Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Manhattan

I recently had a disappointing experience at the Texas Roadhouse in Manhattan, KS, and I feel compelled to share my feedback through a 1-star review. My primary reason for the negative rating is the poor service provided by the restaurant's manager, Ariel, who appeared to lack the necessary skills to manage the restaurant effectively. The restaurant was some what busy when we arrived, but we didn't expect to wait for more than an hour just to be seated and prepared separately. This was especially disappointing as we were celebrating my daughter's birthday and my sister's first time dining here, who came all the way from California. We had made a reservation earlier in the day and were looking forward to a pleasant dining experience, but the long wait and poor service ruined our mood. When we finally got seated, we noticed that several other parties who had arrived after us were seated before us. We brought this to the attention of Ariel, who seemed indifferent to our concerns and offered no explanation or apology for the delay. She appeared to be more interested in chatting with her colleagues than attending to her customers' needs. It's clear that Ariel lacks her scope of duties on how to manage the restaurant effectively. Her lack of communication skills and customer service skills were evident, and she appeared to be disinterested in our complaints. She could have easily acknowledged our concerns and offered some explanation or solution, but instead, she chose to ignore us and focus on other things. In conclusion, my experience at the Texas Roadhouse in Manhattan, KS, was disappointing and frustrating. The long wait, poor service, and lack of attention from the staff ruined what could have been a pleasant dining experience. I hope that the restaurant management takes note of our feedback and takes steps to improve the service quality, especially when it comes to hiring competent and customer-oriented managers. As a customer, I expect to be treated with respect and attentiveness, and I did not receive that at this restaurant. I will not be returning and would not recommend it to others.

Update1: Despite the negative experience I had at the Texas Roadhouse in Manhattan, KS, I must give credit to our server who did an excellent job. He was attentive and friendly, and he worked hard to make sure we had a good experience. Despite the poor service from the manager, he made us feel welcome and valued as customers. Thank you Cortin

Update 2: 12-30-2024 Despite the negative experience from last year, today we had an amazing experience. We were greeted by Stella and Dominic, who were both very attentive and excellent managers! I also had Kare as my server, and she did an amazing job of being both attentive and friendly. Despite the poor service from a year ago with Ariel, this new crew has definitely shown the right training and...

This may have been the worst dining experience I've had in MHK, and I've lived here since I was a teenager, so that's saying something. It was my first time there and I didn't know how seating worked -- they give you a ticket and you go stand in line next to the raw steak display until someone comes to get you. The hostess mumbled, however, and even after I asked her to repeat herself, she still mumbled. Apparently no one could hear her because three tables worth of people were standing up around the entrance wandering around, looking irritated and confused, no one helping them and getting bumped into by patrons trying to get to the peanut barrel by the door. I know one manager was up there looking around at what was basically chaos, why didn't he do anything? Is it like this all the time?

Our waitress was really pushy, wanting us to order immediately even though she saw that we'd only just found the menus and hadn't even opened them yet. She said she'd give us one minute to decide and she wasn't joking -- 60 seconds later she was there, demanding our orders. Husband got the sirloin, rice and green beans, which he'd had as a catered order at his job a few weeks ago and loved. He liked his order today just fine. I got the sirloin, shrimp, green beans and loaded baked potato.

The steak was inedible. I pulled three bites out of my mouth before giving up entirely. I didn't get a chance to say anything because just as I was cutting my first bite of steak, the waitress asked if we wanted dessert! We'd had our entrees maybe two minutes at that point. She was obviously done with us and gave us our check. It was well after the waitress had washed her hands of us that I realized my steak was inedible. After my third inedible bite of steak, which I'd tried as discreetly as possible to hide under a dinner roll that was on my plate, someone showed up out of nowhere, stared as I gave my husband the rest of my steak, then demanded if anything was wrong. We both actually jumped because we didn't even see her approach, just all of a sudden got halfway yelled at by someone we'd never seen before (and who wasn't wearing the same Texas Roadhouse polo shirt I'd seen a manager wearing earlier). We said no, we were just going to pay in a few minutes and go, and she said okay and THEN told us she was a manager. I wish I'd said something but I was so rattled and angry at that point I knew I'd risk being rude. My husband meanwhile couldn't get more than one decent bite out of the rest of my steak I'd given him.

I'm leaving two stars on the review instead of one because my husband's order was fine, and the shrimp and baked potato were good. But the biggest problems were that the staff were either actively hostile or disinterested, the place was disorganized, and the steak was...

I've always loved Roadhouse. It was our go to for special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, but unfortunately our past few experiences have just been so disappointing. Most recently we got food to go and had things missing. We ordered an extra 1/2 dozen rolls-didn't get them. This was not the first time that happened (and you do pay extra for those). We did not get our kids milk with the meal. Smaller things-we did not get the honey mustard that was supposed to come with the chicken, I had asked for regular butter with the rolls and I got a tiny dab compared to what the honey butter came in. To be fair it didn't even matter I guess since we didn't get the extra rolls. The steak fries with the critters meal consisted of maybe 5 whole fries and the rest were small pieces/barely any. And the mac and cheese was just...well you can see. Was also supposed to have parm cheese baked on top and didn't. Not to mention everything was COLD because we kept getting "your food is not ready" texts and finally when I went up to the counter because it had been way past the time they said it would be and lo and behold our order was sitting there. Who knows for how long. I told the guy at the window their text system must not be working and he said "oh hmmm weird." When I called a manager got on the line and I told her what happened she took my email and said someone would get back with me. What struck me was when I explained she did not apologize. I do think its customary to get an 'I'm so sorry lets make this right'. Look, I KNOW how busy they get especially at dinner time, I've worked service jobs and I give slack. But this was the 4th time we've had issues so at this point its just a recurring theme. They even HIGHLIGHTED the things on the receipt on the bag and still missed them! The reason I'm giving 3 instead of 2 stars is because I called again 3 days later and the service manager Aaron(sp?) was FINALLY someone who listened, apologized, and helped and got things taken care of. I literally only wanted refunded for the rolls but they refunded the whole meal. Texas Roadhouse for me has become a fast food steak place. Which is...