Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Kirkwood

The 5 Star portion of this rating is specifically for Natalie (our waitress), Jasmine (our manager), as well as the overall atmosphere and food at Kirkwood Texas Roadhouse.

First, Natalie was the best waitress we’ve ever had. We have a large, lively family and she handled all of us like a true champ. Our food was spot on, our drinks were never empty, her personality is just fabulous. If I could guarantee her as our waitress every time, we would probably dine here exclusively. Her quick wit, knowledge of the menu and ability to interact with our entire table is unmatched.

Jasmine was also famous. Accommodating, understanding and clearly a fantastic problem solver with a positive attitude and smile on her face no matter what was being thrown at her! On a weekend, in a crowded restaurant, I imagine there’s a lot thrown at her too! But you would never know! She’s incredible. Possessing all the qualities you hope that a manager would!

Unfortunately, i cannot say the same about the manager, Carl. He is the opposite of the other 2. Beginning from the first phone call that my very pregnant daughter-in-law made, in an attempt for “call ahead seating”. Because we had a party of 9, we were unable to reserve a spot online and were instructed to call the restaurant. At 5pm, she called and Carl was extremely rude, dismissive and unhelpful. He told her not to bother coming before 9pm. I then called myself because the 4-6 top tables had only a 20 min wait, asking if he thought we should reserve 2 of those instead. He was extremely rude to me as well (not even knowing we were the same party). He told me I could reserve tables if I wanted, but that we would likely not sit together. He made it very clear that this wasn’t his problem and he didn’t care. Now, a part of me DOES understand that. It’s a weekend, it’s the restaurant industry, not everyone wants to mess with making these accommodations for others. However, our party wasn’t THAT large, it was also 5pm and we were willing to come immediately or wait as long as it took for 2 tables near each other to open up, but to also tell me not to come back until 9pm? That was a little absurd. We have better luck getting into the hottest, local restaurants with far less seating availability, far more exclusivity and with actual reservations booked months in advance.

I was willing to give Carl the benefit of the doubt until we arrived and saw that there were 2 high top tables in the bar (although they’re pushed together to look like one table for 12 or even individual seating for any takers, in my opinion). At this 12 top (or two 6 tops) you had 1 gentleman at one far end and a single couple at the other end. So that was a total of 3 people who requested that they be seated at a high top in the bar which has space for 12. Let me reiterate - that’s 1 table of 6 for a single person and 1 table of 6 for a couple. Both of whom arrived and were seated AFTER we had called inquiring about a table for 9. Regardless of that, however, if you’re as slammed as you say and aren’t accepting parties of 6 or more for FOUR HOURS, common sense dictates that you do not waste the few larger tables that you have on single/small parties. That just doesn’t make sense. Talk about screwing your waitresses out of tip too!!

Well, anyway, no thanks to Carl (who told us he wouldn’t give us those tables) we waited for the single gentleman to leave (he had already received a to-go box when we first arrived) and we sat there anyway. Thankfully the couple on the other end was almost finished and they didn’t mind sharing a few of their 4 extra seats for the 15 min they were still seated.

What a mess.

Oh, by the way, so many open tables from 7:30pm on. Seating us before 9pm was absolutely never a problem. Carl was just...

My son's favorite restaurant wherever we travel. However, I'm not a fan. Our meal tonight was underwhelming. First of all, Brittany, our server, took about 15 minutes to arrive at our table, and only after checking on her other tables first, who had apparently already been there for a while. They were clearly her people. When she arrived, she was friendly, took our order and quickly left. It was another ten minutes to get our drinks. Then about 40 minutes to get our food. The booth was cold, with cold air blasting down on us from the vent situated directly above us.

The food finally arrived, but one of the dishes was incorrect, which I informed Brittany. She scooped up everything quickly, including all the sides, and disappeared with a comment that I should have been cleaner when I ordered. As if it were my fault the food came out wrong.

We then waited another 15 minted, after which someone different brought out our food. We never saw Brittany again until at the very end when she was again only serving 'her people' and I had to grab her attention to pay and leave. She was very cute with us, and quickly walked away.

And now for the food. If you've made it this far, this is most important bit. The dish which had arrived incorrectly came looking fine, but I suspected that it was the same plate, but with all the gravy that had smothered the dish previously. I believe it had been put back on the grill, then tossed around with water to rinse the gravy off. That prevented them from starting over. Great. However, little did they know that doing so on a hot grill creates "micro-bubbles" throughout the meat as the water sizzles on the grill. And filling up with all these "micro-bubbles" creates gas. Lots of it.

I awoke about 2am with sever stomach pain. I thought I was going to puke. I sat in bed, doubled over in pain, waiting for the acid to start crawling up my throat, signaling the arrival of a session at the porcelain throne.

I sat in the bathroom awaiting the same fate, but it never came. After an hour, I finally gave up. I went back to bed. And then I farted. And farted again. I farted all night. And these weren't just any farts. These were long, full, and loud. I have never farted like that before. And each time, my stomach pain slightly lessened. After a while, the pain mostly subsided. I had had severe gas. And it was from all the "micro-bubbles" from my evening dinner.

TL:DR I don't recommend this location of Texas Roadhouse. Service was poor, food was bad, and the gas was expensive. Physically and...

I would give 0 stars if I could. My family had a reservation here to celebrate one of our graduates. Upon arriving I informed the hostess that I was there for a reservation and was told “You can walk around and see if you can find them”. I asked if the party had already been seated and the hostess replied again “Yeah you can go see if you can find them”. Oh I should have known that this was a reflection of how we old be treated the entire visit. Upon being seated the waitress took our drink orders, she was pleasant and courteous. More of our party arrived and sat in a booth behind us. The manager came to the section and seated a couple in the booth on the opposite side of us. He then proceeded to tell my family members that they could not sit in the booth yet he did not hesitate to continue seating other patrons in areas directly next to, behind, or across from us. As a manager you would think that a party of 25 would want to sit together! No? The manager continued to ask us to play musical chairs stating that we could not sit together. Well what is the purpose of having a reservation if you can’t sit with one another? The manager was rude, short with us and just incompetent. We decided that it was time to leave as the manager was not trying to come up with a solution that would allow us to all dine together.He was perfectly fine with allowing a party of 25 paying customers leave without being serviced. The staff was very nice and apologized for his behavior so they were not the problem with the exception of the hostess. I would recommend that both she and her manager have additional training in customer service.I’m not sure what the manager’s issue was but it was a horrible experience and no one in my family will be returning. If he doesn’t like black peoples he should have just said that! This was a terrible terrible experience. The manager treated us like we were less than trash and was happy to have us leave. If this is the caliber of people Texas Roadhouse has to represent their company they should start preparing to be out...