Churrascaria Near Me in the South Bay: Fogo de Chão El Segundo

Fogo de Chão El Segundo, at 2121 Rosecrans Ave, starts weekday lunch at 11 am, half an hour earlier than the Pasadena branch, and the full churrasco costs $61 per person until 3 pm. Dinner is $81. The restaurant sits a few minutes from Manhattan Beach and Manhattan Village, so if your churrascaria near me search came from the beach cities or anywhere along Rosecrans, this is the rodízio closest to you.

This branch opened on Friday, May 27, 2022, as the chain's 65th restaurant worldwide and its third in Los Angeles County, after Beverly Hills and Downtown L.A., according to the company's opening announcement. Ashley Retzloff was the general manager at the launch. Fogo describes the building with a marble exterior, tall windows, modern chandeliers and natural wood paneling, and the room has a glass-encased wine room stocked with South American labels.

Two features set El Segundo apart from Fogo's older Los Angeles rooms: the opening release described two covered outdoor patios, and the dining room includes a dry-aged meat locker next to the open churrasco grill. On a warm South Bay evening, ask for a patio table when you book.

Fogo de Chão's founders came from the Serra Gaúcha, the hilly countryside of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil, and the chain's first restaurant opened in Porto Alegre in 1979. The brand later expanded to São Paulo and reached the United States in 1997. The name means fire on the ground, a reference to how gauchos traditionally roasted meat on skewers around open fires.

What survives of that tradition is the carving. Gaucho chefs work the grill, then walk each skewer to the dining room and slice portions directly onto your plate. You control the pace with a card that is green on one side and red on the other.

The dinner menu lists picanha, fraldinha, bone-in ribeye, lamb chops, filet and roasted chicken, and lamb picanha also appears among the single-cut options. Start with picanha, the cap of the top sirloin, and ask for a slice from the center if you like it rare. Say yes to the bone-in ribeye at least once, since it is the richest cut on the rotation. Pass on the roasted chicken unless someone at the table asks for it.

The Market Table and Feijoada Bar, a white Carrara marble counter, comes with every churrasco. Use it for contrast rather than volume: a few leaves of salad, some fruit, and a small spoon of feijoada, the black bean stew. Ordered on its own, the counter is $43 at dinner and just $22 at lunch, which makes it one of the better budget lunches near the beach.

El Segundo runs its own brunch format on Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm. The Signature Brunch Churrasco, $63 per person, pairs the continuous carving of picanha, fraldinha, bone-in ribeye, lamb chops, filet and roasted chicken with a brunch counter that has a made-to-order omelet station, Belgian waffles, braised beef rib hash, Brazilian sausage and the feijoada bar.

The Indulgent brunch, $78, adds a made-to-order crêpe and a brunch beverage, and that is a better deal than it looks once you price a cocktail separately. The brunch counter alone is $42, and a single grilled cut with it is $45. For a weekend family meal, this is the slot to book: children 6 and under eat the full churrasco free, and those 7 to 12 pay half.

Weekday lunch runs Monday to Friday from 11 am to 3 pm at $61 for the Full Churrasco or $83 for the Indulgent Churrasco, which adds a dessert and an enhancement such as a crab cake, a lobster tail, roasted bone marrow or black truffle butter. Dinner is $81, or $103 for the Indulgent version, and a single 8 to 10 ounce cut with the Market Table costs $59.

If you work nearby, the $61 weekday lunch at 11 am is the move. An 11 am table gets the first skewers off the grill, and you can be done well before the afternoon. For a celebration dinner, the $81 Full Churrasco is enough for most people, and the enhancements are better shared.

Bar Fogo pours an all-day happy hour on Monday through Thursday with $6 beers, $8 South American wines and $10 Brazilian-inspired cocktails. The standard caipirinha, cachaça with muddled lime and cane sugar, is $12 outside happy hour. The premium caipirinha is $16, and the mango habanero version is $16.50 for anyone who wants heat.

Two desserts are worth the money. The papaya cream, $13.50, is fresh papaya blended with vanilla ice cream, and the chocolate brigadeiro at $15.25 takes Brazil's favorite party sweet and turns it into a plated dessert. One of each for the table is plenty after a rodízio.

Dinner starts at 3 pm on weekdays and 2 pm on weekends. It closes at 10 pm Monday to Thursday, 10:30 pm Friday and Saturday, and 9 pm on Sunday. Parties of 15 or more go through group dining, which handles everything up to a full buyout. Self-parking and valet are both available. Dress is smart casual, and jeans are welcome.

If a Saturday night is fully booked, book Saturday or Sunday brunch instead. It costs $18 less than dinner and covers the same meats, and the 11 am start leaves the afternoon free for the beach.

Manhattan Village, the shopping center at 3200 Sepulveda Blvd. in Manhattan Beach, is the closest place to walk off a churrasco. The Point, an open-air center at 850 S. Pacific Coast Highway in El Segundo, is another option if you want a coffee and a slower stroll.

From either, the beach at Manhattan Beach is a short drive west, and the pier is the classic place to watch the sun go down before or after an early dinner.

Address: 2121 Rosecrans Ave, El Segundo, CA 90245. Lunch runs weekdays from 11 am to 3 pm and costs $61 for the Full Churrasco. Dinner is $81, the Signature Brunch Churrasco is $63 and the Indulgent brunch is $78. Kids 6 and under eat free, and ages 7 to 12 pay half. Happy hour runs all day Monday through Thursday. Self-parking and valet are available. Opened May 27, 2022.