My husband and I had lunch at Texas Roadhouse recently. I don't usually like going to big chain restaurants, but I make exceptions for chains that are exclusive to America that I don't have access to in Canada, lol. Overall, for a big chain restaurant, it was really good. Portions were huge, my meal was only $9.99 and I was stuffed to the gills!
This place was super busy when we arrived around lunchtime on a Saturday. We were told it would be a 15 minute wait. The hostess took down my name and gave me a buzzer. We sat in the waiting area which had benches and 2 arcade-like games where you could win prizes. No one was playing them. They had huge barrels of peanuts that you could eat while you were waiting. The peanuts were super salty and I'm sure the intention is to get you thirsty so you'll order lots of beer once you're seated, haha. Our buzzer rang after about 15-20 minutes and we were led to our table.
They have some raw steaks at the front and if you're ordering a steak you can pick out your own piece of meat.
We were seated, given menus, and given 4 bread rolls with cinnamon sugar whipped butter.
Now I'm usually a dry roll/toast kind of girl, but my husband had some of the butter and gushed over how delicious it was, so I had to try it. OMG! The cinnamon sugar whipped butter was phenomenal. So tasty! I will be dreaming about this butter. The rolls were good too. They were soft and hot. They were brushed with oil or something though, because they were kind of shiny.
I ordered from the "Early Dine" Specials menu where there are 11 options for $9.99 if you dine before 6pm Monday-Thursday or before 2pm on Saturdays or Sundays. I got the Country Fried Chicken Dinner. It came with 2 sides and I chose the garden salad and fresh vegetables. My husband ordered from the regular menu and got the Beef Tips ($12.99). It came with mashed potatoes and an additional side. He got the fresh vegetables too.
I asked our server if the garden salad was iceberg lettuce (I've been burned too many times with chain restaurants serving salads that are mostly just iceberg - the lowliest of all lettuces, in my opinion), and he said that it was a "spring mix." So to me "spring mix" means I expect to find some radicchio, arugula, frisée, and/or mizuna, or at the very least, some baby spinach. The salad ended up being iceberg and romaine lettuce. Not really a "spring mix" in my books, but at least not just iceberg. Fortunately, the salad also had tomatoes, eggs, shredded cheddar cheese, and croutons, so at least it had different textures. Had it been a true spring mix, it would have been so much better. I got the honey mustard dressing on the side because I find most places overdress their salad for my tastes, and they gave me so much in the container that some spilled out onto the salad. The spillover was enough dressing for me. So I pretty much removed the container and my salad was already dressed, lol.
The fresh vegetables side consisted of baby carrots and broccoli. These were ok. I liked the broccoli better than the carrots because the carrots tasted water-logged.
The Country Fried Chicken was a flattened piece of real chicken breast breaded and deep-fried. It was huge and it was so delicious! The seasoning was excellent. I got it with brown gravy instead of the usual cream gravy that this dish usually comes with, and the brown gravy was so flavourful and a good consistency, not too runny, but not too thick and not gelatinous. I thoroughly enjoyed the chicken (both for lunch and the leftovers for dinner later that night, lol).
I had a taste of my husband's dish and the beef was tender and the mashed potatoes were creamy. I much preferred my dish, but he enjoyed his.
Each table also has a bucket of peanuts. If you are allergic to peanuts, you probably shouldn't go to this restaurant!
Service was friendly and courteous. The decor is typical American pub.
Lots of free parking available.
I would recommend Texas Roadhouse for American pub food, and I would go back to try some of their other options, especially on their "Early Dine" Special menu ;) read more