LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Columbia Township

Alright, look. I feel like since I started reviewing, my expectations have gone up. I'm becoming a serious food critic, and I'm fearful. Fearful that this scientific parceling of food quality at all these restaurants has forever detached me from the wonder of the experience. Of course, wonderment is subjective, and I am concerned that in my hyper criticalness, I am no longer able to just go, "aw, yeah, steak!" Lord help me return to a state of innocence.

While I dive into this first world problem, let me break down my experience so you know what you're getting into.

Food: I don't know what happened. But the last couple time's I've had a ribeye (both times at Longhorn, but separate Longhorns), I've been a bit disappointed. I had a ribeye when I was younger, maybe 10 years ago, and it was fantastic. It was an amazing steak. Ever since then I've come out going, "shoulda got the sirloin." Has my taste changed? Or has the industry started producing subpar ribeyes?

I don't know. It lacked flavor until I put salt and pepper on it. So maybe the kitchen just didn't season it. And I only put the seasonings on it because the potato needed it, so I upped the flavor accidentally. But happily. Also, I ordered medium-rare, and I really feel like it was pushing the rare side. Oh, and why does Longhorn serve cold butter with your bread? They could have it sitting on a warmer at the non melting temp. They make those now. Why not? Idk.

Ceasar salad was the bomb. Amazing. They actually topped it with the right amount of dressing and cheese. Delicious. And the steak was good after seasoning. Potato was a potato. It was under par till I got to the center where all the butter was hiding, then it went above par, only to fall back down when I finished the center.

Service: Fine. The bartender got me. He realized he came across as rushing me by telling me he was going to bring the check and a box when I still had half my plate going, so he backpedaled and told me stuff like "take your time" and "whenever your ready." Nice enough guy. Did a good job overall. Manager was going to bring me a drink to go, then 10 minutes later as I'm working on my art, I'm like "where is she?" No worries, I caught the bartender, he got it, and I guess he chided her over it because she came out and apologized. I told her she was fine, people get busy.

Atmosphere: This is what I'm talking about. All these restaurant visits have me critically evaluating everyone like they should be a top dollar place, but I've always tried to judge by their price point. It's Longhorn. Teases at being a fancy place but it's just a steakhouse. Comfortable, lots of space, price is mid to high, but not THOSE places "high", gotta go 4 at least.

Overall good. Enjoyed the steak. Though next time it'll likely be...

3 of us arrived asking for a 6 top, and they refused to seat us till all were there, even though I told them they were a block away. Within 2 minutes or party arrived. They took a few but seated us. The manager woman came out and to our table you ring us about their policy to only seat a table when all parties are there. We got our drinks and a very hard, cold lag of bread and butter. They took our order. While we were waiting for our food, a waitress was bringing a single person (male) past our table to a booth. He said this would be fine, and he won't see me here. About a third way through I meal, the waitress brought a second single (male) past us and seated him at the same booth as the first male. We finished our meal, paid, and asked to see the manager again. She came out to our table. We stated that if you are going to have a policy, it should be consistent with all customers. She said he's a regular customer. Again, we said the rules should be for everyone. She said, "Well, his wife was in the car." What wife? He was seated and waited for another man to arrive a good 15 minutes later. Now, we are all large people, admittedly, but since we walked in, the looks we received from staff were quite honestly embarrassing. The picture of the waitress I took shoes my flat folding wallet next to my seat and the waitress is off little stature. She kept walking by us, giving us terrible looks. Our eyes continually met, so I was not mistaken. She was sweating a woman twice her size, and both walked by my seat and walker w/o incident, but on her way back, she shoved my walker into my hip and leg and said, this is in the way and needs to move! During the second conversation with the manager, we explained this and the looks and treatment and that we felt that we were being fat shamed and discriminated against. She said, "Take your leftovers and go." Never have been treated this way anywhere. We will...

Normally my work friends and I would go to Longhorn once a month and get their Parm crusted chicken (we call it crack chicken because we love it) but the last experience there was enough to make us not go back anymore. First the food was not good.... and when I say not good, I mean I had steamed broccoli and there were maybe 5 or 6 flowerettes, my chicken was soggy and I had something floating in my drink. My coworkers soup was disgusting but her salad was decent, my other coworkers (maybe influenced by our poor food, but maybe not) also stated a lack-luster experience. Our server never asked how anything was nor did we see her again after she dropped off our food rather hurriedly until we were able to flag her down for our check. When we stated the soup was bad, she said she was sorry and stated she could take it off the bill.... she left and came back explaining she could bring something else in its place but could not remove it from the bill. When we protested and explained we were done with our meal before anyone asked and that we had to get back to work she again disappeared and then the manager came to us to explain to us that they didn't make the soup in house and that it was premade and came in a bag. Needless to say this didn't address the fact that things were bad and when we asked for our check so we could just leave and explained we probably wouldn't return is when he finally relented and took the soup off the bill. Getting our check took longer than eating our meal. Normally we would give another chance to a restaurant but all of us went to lunch again and all agreed that the experience was bad enough that we would not return. We dont spend a ton of money there so it wont hurt their bottom line that much but we will gladly visit someplace that appreciates our business instead of Longhorn. We have also made it a point to tell every person at our work about...