LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Hampton

Worst Longhorn experience ever!! Usually they are amazing, I hope this was just a fluke??!! The lettuce in our salads were brown and wilted, hardly any diced tomatoes, couldn't even eat a quarter of it!! The Wild West Shrimp appetizer was up to par! We always have left overs to bring home. My husband's porterhouse steak was cooked perfect, but was much more fatty than normal- more for our dog, I guess! My 9 Oz Flo's Fillet was over cooked and had way to much seasoning on it, I love salt, so me to say something is too salty, has Never happened before. I brought it home in a box and plan to scrape off the seasonings and reheat it, if that doesn't work, Our Dog will make out again!! On to the Service.....Wow, where to begin....I used to Serve, so I think I'm pretty good at putting myself in the shoe's of our Server's, and try to be understanding....not to brag- but I was an excellent Server's, and knew the key to making money was to provide excellent service and to exceed expectations! I was literally being paid for performance, and Loved it! I had tons of "Regular's" because of this! I try very hard not to judge to harshly, and understand a lot of Server's don't have the experience yet, that I did....that being said.....#1 I would have NEVER served salads to Customer's that looked as terrible as ours did! #2. If I'd have been so busy, that maybe I didn't notice how terrible those salads looked, I definitely would have noticed my Customer's hardly touched them and they were moved to the edge of the table....I would have asked if they wanted something else, at the very least! #3. Do Server's not "Pre-Bus" anymore? Our table had so dirty glasses, bread plates, (Not appetizer plates-because we were never given any)etc...I even stacked them all up and put them on the edge of the table.... the only way I had enough room to box our dog's food up, was to set some of our dirty plates on the table across from us...that was a big table that was already covered with dirty dishes anyway. A large party had been celebrating a graduation, and the last 5 people had been gone for at least 30 minutes. This was a different Server's table...or at least a different server had brought them out boxes about an hour prior to the last guest's leaving. At least someone brought them boxes, I had to go to the bar and ask for boxes! Our Sever acted a little offended when she saw me with the boxes and said she had some back there for us, but how were we to know, we hardly saw her! She did refill my Strawberry lemonade once, and brought my Husband one. Two different people brought out our salads and steaks. When the girl brought out the steaks, she asked my husband if he could grab the plate his steak was in, it was super hot and he burned his hand, she had been carrying it with black napkins, my husband didn't have napkins or pot holder's!! The crazy thing was, they were not filled up and did not look crazy busy or anything!! Now, maybe they had been earlier, but while we were there-they were not! Just tons of dirty tables as people would leave, no pre-bussing, no follow up, no customer service at all! On previous visits a Manager would always come by and ask how everything was, we couldn't even tell you if a manager was on site! Everyone looked the same, dressed the same etc....Manager's used to stand out a little, by their dress etc...No one expects a Business suit in food service- but a nice button down shirt or blouse and maybe dressier work pants might be nice!?! Just so very disappointed! Longhorn has been our favorite restaurant for YEARS, and we have been several times since the pandemic, and have NEVER experienced such poor quality!! You can see all my previous reviews were 5 stars in every area...I pray this was just a fluke, but after spending $122.00, I am really hesitant to chance it. Yes, I still tipped decently....after serving for so long, no matter how Terrible the service is, I just can't bring myself to "Stiff" anyone, and I know they used to have to pay at least 8% taxes on their total...

