LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Norwood

I took my other half out for dinner this evening, his choice of restaurants was Longhorn Steakhouse in Rookwood Commons Shopping Center. We arrived close to the dinner rush hours, so we chose to sit at a bar area table and were immediately greeted by a charming waitress. She took our drink orders and brought them just before she brought the usual offering of bread and butter.

Longhorn Steakhouse does a great job picking different and fresh breads to munch on while deciding what you’d like to order for your entree's. While our waitress was excellent- in that she was friendly, efficient, and helpful- the entire meal went wrong from that point on.

We ordered a Texas Tonion (their version of battered fried onion) as a starter and it was the only thing that arrived correctly, other than the drinks—which were bottled. It was warm enough and was served with plenty of dipping sauce.

We ordered salads and our dinners, he ordered the New York Strip with a baked potato garnished with butter and sour cream. I ordered the Red rock grilled shrimp with maple roasted spaghetti squash. We ordered two hand chopped salads, one Caesar and one mixed greens. The mixed greens salad was ordered with balsamic dressing. I’m still not sure what kind of dressing they brought me, all I tasted was back pepper- no balsamic. Two bites into the salad and a food runner was attempting to serve us two wrong meals.

We informed the food runner that we had not ordered the Longhorn Steakhouse grilled salmon with mashed potato or the fire grilled T-bone with mashed potatoes and broccoli while he looked at us with utter disbelief and confusion. We also stated that the entrees should arrive as we finish our salads, not start them. The food runner looked pained and asked, “What do you want me to do with them?” I almost laughed. He set the food down, took the offensively bright green broccoli away and returned to the kitchen.

I caught the eye of an obviously experienced waitress and signaled that I needed to speak with her. She politely waited for me to speak and I told her that these dishes were not what we had ordered. She nodded towards the kitchen and said, “Yes, they just figured that out.” She apologized while taking the dishes away.

We finished our adequate salads of tiny-cut but fresh vegetables and our ordered food arrived carried by our waitress as the food runner served the rejected dishes to the table next to us. Forgive me if I am not up to speed with the current state of affairs at chain restaurants but if I were the table next to me, I would have refused to take food that had been served to another table before coming to mine. That’s just disgusting. Especially since I had sneezed when the salmon had been placed before me with its abundantly peppered finish.

My maple roasted spaghetti squash was nowhere to be seen, instead I had been given a small bowl of something that looked like over boiled creamed spinach topped with bread crumbs that had been lightly flavored by Parmesan cheese. It was rather tasteless and an unimaginative way to serve spinach. Even though we were seated 10 feet from the kitchen, I was unable to get the attention of anyone on the wait staff until I had decided I was finished with the standard fare, obviously boxed rice pilaf and a few of the shrimp. The steak arrived slightly rarer than expected but was good. The ‘baked’ potato appeared to have been shelled, mashed, and refilled. It was garnished with one tiny bacon bit.

As my partner was finishing off his steak, after deciding to avoid the obvious disaster that would have followed a request for a steak that mooed less, the waitress arrived with more bread and I requested a to go box for my remaining shrimp. When I pointed out that I had not received the squash, she brought that for me in a requested to go box.

I tipped the waitress twenty percent because I realized that the reason why we had been served our meals incorrectly… twice, was due entirely to the kitchen staff. The...

I realize Longhorn is not a high end steakhouse, but it's not cheap either. At roughly 30 bucks a plate, one expects a certain level of quality of service, in food, and in decor. This particular location failed to adequately deliver on any of these.

The whole experience reeks of mismanagement. Our waitress was nice, but harried and unapologetic when informing me that the Rib Eye I wanted was not available, which tells me that she has in her career there, had to deliver disappointing news so often that she has trouble caring anymore. It took nearly 15 minutes after being seated before we were asked for our order and at least another 10 minutes till we were served our drinks. Our dinner arrived another 15 minutes later.

When I received the 30 dollar New York Strip I ordered, it was awful. Nearly fifty percent fat and gristle, poorly seasoned, and not cooked to the specifications I requested (medium rare.) Definetly not even close to being a 30 dollar cut of beef. The sides I ordered were fine. My sweet potato was very good, but the crispy brussel sprouts were too oily.

The decor is out of date, but not so far that it becomes kitsch and therefore charming. It feels like little reinvestment has been made in the property. The restrooms are in desperate need of an update.

Full disclosure: We arrived on the night of Black Friday several hours before closing time, but the restaurant was...

I would like to say this was my favorite place to eat until this evening!! There have been times I’ve eaten here 2-3 times in the same week however I will NEVER EAT here again!! I order two 6oz filet dinners cooked medium, when the plates were served we cut some pieces off the steak after the first piece was so difficult to chew I spit it out on the plate and noticed the steak was like medium rare told the waitress she took away both steaks on the same plate with the chewed up pieces and about 8-10 minutes later the manager Austin returned with two plates new potatoes yet the same steak that I had chewed and spit out in the plate when asked did he really just serve me the same steak I chewed and spit out he said Yes that’s how we do things around here need I say less that is the most absurd and disgusting thing I’ve ever heard the place was packed so now the entire restaurant was served steaks cooked on the same grill that he cooked my chewed up steak on Covid is on the rise yet again and this place cooks and reserves chewed up steak not only to say that there was two of us eating so once the steaks were whisked away we had no way of telling who’s steak was who’s again disgusting!!🤮 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮I should’ve not paid this bill at all he took off one of the dinners very very poor management skills I also should’ve let it be known what was going on to the...