Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Florence

July 12, 2024

WOW, worst experience ever!

Our server, Ally was terrible. If you get her, ask for someone else.

A little background for you. Two of us at our table used to be server's so we're always a bit partial to them.

So, Ally takes our drink orders and asks if we'd like any appetizers. We ordered two of their fried onion blooms (can't remember the exact name).

After our drinks came she left to take care of her section. We flagged her down to ask if we were going to get any of the hot rolls. The restaurant usually serves those immediately when you sit down before the drinks are delivered (at least that has been my experience the other times we went).

She brought 8 hot rolls, but just 2 small cups of butter. We asked her before she left to please bring more butter because it just wasn't enough.

At this time she asked if we were ready to order. So Ally took our order's. It's now about a half hour since we were seated.

About 10 or so minutes passed without any butter. So we flagged Ally down again. We reminded her we needed more butter and also asked her to check on our appetizers.

Ally came back about 5 minutes later with the extra butter. She did see most of our drinks were empty so she did refresh the drinks. She also said it shouldn't be too much longer for our appetizers to be done.

Of course lots more time goes by, no appetizers we flagged down a different server. When she checked we got the same answer.

Finally, about an hour after we were seated we received our 2 fried onions.

Maybe, 15 minutes later our meals start arriving. 1 or 2 at a time. The first meal, Sirloin tips. Cooked very well done so there was no pink left, per customer request. She cut into her steak and there was lots of pink.

We couldn't see Ally, so we told another server and she took them back for a re-do.

A bit later, her husband's food came. A little more time passed and my son and his daughter received their dinner. A bit later, I received my steak.

Still no Sirloin tips came back and my grandson's meal hadn't arrived yet. So we flagged down Ally, again and asked her about their meals.

By now, her husband is finished eating, she is on her 3rd glass if sweet tea, my grandson has eaten several rolls and is on his second drink refill.

Ally came back and told us she was so sorry, somehow she forgot to turn my grandson's order in.

Ally also said, when the Sirloin tips were done her Manager was going to bring them out.

Then Ally said, I'm going to be very busy because I'm getting a large party in. How were we supposed to react to that statement?

Well my grandson's meal arrived after everyone who had their meal were finished eating.

Finally, a young women brought out the sirloin tips.

This young women did not give her name, she did not identify as the manager. She asked our friend to try the tips to see if they cooked okay this time. They were so the manager just turned to leave.

I said hey, are you the manager? She said, yes I am. So I relayed to her my frustration on how our friend had specifically stated no pink when she placed her. I stated that the waitress should have made a special notation to tĥe cook.

Now listen to this because the managers response was in no way customer service orientated.

Ally did make a note to the cook, BUT the cook has know way to know how done it is. WHAT!

I showed her my grandsons full plate and told her he just got his food because Ally forgot to order it.

Brace yourself for the Managers response.

Well those things happen sometimes!

No apology, no meal compensation. The Manager, never even introduced herself to us.

I've always been told, the service you receive from employees is the reflection of their Management....

UPDATE: We decided to give Texas Roadhouse another try 5 months after my last review. My husband had decided he wanted to eat here with his mom and dad to celebrate his birthday. I was hoping for a better experience this time but after what took place tonight, none of us will step foot in this establishment again. I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for years so I have a pretty good amount of patience and understanding for staff because I know how frustrating and difficult the job can be. However, I cannot tolerate blatant rudeness and disrespect for the customers who help put money in your pockets. We had a party of 5 and waited for well over 45 minutes. My mother in law asked about the table only two times because my two year old was getting restless and the only response we got was “oh it’ll be 10 more minutes and we’ll have one ready. That tables been here for over an hour.” Saw more than one group of 5 or more people leave during this time. Still, we were waiting, which we don’t mind doing. I get it. The restaurant is busy and you can’t make people leave. That’s fine. We decided it would be best to go somewhere else because waiting just wasn’t working out for us this time. Parents of toddlers get it. Sometimes you just can’t wait! My mother in law returned to the hostess and said to just take our name off the list because we were just going to go somewhere else. As we were heading out, my inlaws exited first and my husband and I wrangled my toddler. I guess the hostess didn’t realize we were with them and immediately turned to the co workers who were all just standing at the desk (which I’m not sure why they were just standing there eating brownies. There’s always work to do at a restaurant) and started to talk about my mother in law. I immediately pointed at her and said no, you do not talk about your customers. Especially if they still have family in the restaurant. Next time you might want to make sure we’re all gone before you bad mouth someone! Of course she tried to act like she didn’t do anything instead of apologizing. My husband angrily told them to get their crap together and we left. Do better.

Our server was either Kayla or Kailey? Can’t remember the name but she had dark hair and glasses. We were seated at a table that had ranch in the floor and food crumbs under it. No silverware was given to us. When she returned with it after we asked for it, the silverware was soaking wet and a piece of wet lettuce flopped out of my napkin. After we received our drinks she never came to our table again. No refills, no check ins, didn’t bring us our bill. She just stood at the computers talking the entire time. Another customer actually saw that we hadn’t been waited on and called someone over to check on us. I have been in the restaurant industry for most of my working life, so I know what it takes to offer good service to customers. This was not it. It was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever experienced. We will more than likely not be...

This time was really not a typically good experience with them. We were seated immediately upon our arrival but it was probably about 15 minutes before our waitress ever made an appearance to our table. Once she did we ordered our drinks and an appetizer. Another waitress brought the appetizer to the table and we had to ask her to get us some plates because our table waitress didn't bring us any when she brought bread to the table. After another 20 minutes, I asked our waitress for refills and asked if we were going to get our salads. She said she was going to check. She brought our refills back 10 minutes later and said, " Oh, you haven't got your salads yet." She went back to the kitchen and 10 minutes later she brought our salads. Another 25 minutes later she brought our food, but I met her at the kitchen because one of our refills was wrong and I had to take it to get another refill because she was not coming to our table to check on us. I ordered a 12oz Prime Rib but close to half of it was nothing but fat, so I waited for the waitress to come back so I could ask for another cut, but that did not happen. So I asked another waitress if she could help me with it and she was so nice in taking care of it for me. One of the managers brought me a replacement and it was much better, done more that I asked for but it was definitely a better cut. Our waitress came back to the table and asked if there was something wrong with my order and I told her there was but it has been taken care of already. She didn't come back to our table until it was time for her to bring our check. My wife's food was good and my stepdaughters food was good. My food was good after it was replaced, but the service from our waitress, her name is Trinity, was ABSOLUTELY horrible. She was nice every time she did decide to come to our table, but did NOTHING to give decent service. Sad thing is, unless she had tables on the other side of the restaurant that were unseen, we were her only table. But what was even worse, the table that was seated 10 minutes after us had their salads before we ever got our appetizer and had their food before we ever got our salads. That happened because they had a waitress who was attentive, she is also the one who took care of having my dinner replaced. I wish I had asked her name so I could give her some very much deserved recognition. Had the restaurant been really busy, it would have been much more understandable why the service was so horrible. I'm posting this in hopes that the management will take some action as far as training the wait staff to be just a little more attentive to their tables. Our experience at the restaurant lasted approx 1 hr 45 minutes, but we were seated as soon as we walked in, because they were...