Over the weekend I visited some family who wanted to go to the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant but shared that wait times are insane so they elected to dine at this particular Longhorn. Given we needed to wait a few minutes for my great nephews to arrive I decided to have a drink at the bar. There were a handful of open seats at the bar and I sat at one which had not been cleaned up yet from a previous diner's meal. I noticed the same thing at both of my neighboring seats. It took a few minutes for the waitress to come from the back and clean up after the previous diners and you can imagine it's not very appetizing to sit and have to look at leftover food from prior customers. I could handle this issue, but the next one really annoyed the dickens out of me. While waiting for the barmaid/waitress to clean up, a family arrived to wait at the bar for an open table just as I was. They had about 4-5 family members and they arrived at least 3-5 minutes after I had been seated. The point being they arrived after me and diners should be served according to who arrives first in my book. When the barmaid finally came out to clean up she asked if I was with the family that just arrived and I explained I wasn't and she then went and asked them for their orders which left me a bit astonished. I try not to be someone of color who brings up the race card all the time, but I happen to be African-American and the family who was served was Caucasian. As you may have guessed, my barmaid was Caucasian as well. Frankly, I was raised such that if the roles were reversed and the barmaid tried to serve me ahead of someone who came after me, I would have explained to the server that the family was ahead of me and should be served first. Clearly, this family wasn't raised with such manners because they never said a peep about arriving after me. After taking their orders the barmaid then asked me what I wanted. I ordered a margarita, but was seething inside. Thankfully, my family called me over because a table opened up and we were seated and served by a very professional and personable young lady. Now prior to my retirement I had worked for a some years at a law firm in DC which successfully tried many civil rights cases. What I experienced at the bar brought back memories of what many of our clients seemed to have experienced. Granted, perhaps this barmaid had simply had a bad day, but given some of the discrimination cases certain franchise restaurants have had to defend in recent years, one would think restaurant personnel would be particularly sensitive to ensuring their actions don't allow for the perception of discrimination. At this point I'm not sure I'll ever be a guest of another Longhorn, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. We'll see. I did bring my concern to the attention of the restaurant manager, but she seemed to just give me a rudimentary apology which didn't really leave me feeling that it was going to result in any significant coaching for the young lady behind the bar. For the record my check number was #27048 and our party sat at table #33. I dined on 3/19/22 at 6:52PM and my server, unlike the barmaid, did a marvelous job.

UPDATE: Subsequent to my prior review I spoke with an area manager and I was pleased to learn that I may have just caught the restaurant on a busy day . His explanation was plausible and I am sure I will return as a guest the next time I'm in the area. I updated to 4...

If I could give a negative star I would cause lord knows I have never been so disrespected in my life. Not only am I a veteran that just retired from the Air Force of 6 years but my husband is currently deployed in the navy on a 7 months deployment overseas. I am my only child’s caregiver at the time and I used the curbside pick up options for my dinning option Saturday 12/09/2023. I spent $46.33 on my entree to share with my 1 year old toddler and to my surprise not only did I have to go into the restaurant with my toddler but i had to wait an additional 45 minutes for my meal when pick up was scheduled for 7pm. I placed my order at 6:31pm and paid in full with a tip via online. At no one point during this wait did anyone communicate a delay prep time nor offer an apology for the manner at hand until I spoke to the to go host named Briana. During my 30 minute wait in the restaurant my child became very agitated and the staff made me feel very uncomfortable with dirty looks and whispering amongst themselves. There were two African Americans women that did come over to offer juice, snacks, and crayons while I waited, but the other staff members remained judgmental from a distance. After my horrible experience I proceeded to call back today 12/11 at 5:38pm during a less busy time period to give my feedback and was given the run around from the staff saying they could not locate a manager that was suppose to be on the property. After finally getting touch in a manager from being on hold for 16 minutes he proceeded to be very nasty and rude and concluded the call with we are a restaurant and are very busy call corporate and hung up in my face. Now I order from this restaurant at least 2-3 times a month and I spend a minimum of $30 max $70. To be retreated with such disrespect is baffling and very unprofessional. I was so shocked and upset within 10 minutes of the disconnected call I pulled up to the Hampton location to see if I in fact spoke to an actual manager or if it was a staff member. They were not nearly as busy as they were on Saturday 12/09 and the manager that was rude to me was in casual attire in the kitchen. The host retrieved him from the back and when I confirmed he was indeed the rude manager that hung up in my face and told me to call corporate he confirmed his name was is Derrick Jones. He of course did not have a company card and wrote his name out on a piece of receipt paper. I will never ever step foot in this restaurant again and with me being new to the Hampton area I will definitely find other restaurants to indulge in that respect my feedback and time. To my Mr. Jones, I am not sure why you proceeded to treat me the way you did when I just wanted to voice my concern about my experience but I am definitely going to take your advice and call corporate as well as Jimmy your district manager. I will in the future drive the extra 15 minutes to do business with the Newport News VA location as the manager Amber was very pleasant, apologetic, and the staff had her on the phone within minutes of my call. She was very respectful, heard my concerns, and offered me an in person meeting with a meal to right the wrongs of her sister restaurant in Hampton VA. Now that’s how you handle a concerned customer. Thank you Amber, I will be seeing you soon. I pray no one else has to deal with the wrath and disrespect of Derrick Jones and hopefully this location gets a better manager as soon...