Eating Out on the Whole30: Fogo de Chao
My first experience dining out while on the Whole30 was our Valentine’s Day dinner at Fogo de Chao. While I was nervous I’d feel uncomfortable, it ended up being a great dining experience and I’d recommend it to any Whole30er in need of a nice meal out. Here is a run down of what you can and can’t eat at Fogo, keeping in mind that this is at the Washington, D.C. location. Methods and ingredients may vary by location, so you’ll want to check with your server to be safe!
I told our waiter about all of my dietary restrictions right away. He was very knowledgable and immediately told me what I could have as is, what they could modify for me by cooking in only sea salt, and what I should avoid all together.
Enjoy as is: Picanha, filet mignon, rib eye, top sirloin, bottom sirloin and beef ribs
Modify: Lamb legs, lamb chop, pork ribs and chicken
Avoid altogether: parmesan pork loin, sausage, anything wrapped in bacon (contains sugar); all of the sides (the only one that’s not obviously a no-no is the bananas which unfortunately contain soy).
He made me feel completely comfortable asking and even walked me through the salad bar to point out what I could have and what I couldn’t. This was really helpful because I wouldn’t have had any idea about a lot of the cooked and marinated veggies. For instance, the beets had added sugar but the zucchini, peppers and string beans were just in olive oil salt and pepper and the broccoli and asparagus were just steamed. Anything he didn’t know, he found out the answer right away. I was pleased to find out that the smoked salmon didn’t have sugar! I avoided anything that was obviously marinated as well as all of the cured meats.
In the end, I was very pleased with my meal and didn’t feel like I was missing out on the Fogo dining experience. They offer so much food that even if you had no dietary restrictions, you could never try it all. My favorite steaks were the picanha and the filet mignon. I didn’t ask them to make chicken special for me (who wants chicken when you have lamb and filet mignon?!), but they made two batches of lamb legs with just salt and they were divine! If anything, I ended up getting more food than my husband because all of the servers were aware of my dietary restrictions and I couldn’t turn down meats they’d made specially for me!
