The Big Texan Steak Ranch & Brewery — Restaurant in Amarillo

This is a conflicted review. I visited here about 13 years ago and remember it being pretty good. Recently, 4th of July 2025 weekend, my and wife and I visited twice while roadtripping.

We came for breakfast on July 3rd. I highly recommend breakfast if you can. My wife ordered the pancake platter and I ordered the steak and eggs. Both of these were great and delicious. The steak was very tender amd well seasoned. The potatoes that came with the steak were also seasoned extremely well, savory and salty. Her pancakes were large, soft, and fluffy. We very much enjoyed breakfast here and would give it 4 out of 5 stars. Another benefit of breakfast, or at least on this day, is that you pretty much have the place to yourself. There were maybe 4 other groups dining at the time. Wait staff was great and attentive.

On our drive back home, July 7th, we stopped in around 3PM. We were told 20min wait but we actually got the "your seat is ready" right after we put our names down. We ordered the 36oz houston cut ribeye to split, and picked coleslaw, mashed potatoes, and cesar salad as out 3 sides. There was a $5 plate split charge which we didn't mind, amd is what got us the 3rd side. For an appetizer, we ordered a half order of fried mushrooms. Starting with the good, The fried mushrooms were large and delicious. Breading seemed like the same breading they would use for chicken fried steak. A half order is perfect to sllit between 2 people. The sides were all delicious. The coleslaw had chunks of pineapple in it, which seemed to work well. It was interesting and we hadn't seen it before. Cesar salad was light and refreshing. Mashed potatoes came with a white gravy on top and were seasoned well. The house made bread rolls are warm and fluffy, almost like a potato roll I think. We also ordered a slice of hummingbird cake for dessert and this was by far, our favorite part of the meal. Definitely recommend the hummingbird cake. Best way I can describe it is like banana bread and carrot cake combined.

Now for the main event...the 36oz houston cut ribeye. This is the steak I had ordered 13yrs ago and remembered fondly. The steak was cooked to perfect medium rare. That's about the only good thing I can say about it though. The steak was underseasoned. Definitely utilized the salt and pepper shakers on the table. It wasn't very tender, somewhat difficult to cut through with the steak knife, mind you the one at breakfast was butter tender. There also wasn't much of a cap on this steak, which we thought a 36oz ribeye would have a decent sized cap to it as well. My wife wanted to order steak sauce, which she never has, just hoping the vinegar in it would help.

For all the service, atmosphere, and all food except the dinner steak, I give 4.5 stars. For the 36oz houston cut ribeye, I give 2 stars. While we were disappointed in the steak we had for dinner, we still enjoyed the rest of the food and will come back. We'll try other cuts next time and update if anything...

I want to say my childhood dream was fulfilled. Ever since I saw I the King of the Hill episode where Bobby ate the 72 oz steak challenge to spite his vegetarian ex girlfriend, I knew I wanted to try it. More than 20 years later, I fulfilled my childhood dream and went to the Big Texan for the first time and tried the 72 oz steak challenge. No training or anything, just full of lack of sleep and hunger, I won.

Service was great, our server was very friendly. Ended up cheering me on and assisted me with everything that I needed, extra napkins, extra ranch sauce. Ranch sauce is amazing, it’s so good.

Steak tastes amazing, I definitely would recommend tying it medium rare. Anything else is just wrong.

Their gift shift definitely has a lot of stuff to buy. Reasonably priced.

They have a bunch of little things to do in their hallway area, good time to be spent there. They actually have an ATM machine and a change machine that accepts bills up to $50 and hands out $1 bills.

Next time I’m in Armarillo, I will come back to just eat a normal sized steak and enjoy myself nice and slow.

Tips for people who want to try the challenge:

Watch your water in take. Too much water will make you feel full. Use it as needed. Get medium rare, easier to swallow down. Go for the steak first, it’s the biggest hurdle. Use your hands instead of a knife and fork, so be sure to wash your hands before you go in. Once your mouth hurts or you feel like you might throw up, switch it up with eating some of your salad or eat the shrimp, give your mouth and gag reflex a little break. Don’t finish the salad until the end of your steak, it’s going to be the only thing that can help you have a break but keep working on the challenge. Once you feel like you can’t handle anymore steak, pro tip use the ranch. It will help your brain trick you into thinking it’s something else. Ask for extra. It’s ok to stop eating the ranch once you feel like it will make you want to throw up. Once you mentally cannot eat anymore steak without almost throwing up, eat much smaller chunks, infant sized chunks. Makes it easier to beat the mental challenge. Then go ahead and finish that salad once you finished that steak. Baked potato is next if you haven’t already eaten that shrimp. For the baked potato, for many people it’s hard to eat a baked potato by itself. It’s so dry and not appetizing. Cut fhe baked potatoe in half and dip in the ranch. Then go ahead and eat the roll last since it’s the easiest to eat. If you need help here, drink some water. It will break it down and make it easier to chew...

5 stars for atmosphere! 1 star for steak quality. 2 stars for service.

We were greeted by the lovely hostess and they asked if we had been there before and he said no and the lady said I’m gonna change your seat so you have a really good seat they put you in the back. It’s your first time I want you to have a good time so we walked in with expectations high and met.

We ordered fried pickled which came out fast and were delicious and perfectly hot. Then we ordered our entrées. I got a medium rare cheeseburger and my friend got a medium steak.

His steak was medium, but the meat was really tough, and it was quite hard to eat. It was chewy and after a while became kind of disgusting to eat like knowing on a piece of meat that will never stop existing in your mouth. We didn’t complain about his steak because it was medium and I guess a 24 ounce steak is just this chewy at this restaurant which sucks.

I ordered the burger and it came out well done & my side of mac & cheese was cold. I was filming my friend’s reaction to his steak for his YouTube channel when the server asked us how the food was. It was maybe 15 seconds after it arrived from the food runner. I didn’t have time to taste it yes and she said does everything look okay and we said yes. I took a bite of my burger and it was really well done which I didn’t want but was okay with and then the Mac n cheese was cold… so I decided to ask for a remake. Maybe 3-5 mins passed before she rushed by and I had to flag her down sorta suddenly because she wasn’t stopping. I told her my issues and she said, “But you should have told me sooner.. why did you wait so long to tell me? And that’s how they make the burger…” I was shocked in this response and I said.. I was waiting for you to come back but didn’t see you for a while. She took it seemed annoyed by me and my friend basically finished his steak before my food arrived. I wasn’t even given a sorry for this or asked again.. how is it cooked. She gave it to me and didn’t refill my tea for a solid ten minutes after this spell.

When we paid, the machine was flipped over so fast and I didn’t wanna tip her anything above 12% but the machine is set to 18% as the lowest and I felt pressured to be quick as she was just starring at me.

Whoever this waitress is.. please talk to her. She seems seasoned and nice but has problems taking feedback for something that wasn’t even her fault at all.

We ate Monday night around 7:30 for 2 if you wanna find out table. We...