre food was the cinnamon pineapple (and even then I have had better elsewhere). The staff had No idea what they were doing. One girl serving us food didn't even know what some of the dishes were! one of our waiters came over with meat at one point and said "I don't know what this is but would you like some?"

Naturally I was completely fed up by this point and went to complain to the senior staff - he asked me what was wrong, I told him the above and he went to the owner. He came back and said we would be given a discount. No mention of any compensation i.e. your drinks are free, would you like a free dessert? Nothing!

Upon paying the bill was $100! I was shocked so I asked him to explain it to me. He said that it was originally $200 but the owner apologised for the food and gave us $100 off, now I'm not a genius at math but we were initially told that it was 2 for 1 so at $47.50 for 2 ppl it should have been around $120 and thus discounted to around $50, not the case apparently.

The senior staff then told me "oh no its not two for one, who told you that?" obviously the poor waitress we had in the beginning was not told the right information. Not only that but the posters around the restaurant stated otherwise. What kind of restaurant does that?! The senior staff then proceeded to speak to me so rudely and Refused to give us a further discount despite the fact we didn't even receive anything close to $100 worth of food and 98% of it was So poor it was inedible

I will never ever return to this place ever again! Disgusting food disgusting service! Not even half a star from me!

May 16, 2012 

2 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  3      Service  2      Value  1     

We decided to try this restaurant on the spur of the moment after consideration to come another day with a group. We had a Perri Perri chicken dish which was tasteless and undercooked. When the chips are the best part then the dinner is disappointing. The other dish was a mixture of stewed meats in a pot. This was almost inedible, we did leave most of it. Each chunk of meat was hard and the gravy was horrible. Each meal was over $20 and wasn't worth $5. Any take away would serve up better chicken and chips. I couldn't recommend this to anyone.

Apr 21, 2012 

2 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  4      Service  2      Value  1     

Table of 5. When seated every single one of our plates were dirty. Had to request clean plates. Ordered a whole portugese/ peri peri? Chicken as one of our mains, what we got was half a peri peri chicken and bits of some leftover churasco chicken. The waitress informed us there was 'actually more chicken than a whole one', like we had just hit the jackpot!

The chicken, to put it mildly, was awful. It was dry and had absolutely no flavor, requested some kind of sauce to eat it with and was told they had nothing. No peri peri, tomato, chilli, nothing. We ended having to grab some salt and pepper from another table. Paella and the fish stew were standard. Simply not worth the money spent.

Will not be returning nor recommending this place to anyone

Apr 01, 2012 

3 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  3     

This used to be the old Vaby's grill and salad bar restaurant and although this is now Brazilian, the old decor of Old Australiana is still there, interesting start to the night out.

We get there and there's no EFTPos, lucky I took out a heap of cash (as we were in a party of 6).

Interesting point to remember, if you want the all-you-can-eat Churrasco (and you get a choice of Classic or Supreme), it's all or nothing. The whole table has to have it and no sharing and no mix of Classic or Supreme between the table. This made for a Lot of indecision at our table ... "Should we ...? Can we eat that much ...?"

The guys doing the rounds of meat skewers/plates, very inconsistent. Either all at once, or none for long periods of time. Waitresses forgot orders, my partner ordered a glass of red wine and received (eventually) a glass of Sangria. Luckily another member of our party wanted it and we duly requested the glass of red wine. When it finally came, it was, again, a glass of Sangria. I explained to the waitress: "We keep ordering a glass of red wine and we keep getting a glass of Sangria", her answer: "Oh - but Sangria is red wine?" ... me: "No - it contains red wine, as well as lemonade, fruit juice etc" ... her: "Oh!" and toddle off to get the requested beverage - which arrived.

Food was good, if inconsistent. The best dish, by general consensus, was the chicken drummettes. Bloody tasty and moist. The peri-peri chicken was a supreme disappointment - bland.

And remember to check your bill. One of the party had ordered a bottle of red to begin with and then was told that particular wine was not available and was asked to pick another which he did (and got). The first (unavailable) bottle of wine, was on the bill.

Somehow, I doubt we'd be back, the Brazilian dancers and drummers were fun but.

