Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Crystal Lake

Texas Roadhouse is one of those chain restaurants that you know when you go, that it's not going to be top tier. First of all, I can't stand Country music. Secondly, I can't stand any team sports as I feel they hinder the evolution of our male species. However, the service and the food are excellent.

I like the convenience of how reservations are made. They aren't called reservations, but that's what I call them. I forget their way of describing it. Basically you tell the staff when you plan on arriving, and then text them "here" when you have arrived. I think my mom and I waited 10 minutes max. We were early too.

The restaurant is super loud. I couldn't hear what the staff was saying half the time. When you are being guided to be seated, the hostess will ask you if you want to pick out your beef. They have it on display in a case. I wanted to scream at the girl seating us, "I can't hear you over this horrible music!" But I didn't want her to take it personally. To corporate: you're annoying if you think this music level is appropriate. Anyway, all the meat in the case looked devoid of fat and it actually discouraged me from the experience I was about to have.

Again, the staff was super sweet. No problems here. Our waiter was also super sweet. My mom kept hitting on him and I thought that was awesome. He didn't look like the kind of guy that watched football or barked at the TV screen, so that scored points with me also.

The margaritas were tasty, but they did not come out consistently tasting the same way. My mom ordered a Jamaican Cowboy, which tasted better than the mango one I ordered. When I went to order one of what she was having, mine tasted different.

The food was delicious. We ordered the blooming onion, and the dipping sauce paired with the friend onion was so good. I was worried about the lean meats I saw in the meat refrigerator, but the sirloin that I ordered came out tasting delicious. It was perfectly pink in the center. My mom's fillet was the same. Our potatoes were so good. You can get them loaded and the bacon bits are nice chunky bits of bacon.

My mom and I arrived around 4pm and the place was already getting busy. Again, it is so loud in this place, it was difficult to converse with my mom, who is in her seventies. We kind of ate in silence and that was a little depressing. When I was in my twenties, I never liked eating in noisy restaurants either. It's like I have a hard time tasting my food over the loud music. Especially when it's bad music.

Not sure that I will return. I cannot order carry out because it would be cold by the time I made it back to Woodstock. Come here if you are barbaric and like to bark at sports on the TV and belting out the latest country hits. The service is great, and the food is delicious. Everything else I blame...

March 2022 update: We've come back here a couple times now. Service has been a little slow (maybe pandemic staffing issues), but food quality has improved. Still a small sample-size, so not quite willing to go 4-stars, but maybe after a few more positive experiences...

Original review: Been to this location several times now, but each time have come-away uninspired - for perspective, we've been to more than 10 Texas Roadhouse locations throughout the Midwest.

It may seem trivial, but while it's easy to put on a nice face when you interface with the customers (servers, hostess, etc.), I've always believed that how EVERY employee acts is a better indicator of how the establishment is run. Case in point - we were walking-in just as someone (looked like perhaps a cook) was walking-out to get something from their car. No door-holding, no "welcome" greeting, just singularly focused.

The manager visited our table at the same time as our server. Yes, that's nice, but didn't help the server (a clear lack of teamwork). Furthermore, unless it's positive, it's difficult to offer feedback in front of the server. Far better to come-by a couple minutes into the meal, when you might actually receive worthwhile feedback of everything (service, food, etc.)

As for the food one in our party ordered a full slab of ribs... the smallest "full" slab I've ever seen. four of us had fries as a side, but no ketchup (pandemic or not, don't most people like ketchup with their fries?) temperature... several (myself included) thought things were more lukewarm than "served piping-hot" I've worked in restaurants, and I know how that delicate balancing act works with timing, but this is where the manager's visit would bring things like this to light.

On the drive home I asked everyone to compare with other times at this location (contrasting with other locations), and all agreed, this location as a whole, was...

Not sure if our server Mckenzie was new, but this is easily the worst experience we’ve had at this location, and may be the worst experience we’ve had in a restaurant in awhile.

Where do I start? Here is a photo of our table as we were getting ready to leave. Usually when we eat here, servers start clearing the table as more plates come in. Going from appetizers to main entree, not 1 plate was removed. Seems like she wanted the bus boys to take care of it for her. compared to all the other times we’ve gone, servers always removed the plates, and we always stack them nicely so they can pick it up easily.

Next she was so annoyed with how often she was going to our table. Lets see why, party of 5 We ordered drinks, she forgot the pink lemonade. Next time she came for apps, we also placed our entree orders as we are regulars and order the same things. We specifically told her to separate all the shrimp from the 4 steaks which they gladly do, they didnt, so she had to separate them. She forgot a side of corn, forgot a side of veggies. When she dropped off the entrees, we asked for a picture. after that, we asked for take out containers, and place an order of extra bread to go. She dropped off takeout containers, no bag. She dropped off the to go bread with butter, again no bag. I was the one grabbing bags at this point to not have to deal with her.

Icing on the cake? You keep going back at our table because of your mistakes, and in plain sight you shake your head at us because you cant stand doing more work because you are either new or just dont want to do your job? Find a different job if thats the case. We always tip 20-25% as regulars. But on a $220 meal for a $50 tip on 1 table and you cant even...