Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Augusta

My husband and I used gift cards we got for Christmas to go to TR. The parking lot was safe with plenty of parking. There were a lot of people waiting for tables. The restaurant checks you in and texts you when your table is ready. We only waited around 20 minutes. There was plenty of seating outside for those waiting. TR is obviously a themed restaurant. Their country western theming is spot on and fun. The restaurant was very clean. When seated you usually get salted peanuts but they forgot that. We received our drinks quickly. First we had fresh salads which were 5 star delicious. The honey French dressing was yum! They give you some pretty fab yeast rolls with honey cinnamon butter which were warm and yum also! So far so good. We ordered steak combos with baked potatoes. Our waitress was nice but might have been new or they were understaffed. I'm not a Karen in restaurants. I waitressed through high school & college. I know how hard of a job that is. However, it's pretty much impossible to put butter on a roll without silverware. The waitress said she was going to get some but didn't come back for a while. By the time she came back we improvised and had eaten our rolls. Finally, she came back with some plastic silverware and said she was looking for regular silverware. I'm thinking silverware was backed up in the dishwasher. Then our steak combos came. We didn't have any knife or regular silverware to cut it with. We had not gotten any Worcestershire or anything like that either. We sat there looking at the steaks for a while and I finally got up and went and tracked down two or three different people to try to get some actual silverware and Worcestershire for my husband. This took a bit. No one came back to fill the drinks either. Finally we got to eat our steaks. I will have to say this to the kitchen staff, all of that food was fantastic. Hands down they beat all the local steak places that we've had over time. I absolutely give the food five stars. The steaks were tender and done to the temperature we asked. The baked potatoes were fantastic. However the toppings were wrong. Salads were wonderful & the rolls were fantastic. Someone else had delivered the salads and the steaks to us. I've seen that before in restaurants. It's a way of getting hot food to the table quick. The waitress finally came back to wait on another table. When she was done taking their order, she asked us how everything was. I told her she seemed like a very nice person and the food was really delicious but I think that we should have had silverware to put some butter on the rolls, I think we should have had a knife and a fork so that we could eat the steaks, I think having some Worcestershire would have been nice, and I think that it would have been nice to have our drinks refilled at some point. I didn't say anything about the peanuts. I told her I understood it looked like they were short-staffed and it was busy. I tried to be as nice as possible. However, when you are going out and paying for steaks, getting silverware and drinks refilled should be a minimum for decent service. She was kind of surprised I said anything to her, & I'm sure not happy. I was very nice in my tone of voice. I still tipped her well because I thought maybe it would be a learning thing. I didn't complain just to complain but we truly needed silverware and drink refills. I also wanted her to understand from one former waitress to another waitress, if you're not going to refill drinks and you forget about giving silverware to people and they get to the point where the food starts getting cold, you're going to get low to no tips and bad reviews. I don't think this was typical. The staff were all friendly, restaurant clean, theming and atmosphere were aesthetically nice. I will go back because of all of that and the fantastic food. I think the prices were really great for the combos. Portion sizes were great. I gave everything 5 stars except service. No one is perfect and everyone has hard nights. I will definitely go back and review it...

Dear Texas Roadhouse Corporate Team,

I am writing to formally express my disappointment with the unacceptable experience my family and I encountered at the Augusta, GA Texas Roadhouse while celebrating my husband’s birthday. From the moment we arrived, the service was unprofessional, unaccommodating, and outright rude.

Upon arrival, I approached the hostess stand to join the waitlist for a party of 15. Instead of assisting me, the hostess immediately called a manager, stating that she did not want to deal with large parties. Her lack of communication skills was evident, and she made no effort to explain any policies regarding large groups. After waiting for 10 minutes, the manager on duty finally arrived, only to further escalate the issue rather than resolve it.

The manager informed me that our party would need to be split—12 guests at one table and the remaining 3 seated on the other side of the restaurant. When I asked how large parties should handle this situation since reservations are not accepted, she stated that anything over 12 guests is not accommodated. I then inquired if this policy was listed on the website or anywhere in the restaurant, to which she replied, "No, we tell them when they arrive." Her attitude was dismissive, and she showed no willingness to work with us, forcing me to call several of my guests to tell them they could no longer join us.

