Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Lawrence

Last night we had dinner at the Lawrence Texas Roadhouse restaurant. The chain was founded in Clarksville, Indiana with corporate headquarters in Louisville, KY. We are not surprised that this faux Texas chain has been sued many times. It was the worst dining experience we have had in many years. We will not return.

We arrived at around 4:30 pm on Saturday night. We asked to be seated in a booth along the back wall, as we always have done in the past. In fact, booth 332 had been our favorite. A hostess walked us to the back of the restaurant and tried to seat us at a non-booth table along a different wall. We refused the table. There were three empty tables along the back wall, so we walked to one of those tables and seated ourselves. While reading the menu in preparation to order, a hostess came to our table and asked us to move to the corner table 336. She said they had no servers available for the table we had chosen. Table 336 is one of the most undesirable tables in the restaurant, crowded into a corner with other close tables on both sides. There is no privacy at that table and limited room for a server to get to the table in that crowded noisy location. We moved to that table as told.

As soon as we had moved to that crowded corner table, we saw people being seated at the three available tables along the back wall. Obviously we had been lied too. Clearly there was a server for those tables. As a Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, I am not accustomed to being lied to and mistreated. My wife and I were not happy.

We were served at 4:38 pm, according to the check we were given. We ordered the Rattlesnake Bites Appetizer, the Grilled Shrimp dinner (my wife), and the Grilled Salmon dinner (me). It was so noisy in that crowded corner booth that it was difficult to order, but I ordered a Caesar Salad with my Salmon dinner. The server brought out a house salad and left it on the table for me. When she returned, I told her I ordered a Caesar Salad, not the house salad. She smiled in a manner indicating that she recalled that I had ordered a Caesar Salad. She asked if I wanted the house salad replaced with a Caesar Salad. I said yes. She removed the house salad and brought a Caesar Salad. If she knew I had ordered a Caesar Salad, why did she try to get me to accept a house salad?

When we were nearly finished with dinner, a manager came to our table and asked whether everything was OK. My wife said yes. Not wanting to disagree with my wife, I said nothing, but I noticed that she had eaten almost none of her dinner. I asked her why. She said she did not know why, but she just was not hungry. Clearly, she did not want to complain about what was really bothering her.

When I had finished my dinner, and my wife had eaten almost nothing, I asked the server to bring boxes, so we could box my wife’s food to go. The server returned with three boxes. She just handed the boxes to us. She could have offered to help with boxing my wife’s food, and she certainly should have put the boxes down on the table. But she could not put the boxes on that table, since there was nowhere on the table to place the boxes. The table was covered with dishes, including the empty appetizer dish and my empty dinner dishes. She should have cleared the empty dishes from the table, but she did not.

My wife was upset about trying to box her dinner without anywhere on the table to place the three boxes. I called the server back and asked her to clear the empty plates from the table, which she should have done without having been asked. When asked, she did clear the empty dishes from the table, so my wife could box her dinner to go.

When we got home, my wife told me she had been very unhappy all evening at that restaurant, because of how we were treated there. She said she did not know why we had been lied to about the availability of a server at the three available tables along the back wall where we had asked to be seated. She asked me to write a negative...

I honestly don't know why it has such great reviews. Yes, the bread is fantastic, but it doesn't make up for the rest of the menu. On my first visit, wait time was around 15 minutes. Enjoyed some of the spelled peanuts they have available near the entrance. It was busy, but not an extremely busy night. Our server, brought drinks in a timely manner, took our order and after tasting the famous bread, I thought the rest of the food was going to be great... But nope! The steak ordered was overcooked even that the Server explains the different steak temperatures available. My steak was chewy and seemed like it was steamed and grilled later or left under a lamp for a long time... My friend's pulled pork sandwich had a vinagre flavor to it and was not tasty at all. Not even my kids chicken wings were crispy. The steak fries were saggy and the cheese on them seemed like it was microwaved. Not a good experience. On the second visit... yes! I decided to give it another chance per my father-in-law's request... the same thing happened. I ordered a different cut of steak and again the same experience... Saggy steak, overcooked, tasteless fries. Told the server about my steak and her response was to apologize and offer to change my dish for something else. Requested to have the steak replaced for something fresh. The new steak came over, again overcooked.. Requested a to-go box and the check. I was charged for the steak the Server offered to replace. Did not want to complain any more, paid and left. Not coming back. It is sad that this place is one of the only steak houses left in Lawrence.

The bread was...

I give a 1 star review because of one particular waitress. I have never been spoken to so rudely by a server before. I am completely mortified and was so embarrassed. The service she provided was not up to standard or satisfactory. We were there for about an hour and half, she only came to the table twice! Other servers around her section were bringing our food out. We ordered an appetizer as well and she never brought it out, we wanted to ask her, but she was no where to be found. Our food was undercooked. We sent it back. Again, it was another server who took the food back to the kitchen to be remade. When the food was brought back it was way over cooked. But things happen, I get kitchen gets busy. My husband had to get up and go searching through the restaurant to find anyone who can help us. “Our” waitress finally came back and we told her the food is over cooked and we would like to just start fresh, and that’s when she became so rude and defensive. Telling me that I was completely wrong while raising her voice and being very snotty. Our friends were completely mortified by the whole situating and clearly we could see other tables looking at us. She walked away and never came back to our table. Didn’t bring a check to our friends. After waiting for a while we paid on the pad and left. On top of that our friends drove from Leavenworth to eat here. And since the waitress never came back they couldn’t get any to go boxes for their left over steak and pulled pork. The dining experience was ruined for all four of us. And their ten year old child had to witness...