Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Dubuque

Updated Review: This location has serious customer service issues and unless you can come in on a slow night, you will likely be forced to confront issues the managers are unwilling to address.

Going in to pick up a to-go order on Valentines Day (ordered at 10:30am to pick up at 4pm - so it wasn't that busy), I found the line was disorganized and no one on the staff was doing anything to balance the line of people waiting to get to the to-go desk and the line of incoming customers trying to cut through the same space.

After it was my turn to step up to the desk, I waited 4-5 minutes and eventually asked to speak to a manager when none of the six employees running around in the to-go area greeted me or acknowledged I was waiting.

It turned out there was a manager in the group of six employees. He was 5'10", short hair, Caucasian, early thirties. He proceeded to tell me the to-go staff had been slammed with 25 orders. They were doing everything they could to build the salads that every one of the orders was short. He told me it was making matters worse for the long line of customers waiting behind me (which had grown to a dozen people) because he was having to come away from completing and checking orders to deal with me. Another employee waited patiently at the desk for our interaction to resolve. When I pointed out that "if everyone needs to be making salads, you would be talking to me and this employee at the desk would be making salads."

Then two things happened:

1. The manager rolled his eyes, said "whatever," and walked away.
2. The employee looked at me boldly and told me, "I don't make salads."

After the manager called back over his shoulder, "Can you get his order?" to the employee, the employee checked my order and then grabbed it off the rack behind him. It already had my salads in it and had been complete before I'd even gotten into line.

The next person in line joked with me and we left with "may the odds be ever in your favor," but I had little confidence they would be.

Getting my food home, it was cold except for the rolls the employee tossed at me...

WORST TEXAS ROADHOUSE! We will never return to this chain. We had a larger party of 14. (8 adults 5 kids 1 baby) Every year our family gets together to celebrate our birthdays at a Texas Roadhouse, we called ahead, they informed us they don’t take reservations but would be sure to sit us close together. That was perfectly great as long as we could all communicate and mingle. When we arrived at 2pm which we were hopeful was a less busy time the place was completely packed. The host walked us to the table and we were sitting at 3 back to back booths. The manager made her way over as she clearly sensed an issue. She asked what the issue was and I expressed to her we weren’t even able to visit with our family which was the whole reason we came together. She was very short and repetitively kept informing me this is the best they could do. The worst part was she was defensive and cut me off as I kindly expressed my concerns. Our whole family was open to waiting as we were in no rush just wanted to enjoy each others company and I was very displeased with the manager not doing her job to work to a solution that worked for both of us!

Everything after that just spiraled. Where they sat us the baby seat was basically in the walkway. We had 3 different waitresses/waiters. Didn’t receive plates with our bread or appetizers. The mango/strawberry margarita came out with the second flavor served on the side…..When it came to ordering had to ask to get our sides that were missed. The meals came out at complete random.

The only positive from our visit was the one waitress went the extra mile to make things right and put on a good smile! I didn’t catch her name but we tipped well as it was...

Never been here before. Not entirely sure I’ll go back. The wait was really long after we were seated just to get a tea and then to get food. We got cold fries and they had bacon and cheese on them when they should’ve been plain. We finally got everything right and then were eating a cactus blossom when we found a fried fly in the middle. The manager came out and tried to justify the fly by saying it must’ve flown in while being taken to the table when the fly had clearly been fried into it. They took %30 off of the meal. I ordered the Mac and cheese as a side and it was horrible!!! Very very dry and without flavor. In place of it, I got fries. It took absolutely forever to get them and I was basically finished eating by then. The ribs were subpar and the chicken critters tasted good but were dinky. I was told they were really large. Overall, not a pleasant experience. Our server, Tori, was extremely hyper and in your face…literally. She seemed very cool though. She tried to make it better. Most of it was not her fault. It was really difficult to stay there with all of the issues including extremely loud music. I mean, really loud, at times. We were there for approximately 2 hours. Again, not sure if we’ll go back. Honestly, %30 off of our meals wasn’t even enough.

After reading this, the management contacted me and offered a good percentage off of a meal if I returned. I finally went back and they redeemed themselves. The meals were good, the service was good, and we got right in. I’m thankful for the opportunity. We were very pleased. Thank you for caring enough to make it right! We will go back...