Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Findlay

We went last night for a graduation dinner. Had a larger party. I called 3 hours ahead of time and asked how to proceed. They put me on a large party list and basically said we can't put you in wait-list until one hour before. Which is perfectly fine. We knew it would take a lot for three tables of people.

We get to the restaurant and wait about ten minutes. Right at our seating time. Perfect. Waitress walks up to us as we start ordering drinks for the tables. "Can you speak up I've had a very long day and can't hear". Then proceeds to miss 2 drinks at just 1 of the 3 tables. One drink took 15 minutes longer to arrive. Why are you sticking a tired waitress on large parties? Strike one against the FOH manager. But also, why is your waitress complaining about her work day to the customers?

Asked for more rolls. She told us it would be a few minutes as they had to make more. Fifteen minutes later, asked again. Snarky response that she can't make them come out faster. Note we had three tables and all three had asked by this point for a second basket. Food orders not even taken yet, half hour at the table. It's a common steakhouse. Orders are pretty simple to figure out. Strike two.

Food arrives. They bring it out by table. Fine. Gotta do something to manage it. But the people bringing it out have zero idea where any of it went. Waitress had to get flagged down to sort it. My wife orders a filet. Medium rare. So you've got one of the most tender pieces of meat cooked so that it should still be fairly soft to the touch. She's ordered several dozen of this same filet from different Texas Roadhouses in NW Ohio. She knows what it looks like. What arrives isn't it. It was flattened. Dark thick grill marks quarter inch deep, where my sirloin was barely pressed onto the surface. Note ALL the steaks at our table were ordered the same. Medium rare. Her steak was grey brown throughout the whole thing. Not even a sliver of pink, let alone red. And all were either 6 or 8 oz. So they should have been cooked for about the same time frame, right? Our oldest is a chef. Has a culinary degree. Currently interviewing for sous chef positions, and has worked in steakhouses for about 4 years total. He said it looked like they set the weight on it and forgot about it. Strike three.

Waitress is immediately apologetic and says they'll fix it right away. Graduation girl had her steak come out blue rare. They fix hers. Ten minutes later, we ask about my wife's steak. Still waiting. Ten minutes later we ask again. Waitress says if she could go back and ask about it in the kitchen she would, but she's still waiting. So, this is TWENTY minutes after everyone got their food. She's bringing one table their bill at this point, and take home boxes. Manager walks up about 5-7 minutes after this and just drops the steak in front of her. Doesn't say a damn thing. She cuts into it and it's rare, maybe on the edge of medium rare. But she's hungry at this point, and accepts it. People in our party have already left to go outside by this point. Strike four. It took 25+ minutes to cook a medium rare filet. Seriously?

So she eats her steak. Bills come and they comp-ed her meal and the grad girl's meal, but put them on the same bill to make it easier for the manager. That guy that doesn't talk. So one bill looks incredibly large, but artificially. Wouldn't it make sense ALL around just to group bills by table, pretty much how we were paying anyway, and then deduct where needed? Plus, in that huge bill, there was still an extra meal somehow in there. There were technically only three people on that bill, but five meals, and two were comped. Should have only been two being paid for. Strike five.

Yeah, I'd avoid this location if more than a dozen cars are in the lot. They need a new FOH manager as well. Someone with ANY people...

Seriously... look at the photo I posted of the ‘tell us how we are doing’ sign on our table. Do you see the mess on the main aisle we had to walk through and look at during our visit. When we were seated at 8:30 PM there was a large party next to our table. The party left shortly after we arrived. I couldn’t help but notice when they left because the guy who cleared the table was spraying cleaner across 5 ft of table that sprayed my arm across the aisle. We should’ve left at that moment! I am super sadden THAT I HAVE TO post this bad review because we loved this restaurant over the past six years. This was one of our favorite places to have a beer, appetizer and steak burger meal. We drive 45 minutes to Findlay because we’ve always loved their service and food. We could drive 1/2 that time to Toledo location but really love the Findlay community. I noticed they are hiring so maybe that explains the waitresses standing around in the door way of serving area chit chatting and giggling. My husband and I waited over 15 minutes for a glass of water to go with the beers we ordered while waitresses were standing around. The potato skin appetizer took 45 mins to be served after originally placing the order. It looked like the bacon had been thrown on the appetizer plate. The waitress first told us that they gave our potato skins to another table. I am not sure if she forgot she had told us that because when the skins finally came out she said they burnt the first order they had in for us?!?!? My husband and I split the all American burger and fries meal because it’s huge! The burger was outstanding but the fries way too salty- not like normally. I had the dinner salad which was yum! I had over an hour of waiting so I noticed 2 other customers at the bar return their food. I am assuming the gal in a red t-shirt is a manager because she kept apologizing to the guys at the bar. I didn’t bother to ask to speak to a manager because by the time the burger came out I really didn’t want to hear any more excuses while staring at trash on the floor.. it was still there when we left at 9:45 pm ! Also.. not taking advantage of the ‘tell us how we are doing’ offer for a free appetizer. There are other great steak and burger...

Typically I love going to this Texas roadhouse but last night 5-5-24 just upset me with our experience. We checked in online (we live 10 mins away figured it would be busy) got there 3-4 min wait perfect I thought! Lady asks us if we wanted peanuts I said no but I'd like some rolls!! She said sorry atm we are waiting for them to come up. "Okay no problem" we go and sit down. And we wait. We watch 6-7 groups of people get sat with rolls this is now 10-15 mins of waiting before our server comes up to us. Our server asks for drinks I said can you get us our roles first she then said would you like drinks yet. I stated please go get us a basket of rolls first. She goes off and 5-10 mins later brings us somewhat fresh roles. She then takes our order for drinks a margarita and a drp. This take 5 mins and we both get waters not our ordered drinks another 5 mins we get our drinks. This is now 30 ish mins before drinks hit our table. She asked us for our order. We started with a app comb(platter skins,fried pickles, rattlesnake bites) 6 oz filet with applesauce and side salad, and a 8oz filet with double order of loaded fries. And we ask for a second basket of rolls when the server gets the chance. We go on the wife finishes her margaritas and my Drp is empty and we wait 5-10 mins later server comes up we ask for a second margaritas and a refill. Which we get and then we wait again and wait for about 25 mins with no appetizer until our steaks hit the table. I ask where our apps have went. That we had ordered. Server goes to check and they where never made. She asked if we wanted it boxed or put on the table I said put on the table. I should have stated to not even bring it out because most of it ain't even reheatable. But never the less I wanted to atleast see it. We eat get our bill which I was planning it to be around $100 since we had two margaritas and to filet meals it came out to 90.54some odd dollars and I left a 19.46 tip. (Side not we did get out salad about 5 mins after ordering it was a Ceasar salad that I thought was unimpressive 3 croutons on the entire plate and that's it) so overall I was dissatisfied with the evening almost 2 hours at this restaurant where our typical is...