The issues continued as I checked on our wait time. The manager had assured me our table would be ready at 6:30 PM, but when I confirmed this with the hostess, she rudely stated that our table would not be ready for another hour and 30 minutes and that the manager had “lied.” Her demeanor was condescending, and she, along with three other employees, stood at the host stand smirking and laughing at our situation.

To expedite the process and avoid further mistreatment, I reduced my party size to 8 guests and informed the hostess. She responded with a dismissive attitude, telling me to notify her when everyone arrived. Once all 8 guests were present, I let her know, and she coldly instructed us to wait until we received a text. After 10 more minutes, we were finally seated—but not before standing in the middle of the aisle as our table was still being set up with extra chairs.

To make matters worse, the service throughout our meal was painfully slow. Our drinks, salads, and entrées took an excessive amount of time to arrive. A server even mistakenly called my friend’s husband by another name, insisting they had gone to high school together, despite it being incorrect. Overall, the entire experience was frustrating, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable for a well-known establishment.

This was supposed to be a special occasion for my husband, and unfortunately, it was completely ruined. I am not just an everyday guest—I work as a Food & Beverage Director and fully understand the complexities of restaurant operations. Mistakes and challenges happen, but what we experienced went beyond that—it was a complete lack of professionalism, customer service, and basic hospitality.

I have never written a letter like this before, but I feel it is necessary for corporate to be aware of the issues within this location. My family and I will not be returning, and I sincerely hope that steps are taken to address these major concerns.

I appreciate your time and look forward to your...

My family and I had the worst experience at this restaurant in Augusta, GA on last night, New Years Eve 2024. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:45 pm. We were told that there was an hour wait. After waiting for the text message (that we never received) that our table for a party of 3 was ready we went inside to inquire about our table. The greeter informed us that they were cleaning a table for us now. We were then seated about 2 minutes later. Upon being seated our waitress did greet us, ask for our drink orders, and brought us rolls (3). Once she returned to take our orders she did advise us to be patient because there was a wait for the food. We understood as we noticed several other patrons around us complaining about the wait for their food. After waiting about 15 minutes, our waitress returned to our table and stated that she was going to bring us more bread. We noticedaround 4 wait staff standing around the widow where the bread was being handed out waiting for bread. Our waitress hurriedly walked past our table and stated, "I'm not waiting in that line for bread." I was shocked by this statement because she told us 10 minutes ago that she was bringing us bread. About 5 minutes later she brought a bag of bread to go to the table next to us. She never acknowledged us and walked past us again. 5 more minutes passes and our waitress walks past our table again, never said anything to us, and said as she was walking by, "Oh well, they're out of bread again and I wasn't waiting in that line for it." About 10 more minutes past and another server brings our food to us. Mind you, by this time we had waited around 50 minutes for our food with only our drinks and 3 pieces of bread to enjoy while we waited. When we received our food, our broccoli was cold as well as my country fried chicken with gravy. We informed our server that we wanted new, HOT broccoli, and to go trays because we were ready to leave. We also asked to speak to the manager. The server explained to us that the manager was in the process of going around to every table apologizing to patrons so it may be awhile before she gets to us. We stated that we would wait. About 5 minutes later a woman comes to our table and says, "I heard about your broccoli. I'm going to see about your check." And she walks off. Mind you, she never introduced herself, apologize for our inconvenience, our ask us any questions about our experience. Maybe 5 minutes later our waitress returns and brings us our to go trays and said that she's waiting on the broccoli, but it's so busy in the kitchen. I checked on our bill on the mobile kiosk on our table and noticed that someone did give us a discount on our meal. We waited another 10 minutes for our broccoli, and after no sign of our waitress, we paid for our meal and just left. Texas Roadhouse you have to do better. There was no excuse for the poor customer service that was provided...