Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Denton

Texas Roadhouse is my brother's favorite casual dining steakhouse. We visit this location 2 our 3 times a month, and we'd noticed a drop off recently and went across the highway to Longhorn Steakhouse the week before and were pretty surprised with the food quality and restaurant. We came back to Roadhouse this week, and it was truly disappointing.

We started with the normal host stand experience. Nothing extraordinary but not unpleasant. Bradi, the server greeted us promptly, and we received drinks and bread in a timely fashion. Again, nothing extraordinary but normal. We placed our order, and this is where things went a sideways.

I'm not a big steak guy, so I ordered a chicken Caesar salad, and it was absolutely drenched in dressing. No worries, I can deal with it. The chicken was dry, almost like it wasn't cooked to order, but had been sandbagged for expediancy. Not optimal, but not bad enough for me to involve a manager or send it back. My brother received his steak, and when he was asked to cut into his "medium" steak, it was rare. I mean rare, rare. Brown on the outside and cold to the touch on the inside. Bradi offered to cook it up or to refire a new one. He noticed a vein in the steak, which is normal for that uncooked of a steak, but it grossed him out, so he asked for a new steak. Bradi mentioned that this had happened all night on her previous shift. A little concerning about the direction of the kitchen for her to mention. I'm a slow eater, but I'd almost finished my salad by the time the manager Josh brought out the allegedly "medium" steak. He asked him to cut into the steak, and there it was... a medium rare steak. Not cold on the inside, but definitely medium rare. Josh mentioned that if he'd been in the kitchen, it would've come out even worse. He then tried to convince us that the steak was "medium." I might not eat a lot of steak, but it was obviously not cooked to the proper temp. We asked them to cook up the cut steak, and again, Josh mentioned that it would be worse if he'd been in the kitchen. It's a strange thing for a manager to say. It's really not what you want to hear, even from a service manager.

By this point, I'd finished my meal, and we're still waiting for a "medium" steak! Service from the server was still appropriate, but she was obviously frustrated with the kitchen. When the steak was returned, half of it was "medium well" and half was still "medium rare". It was almost as if the kitchen had thrown it back on the grill with a weight on one side but not the other! My brother waved the white flag and accepted the steak but only ate one half of the steak. Meanwhile, I'd been finished with my meal quite a long time at this point.

Josh came back by to tell us he would take the price of the steak off of the check. Nice, but with the level of experience, I really expected him to take care of the entire meal. When people come in to eat a meal, they really expect to eat together, not one person eats, and then the other person eats. It's really not acceptable, and I'm not sure exactly why he comped one plate instead of the whole check. How is this an appropriate decision by a manager who is supposed to be a service manager?

I don't go to restaurants to get free food. I typically don't complain because everyone has an off day, and I understand that. As I mentioned, we go to Roadhouse together frequently, and my brother goes more with his wife. We've never had this poor of an experience. My brother says he's done with this location now. He wants to go back to Longhorn from here on out, and I can't say I disagree. This was a complete failure, and he was visibly upset. It's a shame because, as I mentioned, Texas Roadhouse was his favorite place. We were very disappointed with the food quality and the manager interaction. This was a tough review to write, and I hope I never have to write another one for any restaurant....

Came in with my husband and son, 11/16 we requested server Reagan, as the last time she served us, she was outstanding! And again, her customer service skills were above and beyond!!! Her service was amazing! The food was absolutely mouth watering, our steaks came out completely perfect!!! All our food was great!!! But I do have a VERY BIG complaint, as we sat there shocked, that the “bussers” both a guy and a girl, went to booth next to us together, he was more intrigued by trying to “mess” with her, than he was to clean the table! They removed the dishes left the glasses, DIDN’T wipe down the table or anything! Which explains why our table was grossly sticky when we arrived! Then the servers had to go to the tables to clean them, wipe everything down, while still trying to tend to their tables! And sweep the floors, while we sat and watched both these bussers just standing by the station, where they put orders in computer. They “hung out” on THEIR PHONES, the guy even took a phone call, while on the clock and he also had ear buds in!!! Like seriously! There was a dish tub sitting right behind them that could’ve been brought to kitchen! So it wasn’t like there was “nothing “ to do! This aggravated me, being I’ve been in the service industry for 32yrs and this is NOT acceptable in any resturant/bar! Going on your phone at all and for over 30 mins, doing nothing. Then I come to find out, these poor servers have to “tip out” these bussers like 3% FOR WHAT! They literally did NOTHING! This made me angry because the bussers “job/duties” should be to clean off tables, wipe everything down, and sweep the floors!!! And bring dirty dishes to kitchen and glasses too to the bar to be washed! So they are literally being paid to stand around on their phones rather than doing their damn job! It was unbelievable, angers me so much because I’ve worked in many establishments and I have NEVER seen anything like this anywhere! Management needs to take control of this and set boundaries and the bussers need to do more work, or should I say actually do work! The servers of course, help with closing down at end up night and clean up, which was not the case here! These servers were all busting their a$$es serving customers while’s doing everything else cleaning everything!!! Those bussers don’t deserve any tip out they were useless! It was definitely NOT fair that the servers did everything and still had to pay tip out to these useless bussers!!!! If I were in charge, both would’ve been fired on the spot! Y’all see in photo of busser just chillin on...

There comes a time where you just have to accept what Texas Roadhouse is:

A large American chain restaurant that falls into comparison with Applebees and Chili’s. With that being said there’s not much to expect, especially for the price range. I had an idea with previous dining experiences in my hometown of Texas Roadhouse being a place to bring my family and enjoy some simple, tasty comfort food, but I was largely disappointed in this Denton location yesterday.

Some of the points I must make are quite simple:

Absolutely no steps of service exemplified in the service area. As expected, this is not an “experience” oriented restaurant, but it would still be nice not to be treated as another customer. The server kept saying “You’re the customer, you’re always right.” Which is definitely not reputable hospitality.

The most important point, is my steak that I ordered. I inquired that I wanted to upgrade my steak to a 12 ounce New York Strip and the server made a gesture that it was pretty much too late and it hadn’t even been 5 minutes since we ordered during a rush, in which I know they hadn’t even began cooking it, because our food took over 25 minutes to get to our table. Once the steak arrived, it seemed to be an “8 oz” petite sirloin steak, NOT a New York Strip. I send it back due to the dissatisfaction I have of the lack of presentation. It gets even worse from here, the kitchen manager then returns to my table and asks that I keep the dish that I sent back and they cook me another of the same steak for free, in which I am baffled, because this is not what I wanted in the first place! They then, bring me a 12 oz New York Strip, that has a large portion of lard on the end taking up over a quarter of the steak itself, and it’s cooked BLUE RARE and not MEDIUM RARE as requested. (what should I expect, it’s just USDA Choice) I went ahead and just ate it because I was pretty much fed up at this point.

It’s a simple, cheap place to dine and it’s not hard to implement a little more hospitality in the team, it can go a LONG way. Menu knowledge goes a LONG way. Maybe a better...