Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Dothan

The three star rating has nothing to do with the wait staff or food. It has to do with the poor attitudes of the very young hostesses. We decided to treat our son and his family from out of town to a nice steak dinner. Something we do once a month. When we first walked in the hostesses standing around up front did not acknowledge us at all. The ladies were too involved with their own conversations. One was on her phone not paying attention to anything. My son cleared his throat to get their attention. Even after getting their attention we were not greeted with a simple hello, welcome to Texas Road House, or anything. They seemed irritated we walked in. What was more confusing was the party of three in front of us. They were rushed to a table that was big enough to accommodate 12 people? We heard them tell the young lady that that was too big of a table for their needs. She looked irritated and went back and talked to the ladies that seemed to be hostesses. Instead of giving us that table, which would’ve easily accommodated our party of eight, we waited. The young lady seated the people in front of us, to once again, a table too big for their party size. We even heard the people tell her that they were willing to wait for a smaller size table. We got the impression customers were being seating anywhere there was an opening. Not taking into consideration the actual party size. We got the feeling the young ladies were too much in a hurry to get back to their private conversations. Besides the horrible hostessing we received that night, the food was wonderful and our waitress was outstanding. When we were leaving the restaurant, we again experienced something unpleasant. It looked as though there was two waitresses and hostesses all congregating in the front of the restaurant talking. It seemed like two were arguing or something was going on. Again, we were trying to walk through to leave and they were caught up in their personal conversations blocking the entrance of the restaurant. We witnessed an elderly lady almost catching the door in her face because two of the staff that were talking to the hostesses left with attitudes, not holding the door for the customers. Our son stepped in on time, stopping the door from hitting the other customer in the face. We all decided to come back for lunch the next day. To see if the same thing would happen because this is our go to restaurant. Well what a big difference! The hostess was older, friendly, and looked us in the eyes and greeted us with a big smile. Was very welcoming. And of course again the food was great and the waitresses were wonderful. Management really needs to clean house and pay attention with their hostesses. Maybe put adults up there because that evening was ridiculous. Not professional at all. If y’all can do a great job hiring waitresses and kitchen staff I’m sure you can do the same choosing better hostesses.

Update: y’all notice the manager never made a comment about my review. This tells customers complaints are not taken seriously. They should use criticism to help improve the restaurant...

I am honestly disappointed. We went out for my baby shower here I gave plenty of heads up of roughly how many people it would be. Ended up being 15. I called a week in advance and that morning. I put out a PSA on my Facebook of things I wanted my guests to do to minimize strain as I realize this was a larger party such as sitting next to or across from who you were on a check with and get all your sauces and condiments in one go to not run the staff to death. We got sat around 4:45 and immediately it was rough, they split us up at 2 different tables, not even across from each other. If this is a company policy it needs to be told to larger parties because the entire point of a party is to eat together. Our waitress came to get our drink order and immediately had a foul attitude. We order our drinks and our appetizers all at one time. The appetizers made it to the table before a single drink did. Most of us had fountain drinks. The appetizers did not come out with the sauces that they come with we asked for them it took 15 minutes to get them. Finally order our food around 5:30 by this point the waitress seemed to be improving, got a few refills no problem. After our food order was taken we did not see her again for over an hour. People sat at our table for over thirty minutes with empty drinks. When we finally got our food 50% of it was wrong my friend ordered a rare steak got a well done steak. My other friend ordered a medium rare and got a medium well. I ordered a medium well and got a medium rare. Hamburgers came out rare when ordered well done. A child’s food came out with hot applesauce and a cold hotdog. By this point we had waited so long for our food we all tried to stomach it. My friend alerted the waitress her food came out wrong and the waitress responded with an oh no and bit her thumb. No offer to take the food back to have it remade. So my friend said not to even worry about it she would eat it anyway. No one finished a single plate. All of us had leftovers none of us took any of them home. I asked for the cake we brought in for the shower it took 15-20 minutes to get that. By the time we got it everyone was so ready to leave we just asked for our checks. My friend walked into the kitchen to get to go boxes so we could take slices of cake home, we didn’t do gifts because by this point it was 7:00 we were beyond ready to leave. All in all worst experience I have ever had at any restaurant in Dothan. I’ve had better experiences...

The last visit my husband ordered a beer with a frozen glass and the beer came we had to reminder the waitress about the glass then he waited a while on the glass and when it arrives it was dirty..I called the manager told him they got us a new glass but my husband was so turned off he felt something more should have been offered since by the time the glass came it was dirty and the new glass was clean but the thrill was gone...I myself usually handle the complaints with management while he sit quite but this day I did not have the energy to address the issue any further with management frankly this was the one day I needed management to offer for the Inconvenience and nasty glass they gave my husband not have to ask what are they going to do for us for the inconvenience and being served a nasty glass..thank goodness we look at everything I cant imagine him putting his mouth on a dirty glass yuck turned off truly..my ribs were great....update 2024 after 4 yrs of not visiting this restaurant we went at 5:30p on a Saturday we had to wait 45 minutes mins for a table.. waitress we knew for great customer service she use to work at Robert's grocery and she was wonderful no matter were she work... unfortunately at 5:30 they had no cinnamon butter, no chili, no dirty rice, no cortons for salad thank goodness i dont eat them so the flavor you expect from your dinner rolls or sweet potato wasn't there without the signature cinnamon butter. So to wait 45minute know what u cake to eat and it's not available at 5:30p on a Saturday the busiest restaurant day is sad and shows prep for service food supply was no available for the normal weekend crowds just very sad. Manager walked around to ask how things were frankly it's obvious too long of a wait and y'all are running out of sides at 5:30p after 4yrs I think we can go another 4 years and I will consider just picking up food not dine in ribs and chicken critter was good but chicken critter were kid small I had a total of 3 critters and 2 could be eaten in just one bite serious they were trying to stretch food y'all...my husband ending up with two seasoned fries as sides from wanting chili and dirty rice his favorite from their after 4 yrs he still haven't had...