LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Columbia

I booked a dinner party on 4/23/25 for 5/2/25 for my daughter’s college graduation with the manager MARISSA. She was quite accommodating on the day of the booking. The booking time initially didn’t lineup with what I asked for so she assured me it would be fine. My daughter’s grad was from 10-12 around the corner from the restaurant. MARISSA said she would work with me on the time and to just be at the restaurant before 1pm. We can dine from then until 3pm. Cool. I made it to the restaurant at 12:34. When I got there I told the host that we were there for the upstairs room in which my deposit was paid. She said the room is unavailable because the host for that room had left. I said no way and she said just a sec let me get a manager. The manager MARISSA comes forward and says you’re 40 mins late and we can’t accommodate you. Mind you this lying piece of trash gone look me dead in my face and say I’m late and she didn’t tell me anything of the sort about the accommodations. So I played back every detail this witch said to me on 4/23 . She continues with a straight face and nasty attitude looking me in the eyes and LYING LIKE HELL TO MY FACE! I was so angry. This is my daughter’s college celebration and MANAGER MARISSA CONTINUES TO LIE . She even said something about the company and their corporate office as if I report that nothing was going to be done. That comment really triggered me . So by now, I see myself losing control. After I told her what I thought of her and her lies she proceeds to walk away . After the blowup, another manager stepped in and made accommodations for our family and friends. We were seated downstairs and the server did accommodate the party with a breeze. The food was great. I just hate that MARISSA LIED TO MY FACE AND WAS SO UNPROFESSIONAL. She does not need to be in a managerial position because she lacks conflict resolution. Marissa damn near ruined my daughter’s dinner celebration. On top of that, she walked away with no type of solution at all. Classless, unprofessional, incompetent, inconsiderate and incapable of doing her job! I will never go back to this location on Gervais St. Columbia SC And my deposit to hold the upstairs room wasn’t...

Thursday May 2nd, 2024 I called the Longhorn Establishment @ 902-A Gervais street, Columbia, SC 29201. I called to make a reservation for the following day for 15 people, because the website said to call for parties larger than 5. I proceeded to call and I assume the hostess answered, but a female informed me they only do call a head seating. I informed her of the party size since we will be coming from a college graduation. The hostess insured me that will be fine for call ahead seating. Now, on Friday May 3rd 4:15pm, I called the same longhorn establishment to do call ahead seating. Another hostess answered and said there is no wait and call a head seating is not necessary. I proceeded to tell her my party size, she mentioned she need to go tell the manager (Mr. Marshal), she came back quick and said they cannot accommodate my party size. I informed her we are in route already because I spoke to someone the day prior, is there a reason they can’t. She informed me her manager (Mr. Marshal) said they couldn’t, after the hostess had informed me they were not busy and we didn’t need to call ahead. I asked to speak to the manger. 20 minutes passed before I could get Mr. marshal on the phone. I hung up and called back multiple times with being put on hold. After sometime, Mr. Marshall finally came to the phone and said a couple days ago they put a new policy into affect…the policy being parties no larger than 12 can be seated. He said he can sit 12 at one table, and then 3 at another table “ACROSS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RESTAURANT”. Also, there are two other long horns in the area that could possibly accommodate me. I proceeded to ask why the party of three couldn’t sit near the party of 12. I was told he is not a fortune teller and could not see the future. I said that’s what call ahead seating is.. there is an hour notice you can make accommodations. He did not care to be helpful but loved to be snarky. I politely asked for his name and said thank you and hung up. Be aware of new policy and the only person who is aware of the policy is the manger...

Brittany the restaurant manager at the time of our visit was very professional, and resolved the issues that we had during this visit.

We decided to visit this restaurant location 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday night before Veterans day, and figured it would be a good experience since things are slower during the weekdays. Upon entering we was greeted by a friendly and courteous staff. It very obvious that the restaurant was not busy because there was hardly any other customers in the restaurant. The staff quickly showed and sat us at our table...and I could tell the restaurant was operating on limited capacity.

Our waitress was a young female college student and was very rude. She was acting like they were busy, and rushed us thru the ordering process. Upon us getting our food from another server, we quickly realized that our order was not correct and the sides items was not what we requested. Unfortunately, it took our waitress about 10 minutes to return to the table before we could report the issues....so we decided to just request the manager. We than explained to Brittany that our drinks and steaks were perfect. Than we told her how that our baked potatoes were overcooked, and that our we requested mushrooms with our steaks. It took our waitress 5 minutes to get the mushrooms, and our steaks were getting cooler while we waited. I also told the manager that I don't mind spending $100 on dinner anytime....but I do expect that the quality of the meal and customer service should reflect it as well.

This experience wasn't the greatest I've had at a Longhorns....but my experience with Brittany the manager was excellent. So for that reason I'm going to give them for another visit and tried them again. I only gave them a 4 star rating because this food chain doesn't offer a military discount at any of the 3 locations in the Lexington & Columbia SC community. I also cannot give them a higher rating, because the poor service was only resolved after Itook the initiative and requested to speak with the manager before leaving...