Mar 17, 2012 

9.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

Dined here with 3 friends using 4 scoopon vouchers and cannot understand the bad reviews. We arrived early for our booking and notified the girl at reception that we would have an extra child dine with us. She had us seated in a booth but was able to swap us to another table so that she could add an extra chair at the end.

All of the waiters and waitresses were young but all pleasant and friendly. We came in with low expectations because of the reviews here and were pleasantly surprised. Our waitress wasn’t very friendly but there was a girl who kept checking our table to make sure our sides and dips were topped up. She also checked on us to make sure we had enough drinks. She even checked what cheese they use for the cheese balls when we asked her.

Most of the staff are young and if you show them some respect (saying please and thank you), they make sure you have a great night. The brazilian dancers and capoiera performers also arrived. It was so loud we had to yell at each other but it was all in good fun. The two guys on our table got a chance to dance with the brazilian dancers in front of all the other diners.

The food was fantastic, especially the rump cap and the cheese balls. The waiters with the skewers of meat were happy to give us extras, unlike some brazilian places where they only give you 1 serving of each.

We all had a fantastic night and we’re already planning a return visit with a bigger group of friends!

Mar 05, 2012 

3.5 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  9      Service  1      Value  1     

Absolutely terrible service. When I first walked in with two others, the receptionist, who I later found out to be the store manager, was unsure if they could take 3 people. Seriously? There was a book on the table with less than 5 names reserved and the restaurant was huge with so many empty tables I couldn't comprehend why she couldn't tell if there were enough seats on that spot. Instead, she asked the waiter something to which he gave a nod.

30 minutes later, we have been served 2 pieces of meat, both absolutely bland and dry. Waiters were polite, spoke English quite well contrary to the previous reviews but it seems they did not respect the senior staff. I asked for another refill of water in the time from the senior staff, who took over 15 minutes to get me my cup. After 1 hour of sitting in the restaurant eating boring meat, a couple others in the restaurant started to stand up and complain about the quality of the service + food.

This was met with a heated argument from the senior staff who was clearly new to the restaurant and was not experienced in the field. I also complained about the service, and she offered me one full Churrasco off the bill ($118-$35), but this was not to my satisfaction. I already had offered to pay for the salad and the drinks, but not Churrasco x 3 but considering I had some pieces of meat, I bargained with her in order to only pay for one, and not two.

She told me to wait (yet again) while she went to the back. After about 5 minutes of waiting, I discovered that she had started an argument with one of the kitchen staffs at the back, clearly this wasn't a matter that is going to be resolved quickly, so I left them with $30 (which is the cost for the salad+drinks+sub-standard meat+service in my opinion) and quickly exited the restaurant telling the senior staff that I left the bill with one of the waiters to which she nodded, but continued with her argument with the kitchen staff instead of pursuing me.

Not coming back unless they put up a "New Management" sign.

Feb 19, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  8     

Our experience was fantastic. The service was prompt and friendly. The meats were delicious, sufficient in variety (and we were so full by the end of it).
Its up there with all the other restaurants in Beverly Hills. Great ambience with the antiquity - just like the old Vabys.

Feb 04, 2012 

6.8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  7     

I read the reviews so was expecting the worst. Pleasantly surprised. I love a Churrasco (been to a hell of a lot of them) this one opened up just down the Road so despite the bad press felt we had to give it a go.

I like the old booth style set up, if they didn't have it, they'd be just like any other place. The decor does need to be brought into sync with its Brazilian creed (not sure what Colonial Australian Loggers Photos have to do with South America) but the bones are good.

The staff are young and mostly not Brazilian or South American, but they are pleasant enough and seem eager to please. There was one young Brazilian Waiter who was very good (they need to send him to stud and start breeding little waiters from him) very attentive and happy disposition.

Most importantly the food was good, the chicken (which tends to be dry when done over the coals) was the best I've had in Sydney. I know, you don't do Churrasco for the Chicken but the Lamb, Beef and Chorizo where all good. Not the best I've had but not bad either.

Is this the best Churrasco in Sydney? No way, but it's bloody good for Beverly Hills. If they bring the decor more onto theme and find a few more South American staff I reckon they'll do just fine. Give it a go.

Jan 27, 2012