Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Dartmouth

Just alright ... So obviously Texas Roadhouse is good to most people I’m not big on the steaks as I’m not a fan of injected meat but that’s neither here nor there . I’d agree when you go there and sit down and you get the full “ experience “ ( the music , the decor , the nice fresh hot food the dancing they do ,and of course the bread, etc.) it’s a pretty decent restaurant and the bread is only 2nd to olive gardens but again that’s debatable. Now I’m one of those people who don’t complain at a restaurant unless you’ve completely fumbled and then some ( I was a RM for 6 years casual then upscale / fine dining ) however it seems during the pandemic they’ve gotten a bit sloppy . While they’re only allowed to have 25% dining capacity in house you’d assume that would make things easier etc . That’s not always the case and a very rudimentary way of looking at it as they’re getting “ slammed “ with TO GO orders . Now they have used their “ use” to be waiting area to be seated as a full on TO GO station with multiple employees working there with a nice side window for customers to grab their food and go without entering the building etc. they’ve done an outstanding job with that part . And they always get the orders right I haven’t gone home once since this whole pandemic started with the wrong order or an over/ under cooked meal and they never forget the bread of course . Now , where they could improve the my seem to be inconsistent with it ... sometimes you’ll get only one half scoop of butter with your 4 rolls of bread ( a major let down ) and sometimes you’ll get 2 half orders of mash potatoes with gravy only filling up half the container and mind you with gravy it’s closer to a 1/3 portion. It’s happened a few times to me no matter what day of the week I try going as I have gotten TO GO ALOT ! Since the pandemic started . Also their wait times online don’t correspond correctly with the time you’ll wait in your car hoping/ praying for that “ your food is read now text “ for instance ; if the restaurant tells you it’ll be ready at 6:50 And you show up @ 6:50 on the nose , you won’t get that text message to get your food from the window until atleast 7:30 . Now 40 minutes seems a bit ..... wrong . ...as no order should take longer than 15 minutes to leave the window in a casual restaurant . Now in comparison to say last year minus the pandemic you usually can show up 10-15 minutes earlier before the pick of time of 6:50 and your food is and has been done And is ready. So all in all maybe adjust the timer online to correspond with the wait time of the restaurant . We’re all trying our best here during these difficult times but if your planning on staying in business and you’re only @ 25% in house capacity you need to be able to adjust and get this right as even if there was a 75% increase in TO GO orders shouldn’t supersede a normal Friday / Saturday night With full capacity + TO GO + food...

I NEVER complain but this vist by far was the worst experience ever. I tried to do a survey on kiosk but as soon as i rated it one star all i got was a be careful on your way out message. No place to explain why i rated a one. Went here with my wife for dinner. She ordered water with lemon and a mixed drink. I ordered a beer. We order an app sampler, 11oz sirloin and double pork chop dinner. My salad with extra blue cheese. Got our drinks promptly but no lemon with her water. Waiter dropped off drinks and left so quick we couldnt ask for the lemon. Salads came out by a different employee. No extra blue cheese. Waiter never returned to see if we needed anything. Saw him a couple times at table across from us. Finished my drink and our salads. Waited about 15 minutes with no server. Another server came out with our meals. App never came. I mentioned to her the issues and asked for another drink(no lemon, no extra blue cheese, no apps, no refills, no waiter checking on us). I asked to take apps off order since we never got it. She did apologize. A few minutes after, the original server returned with my beer. About 5 minutes after that, yet another employee (in a blue uniform different from the rest) came over with the apps and said, "I know its late but do you want them?". I mentioned that we had asked that it be removed since we already had the meals and she said, "do you want them or not?". Since we had eaten half the meal, I said we did not and asked again for it to be removed and she took them away. Waiter came back 1 last time with bill. We asked for a box. On bill I noticed a "discount" for the price of the apps. It gives the appearance that we were comped the apps. Not so as I asked for them to be removed in the first place. I know servers work hard. I could never do their work. Friday evening has to be a tough time to work. My issue was with the lack of checking on us at all from the time we first got drinks until the check. Compound that with the "do you want it or not" attitude from the other employee. Total customer service fail. We werent looking for anything free. Didnt demand a manager and request anything for free. Werent "comped" an app. Just overall frustrated and highly disappointed in the service. Hoping it was a fluke and not the typical service given by this server otherwise I feel bad for his customers. Lastly on my rant, we always leave a good tip. 20% is our norm. 15% for fair to poor service. I left much less in this case. I was torn. Part of me feels bad but he didnt do even the minimum of his job for us today. Would you pay for a service you didnt get in any other field? You wouldnt think twice about not paying for an item you didnt get, shouldnt it be the same...

Texas Roadhouse offers a change from your traditional steakhouse with its lively music, cool atmosphere and laid back vibe.

Upon entering you’ll see steaks proudly on display in a glass cooler similar to your local butcher. They even allow you to pick a specific steak that’s to your liking. Pretty cool.

Menu items like fried pickles and rattlesnake bites are laid back and meant for sharing, nothing pretentious here. Awesome fresh bread and cinnamon butter are delicious. They also have a fun drink selection with tons of variety.

We liked our rattlesnake bites appetizer and bread and this contributed to the majority of the 3/5 stars. Why not 5 stars?

Well, my wife and I ordered the 27 ounce rib-eye steak and split it. We asked for medium rare and when it came out it looked a little charred. So I said “hold on” as she dropped it off so I could cut into it.

It was a little red in the center. She could see I was skeptical and said “see looks medium rare to me!”. I think she was worried I was going to send it back. Medium rare should be a cool red center and this steak was still steaming heat. That means it’s going to continue to cook as it sits on the table. Sure enough it did and it ended up being more of medium to well done after.

We had ended up cutting into it and eating it as fast as we could. I could tell by the initial cut that the steak was tough. I like ribeyes for their marbled soft meat and this steak was not that. It was a charred brick after about 5-10 minutes. It was a pretty bad experience for what ended up being close to a $45 steak.

Service was hit or miss. Either we waited a long time for something we asked for or what we asked for was forgotten and had to request it again. It was pretty disappointing.

Overall Texas Roadhouse is known for steaks and if this was any representation of the quality I probably wouldn’t order steaks for a long while. It’s a good place for atmosphere, appetizers and drinks, possibly some other food items. But I think I’ll take my steak cravings somewhere else for a while until I forget...