LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Asheville

My wife and I had an unfortunate meal there tonight! It seems it started off bad and ended the same way. It made me question the American work ethic or the lack their of. The lack of training and professionalism was so obvious. It made me sad. This is all too common now.

The hostess, or “Cloey” (not sure if correct spelling) initially did her job, but made the situation very personal. My wife was told, after a 20-25 minutes wait, we were next in line. We proceeded to be seated, she jumped in and took a couple who walked I front of us to seat. We were stuck waiting, which is no problem, if it had been conveyed that way. We were looking forward to a nice meal and conversation. Finally we were taken to our seat. Cloey placed us in a heavily trafficked area. Right in the middle of the kitchen and bathrooms. My Wife inquired about different seating? This seemed to upset this person and she sorta made some comments, but to her credit, stated she could check but highly unlikely other placement could happen. We sat down.

We got our drinks and began to eat our salad and the same hostess sat two other people at a nearby table. One of these individuals protested and requested different seating. Cloey immediately said please follow me I have another table. My Wife needed to know why they were seated in another area and not us. You must realize we are elderly people and in these trying times you have to be careful. The hostess took offense to my wife’s inquiries about her name, supervisors name and number. This dialogue went on for a period of time. I just want to eat. Finally I interrupted and ask to the see the manager. She walked away. In a few moments we had people seated right next to us. I believe they have a sign on the entrance to this business that states you must wear a mask and distance yourself 6 feet from other people. Although that did not apply if they want to say somebody closer, when there were many open seat available.

The hostess walked by us and went to Kitchen area. My wife got up and follow her to ask if manager was coming. What she observed was this person and others laughing and making fun of us. My Wife told her to be quiet and Cloey proceeded to show lack of training by forbidden my wife’s entrance to the kitchen in a strange way by drawing an imaginary line with her finger and taunting my wife in an unusual manner. Very sad!

I finally was able to talk with Joseph Bennet, Manager and he basically acted like the hostess. He kept saying can I get you a box, which implied to me get out of here. He did finally give his supervisors contact information.

The only reason I gave this establishment a one star was for our server. He did an outstanding job.

This all could have been avoided if the hostess and manager were properly trained on how to diffuse situations and not antagonize them. This effected us as well as other people around us trying to have an enjoyable meal.

We will take our business else where...

Today was my daughter 12th birthday and she wanted to come here for dinner. She loves the chicken tenders! The pasta 3 times my mother, daughter and I have ordered takeout or came in to eat the food has been subpar. The first mishap was about 4 months ago. We ordered the onion petals but they couldn't be eaten because we the batter was extremely salty. The manager compensated for them so we thought no big deal and thanks for doing that! The second most recent visit was around a month ago. We ordered takeout this time consisting of chopped steak, baked sweet potato and crispy Brussels. The gravy on the chopped steak was so thick it looked like glue. And once again extremely salty. The onions were almost raw and the potato was cold. Disappointed again. So t9night we come in hoping for a great meal, but unfortunately that didn't happen. My mom ordered the chopped steak again (gonna give it a chance since it's been a month or so) mashed potatoes and salad. I order French onion soup , baked potato, and salad. Ya'll. This gravy is absolutely horrific! Putrid! She also ordered mushrooms this time and they were either burnt or had the stems left in them like little peices of coal. Her mashed potatoes were "ok" and the salad had lots of brown wilted greens. (As did mine). My French onion soup was completely inedible except for the cheese broiled on top. Salt guys....the dang salt. I tried a few sips, but couldn't do it. My baked potato was cold, hard, burnt on the bottom. We ate a few bites and the waitress asked if it was ok. We told her the issues and she asked if we would like them to remake it. We were like how would they do that. The gravy im sure is in a vat so where getting thicker and thicker (definitely not made to order) and the soup has been sitting since 10am in a pot somewhere on a back burner. I guess we could have asked for a new potato, but by that point we were over it. We ate 2 loaves of bread, picked through the salads and my daughter ate her chicken tenders but no fries because they had been deep fried wayyy to long. Extremely hard and dry. Just gross. We got a peice of the caramel pecan cheesecake to go, but I've not tried it yet. Hopefully it makes up for a $75...

Let me start by saying this was my friends and I first time eating out since COVID and you would expect restaurants like Longhorn would try to live up to a better standard than what we experienced especially with the pandemic going on. From the beginning of our dining experience the waitress was very rude, unprofessional and uncaring the first thing she did was mess up our orders. I am allergic to cheese and after I specifically told her no cheese on my salad, I still received cheese on my salad. I also did not want rice on the side of my dish and other options were provided so I had chose asparagus but I still recieved rice with my order and both of these mistakes were brought to her attention; however, she did not show any concern of my health or safety, not even a simple apology. THEN my friend had told the waitress no pork or bacon of any kind on the mac and cheese, multiple times due to religious reasons. But STILL she had brought the mac and cheese with bacon cooked inside only to find out after he took a bite from it realizing the bacon was cooked inside with the chesse, again we infromed the waitress of the mistake and she still behaved in an unprofessional manner, and failed to apolgize she felt like we were asking a lot, which is unbelievable. THEN when she brought the bill she tried to overcharge my order because I had ordered the asparagus in place of the rice when I brought this mistake to her attention she argued with me about $3 and our bill was over $100 then we asked for a manager and he was even less professional than her and he took her side immediately and informed us she was the best waitress he had. (If that's the best I can only imagine the worst). We informed the manager we were never looking for a compensation just a SIMPLE APOLOGY from the waitress. YET he and her still failed to do so...this Longhorn is filled with unprofessional management and staff, so if you're looking for an exceptional experience i would steer clear of...