LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Asheville

I called ahead for an 11-person party to celebrate my husband's birthday. He has previously been to Longhorn and enjoyed it and had good experiences. This occurred on a Tuesday night, so I did not think the restaurant would be very busy and I was correct. We were seated right on time, even before some of our party arrived, and I appreciate that. We were assigned two competent servers, and I also appreciate that. I also give credit to them for waiting for our other party member before taking orders. Unfortunately, the wait for our food was very long. As mentioned, the wait staff intelligently waited for our entire party before taking orders, so some of this is not the restaurant's fault. The last part of our party only ordered one item, which was a steak with salad and mashed potatoes. Both salads that were brought out were practically salad dressing soups, but we did not alert the wait staff to this, and half of each salad was edible. We were really looking forward to the steaks, which we expected would be cooked to our specifications (most of us like medium rare to rare steaks). Most of the steaks came out extremely overdone. My husband's steak was not edible, even by my mother who prefers her meat well done. It was like sandpaper. My daughter, who ordered the children's steak, complained that her tongue hurt. Her steak was also what I would consider not edible. My own steak was okay and I would not have complained about it had this been the only issue, but it was by far the worst-tasting steak I've ever had in a restaurant. My brother's steak was fine for him (and he does order steak often) but his side order did not come out - though he also was not charged for it.

By means of compensation, we were offered a free dessert. My husband did not like this, as we were paying for steaks that were not edible. Chocolate cake is not steak. I eventually accepted the offer because it was what was available and I felt sorry for the servers who had done their jobs and were probably offering what was available to them to offer. The chocolate cake with ice cream and fudge was awesome. But it was not worth the cost of the steaks. I just baked a cake at home!

The two stars reflect the lengths the restaurant went to accommodate our party. But if one member of the party being late (and again, her order was placed with ours - or - possibly a few minutes later because I seem to remember her looking at the menu a minute) meant our steaks had to be burned, we should have been advised. She would absolutely have waited for her food so that ours could be done correctly.

Also, and this comment is not at all reflected in the rating because the servers handled it with grace, but restaurants should definitely expect that a part of 11 is going to be a split check. If not by default, definitely when you see that the party of 11 is not two parents and 9 kids or a boss and 10 employees. I can't think of many more adult situations in which I would feel okay with someone paying for my meal. This problem is common to all restaurants, and I've definitely seen it handled more poorly. But...

Tonight was one of worst experiences in the 6+ yrs of being regulars. Every year this is where we opt for mine & my daughters birthday dinner because the Chocolate Stampede is her most favorite dessert ever. My husband called ahead, we were seated quickly. Once our waitress came to the table, she simply said "Hi" then walked off. Not the typical "Hi my name is __, I'll be serving you guys tonight. Would you like to start with an appetizer?" Nope just "Hi" then disappeared. She did shortly return to take drink & food order to which I clearly stated "no lemons in the drinks please" as my family always forgets to order them this way. Brought out salads & drinks...with lemon. Who puts lemon in a BlackBerry tea? Sat the food down & bolted as though the place was on fire. Husband removed lemon, nothing major. Our waitress walked by our table frequently while we ate salad, bread, drank the drinks. We would have liked more bread & drinks, but even waving forks in the air went unnoticed. Another waitress brought us our food, which was cooked perfectly & delicious. However, drinks, ketchup, A1 were wanted. We flagged down another waitress because ours was wearing blinders apparently. At the end of our meal our waitress finally noticed our table & asked if we wanted dessert. We ordered 2 chocolate stampedes to share between the 4 of us. I mean we were celebrating 2 birthdays after all. After waiting far too long, our waitress brought out 1 stampede, which had half melted icecream. Again plopped it down & bolted. I thought maybe she was rushing to get the other one. Nope never came back until she brought the check. No refills to wash down the dessert, only half of us got dessert. Just really sucked since it was a special occasion . While waiting for dessert, we overheard the table next to us, complaining they got their food brought by another waitress, but their waitress (our waitress) had never even brought out salads. The name listed on our receipt was Fatima...the super fast, not attentive, not so friendly waitress. Even with good food, bad service can ruin an entire meal. It becomes more stressful than relaxing & you leave feeling like it was a wasted trip & an inconvenience to the waitress that...

Absolutely Disgusting Experience I rarely leave reviews, but this visit was so terrible I feel obligated to warn others. Longhorn use to be my favorite place to take my family for celebrations, not any more….. I just had left my son’s National Honor Society ceremony ready to celebrate. From the moment we walked in, the restaurant had a foul, musky odor that made us question whether we should even stay. We should have trusted our instincts and left right then. The waiter was incredibly inattentive and barely served us. We had to ask for bread to be bought to the table and ask for refills whenever she passed ignoring us. My son talked about how weird the water tasted. To make matters worse, after eating there, my entire family was food poisoned. Right after leaving my stomach was cramping and when I got home I ran to the bathroom I had diarrhea. I spent the rest of the night having stomach pains and wondering if I was going to throw up. That was the only meal I ate that day. The next morning my son asked me for medicine because he talked about how badly his throat started to hurt and how he had a major headache. I still felt nauseous and ended up vomiting in my driveway. So I decided to call the restaurant this evening to see what the cause could be, but I was met with the general manager Monica’s arrogant dismissive demeanor. Instead of her talking to me professionally, she snapped at me. She immediately denied the establishment caused it and proceeded to say” You cans ask any health care professional if take 24 hours for a food poison to kick in”. She kept her derogatory tone the rest phone call and refused to take any accountability for it. Followed by her hanging up in my face. I have a food service job and i have my Serv Safe Food Protection Manger’s and Always Food Safe certifications. I know that food poisoning can come in multiple forms besides Norovirus. This place is an absolute health hazard, and will not be receiving my business anymore. Avoid it at...