This was our first (and last) visit. To start, there was some confusion as to how many in our party, (2 in case you were wondering,) and, although we were the only people waiting to be seated, we had to ask twice for a table.
We were seated with bread but without silverware. On the third request, we finally got the silverware after reminding the waiter, Jeremiah, we couldn't spread the cinnamon butter without a knife. He had no intention of making a special trip for it until I reminded him of that. This was slightly aggravating since he was the person we had already asked twice.
He did not greet or welcome us, he just took our drink orders and asked if we wanted an appetizer. I, on the other hand, greeted him with a big hello and even used his name.
The bread was good and we needed a refill on cinnamon butter, which we asked Jeremiah for. It didn't arrive until my husband asked a second time. By this point, I didn't even want it, so it remained untouched.
We explained to Jeremiah that we had never eaten there before; he offered no welcome greeting nor did he offer any suggestion to help us navigate the menu. He seemed slightly exasperated that we weren't immediately able to order an appetizer. We ended up ordering the sampler after he explained we had a choice of three of four things on the sampler, but he never told us what they were. While he was standing there, I had to refer to the menu to figure out what my choices were. The fried pickles and rattlesnake bites were excellent, the boneless wings were so so.
Jeremiah did keep our beverages filled but, again he seemed aggravated that we needed them. (If the glasses weren't filled with so much ice, there would have been more than three swallows in them.) At one point, he actually slammed the glasses down on the table. It was at this point that I was no longer the friendly patron who had originally sat down.
The 2 stars are for the steak, which was delicious and cooked exactly as both my husband and I had requested. The baked potato was kinda dry, meh.
When the runner brought our food, I asked her if it was customary that my dinner should arrive before my salad. She said it wasn't. A manager just happened by at that time and she asked how things were. I explained our experience up to that point. While I was telling her, my salad arrived, but the runner was confused because I had a steak in front of me and so she turned around. The manager did offer to bring me a hot side in its place, but I was over it and told her to just give me the salad.
Jeremiah became much more attentive at this point, but it was too late.
These may seem petty issues, but they combined to be a terrible experience.
Also, the place is SO FRICKEN LOUD! There were three birthday dinners going on. The Texas Roadhouse birthday celebration tradition apparently involves every member of the staff, a lot of clapping, a lot of unintelligible singing and announcing, and a saddle. Yes, a saddle. I understand the atmosphere is part of their kitsch, but it was a negative for us.
My husband pointed out that if the servers didn't have to drop everything to sing, maybe they could pay more attention to all the paying customers.
The manager did give us a credit on the bill, but Jeremiah didn't get the tip he could have if he had given us the time and attention we deserved. That's really the whole of it; we could have overlooked everything else if Jeremiah had just been nice and friendly.
Although we had to ask twice to be seated, the place wasn't crowded. So, there really wasn't any reason why we received the treatment we did.
I asked for a comment card but the hostess said there weren't any and asked if I wanted to speak to a manager. I told her no, that the steaks were delicious, but we would never be back. read more