Rumbi Island Grill

www.rumbi.com

The Pacific islands call to mainlanders like the siren song of yore.  The ocean breeze and call of the surf keep bringing us back, not for what is, but for what could be. 

Rumbi Island Grill is Utah based and Polynesian inspired but still comes across as just a rice bowl place.  They offer a choice of rice or noodles, topped with the meat and sauce of your choice.  The rice and noodles are both fine choices, because you can’t really get them wrong. 

The chicken served on the rice bowls is good, but is so finely diced and so finely apportioned that it’s easy to miss.  The majority of the sauces are various degrees of sweetness, so this is no place for the diabetic.  Even the sauces claiming “spicy” as a selling point (Bali Island and Jerk) are just slightly less sweet than the others. 

One of the key features are the Rumbi Fries.  These are a mix of sweet potato and regular French fries.  Unfortunately, neither has much flavor. 

The décor is pleasantly island-ish.  If you were to close your eyes and imagine a restaurant described as an “island grill”, you would be picturing Rumbi.  Unfortunately, the island flavor is not quite as easy to conjure. 

Rumbi Island Grill gets only 2 of 5 stars – a solid vote of no confidence.

Fogo de Chao

http://www.fogo.com/

6300 N. Scottsdale Road

What do you expect when you hear of a Brazilian steakhouse; a place where they serve over a dozen different cuts of meat, delivered on swords to your table?  That’s what you are facing at Fogo de Chao.

Well, they really do serve meat on a sword and they do have over a dozen varieties.  But what’s really shocking is that the idea came from Brazil.  Wouldn’t you think that an American came up with this concept?

So how are the sword-meats?  Overall, pretty dang good.  They offer several varieties of chicken and different cuts and flavors of steak, as well as several pork options, lamb, and sausages.  All are brought to you when you turn a marker from red to green.  And they come fast. 

The steak options were a little disappointing.  The filet was flavorful, but fatty.  Most of the sirloin options were forgettable, except for the Picanha, which has a salt and garlic rub on it.  The sausages were surprisingly good; one of the items I never turned down.  But the best, most flavorful selection was the chicken wrapped in bacon.  It was moist, tender, and has the most exquisite flavor. 

Fogo also boasts of its salad bar but this was the biggest disappointment of the night.  It can best be summed up in this wise: cooked vegetables should not be served cold.

Along with the salad bar and meat selection, you are also served some Brazilian favorites to your table: fried bananas, fried polenta, mashed potatoes, and rolls.  The rolls are infused with parmesan cheese and are a nice, light juxtaposition to the piles of meat.  The mashed potatoes were of the instant variety. 

The atmosphere at Fogo is . . . dark.  The attempt is for “intimate”, but the restaurant is too crowded for that.  The tables are so close together that it is difficult to move without banging into someone else.  For the price you pay for this extravaganza of meat, you would think that they could remove a couple tables. 

Overall, Fogo de Chao merits a 4 out of 5.  It was good, but not great.  Probably someplace worth going once, for the experience more than anything else.  But I can’t say that I‘ll be back next week.