LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Maine Township

Used to frequent the Des Plaines location more than my local Longhorn closer to the city. Decided to treat my daughter to a nice meal on a Friday after school and decided to take the longer drive to dine here, service used to be really exceptional.

We got in around 5pm so the place wasn’t packed. The hostess seemed a bit dismissive and not very friendly when greeting and escorting us to our table. Which felt weird since the guest before us were white and the engagement was more cordial, not sure if us being Hispanic had any bearing on the situation but it felt that way. We were kind of just pushed off to the last booth in the entire restaurant next to the bathrooms and there was a strong, pungent odor of urine in the area. Me and my daughter both kept asking each what that smell was. Mind you half the restaurant was empty and we were prob the only Hispanics in there, so it felt extra biased. Regardless we ordered some drinks, appetizers, and some steaks and lamb chops. Food arrived promptly. We’re eating our meals and I thought I saw something moving on my daughters plate, I asked her to move her utensils from the plate and sure enough there was a bug/vermin crawling under her fries. We immediately stopped. I’m almost positive this vermin came from the bathroom area where they keep brooms and cleaning equipment out in the open. We didn’t make a big deal or cause a scene. We quietly waited for our waiter to stop by and showed him the plate. He immediately removed it and sent the manager over. We were not looking for a comp or handout, when offered a replacement meal we politely declined and opted to just pay our tab. The manager seemed very impetuous about it, like there’s no possible way that his kitchen would be in that type of condition, almost as if accusing us. If there is a strong urine smell outside the bathroom and if the bathroom itself is unkept and reeks badly inside……then that can only tell me what the areas in the back of the house where patrons aren’t allowed to enter must smell like and how unsanitary the conditions must be. Totally unprofessional and unsanitary. Extremely disappointed and hurt by the experience we had at our favorite chain steakhouse. Do better Des Plaines...

Completely underwhelmed. My server took over 45 minutes to even come over, a manager or some woman, came and took our drink order. I ordered a perfect, (it's a margarita) when she brought it to my table and poured it, it was orange. Considering this is my drink of choice and has been for a decent amount of time, I know, without a doubt, when it's made properly what it should look like. Lime green. It's also served with limes on it. After telling her that wasnt correct she insisted I taste it to make sure. I obliged her since apparently she didnt hold her staff to any standards and felt better calling a customer a liar. After removing the orange slices from across the top, and tasting it (oranges) I told her again it was incorrect. She had the bartender remake it, which I'm certain annoyed them because even though the correct color was poured before me. There wasnt a trace of alcohol in it. So dissapointing. But wait...there's more. Again my server still hadnt come over, and the manager lady asked if we'd like an appetizer. I wanted the loaded fries, with NO jalapeno. She repeated it back to me. When they came out, there were Jalapenos all over it. The silver lining was the gentleman who brought it out, quickly righted the wrong and had the kitchen redo the entire plate and not just pick them off. But wait... There's more. About 15 minutes after ordering our appetizer our server finally came over, and asked if we were ready to order! I politely suggested that since we had already ordered our appetizer perhaps we should wait to receive it, and eat some of it before ordering so our food didnt arrive prematurely. 😑 Perhaps someone should have trained her better. I ordered a pitiful steak that I could only eat a few bites of. I ordered my temperature well done. I cut into the end of the steak, not even the middle, and it was bright red in the middle. Not raw, but certainly not what I asked for. I didnt bother sending it back, we've all seen waiting, and this entire place had already shown me every reason they were not capable of fulfilling anyone's orders correctly. I'll take outback over longhorn any day. And I'll never be back...

Tonight my boyfriend and I stopped in for dinner before touring the night life in Chicago. From the moment we walked into this Longhorn we were greeted by the hosts Joldes Sarah and Joldes who just so happen to be sisters. We were told the wait would be 20 minutes for a booth which was fine.

While waiting for our table, we noticed these two beautiful ladies checking people in, seating parties of 2 or more, busting tables etc. Thank you ladies for your hard work!

Once seated, we were greeted by our server Alex. We were ready to order because we were just stopping in for a quick bite to eat. I ordered a New York Strip, (medium) mashed potatoes and Caesar salad. My boyfriend ordered a T-bone steak (medium rare) sweet potato and a Caesar salad. Alex did an excellent job explaining the temperatures of the steak not knowing that I am a server and my boyfriend is a chef! That made me smile because that was the first time a server at a longhorn double checked to make sure that was the color temperature we wanted our steaks. At the end of our service Alex brought my boyfriend out a “birthday Sunday.” The hosts stopped by and sang happy birthday. Thank you Alex for a great dinner service.

• Restaurant highlight*

I absolutely have to give a big shout out to the restaurant manager Jesus Gonzales. While myself and my boyfriend were dining we noticed and took in account that Jesus was not just the manager he was a full service package. Mr. Gonzales was witnessed vacuuming floors, seating tables, busting tables, serving tables and lastly checking in with customers to ensure they were having a great service. Mr. Gonzales I applaud you and your team for a great dinner service tonight. The night was busy and everyone worked together in order to have a smooth...