LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Orlando

TL;DR - 4 stars, Niko was great. Skip the bar, get it to-go from Niko.

I know this place is kinda new, but they should be past the "I'm too new to know how to do my job correctly" phase that all new chain restaurants go through.

Upon sitting at the bar I waited at least two minutes to be acknowledged by bar staff. There was also key person or assistant manager that came over to assist the couple directly beside me, though he didn't acknowledge that I was sitting there with no menu, no drink, no silverware roll-up, and no bill. Just a customer sitting at the bar with nothing in front of them.

As soon as Niko returned to the to-go station from gathering an order, he greeted me and gave me the bewildered "have you been helped?" look along with the corresponding question. He then ran to get me a menu.

Niko was the one to greet me, got me a menu and utensils, took my order, checked on me and ran my credit card after it had been sitting waiting on the bar staff for nearly 5 min. The only thing he didn't do was make my drink and drop it off, nor did he run my food, but let's be honest, neither did the bar staff.

Also, as I was sitting right next to the to-go station I could overhear most of the conversations Niko had with arriving to-go customers. Niko was kind and courteous to every to-go customer, and even engaged them in conversation not about their Longhorn order (how's your day?...etc.).

As for the food, the chowder was really hot, which was better than being cold. Chowder had a decent amount of seafood in. Salad was dropped off a little soon, though. Steak on the salad was great; had a great flavor, and it was cooked correctly. Blue cheese dressing was a bit watery for my liking.

Niko was on top of things and was able to check on me after the main course was dropped off long before Krysten came by to check on me. I only know her name because it was on my bill. She never introduced herself or her bartender partner, and he never spoke to me either.

Aside from the bar staff's lack of attention, I have no complaints. Niko did GREAT, he checked on me twice long before the bar staff did.

Niko got tipped in cash with a twenty on a $30 bill. Bar staff got whatever my bill rounded up to.

Niko is...

This is the second Longhorn we've been to, there's one in our area and this one is about 25 minutes away. We wanted to try another one in case the one in Winter Garden where we live had a strange chef lol. Not a bad Chef just, well, a little different. However, this Longhorn was pretty much the same so I think the food must just be standard in all of them. The lunch specials are very well priced at $8.99 to $10.99 but the rest of the menu is very expensive. Anyway they have a buttermilk fried chicken sandwich and one side for $8.99. I have had it at both restaurants and it's a beautiful sandwich, very big very crispy and well fried with ranch dressing that's definitely housemaid and not out of a bottle. There's only one issue with it, it's like eating a salt lick lol. It's so salty I seriously have a hard time getting it down and could only eat about a quarter of it which is really depressing because if it weren't for the salt content it would honestly be the best chicken sandwich I've ever had. But my goodness the salt, yikes! You can get a bowl of soup as your side, I had a bowl of french onion soup which is very good, again too salty but not overwhelming like the sandwich. They also have a couple of entree salads like a strawberry and chicken salad or a seven pepper sirloin steak salad with blue cheese. They also come with a side, so you can get soup or a baked potato, baked sweet potato, bacon mac and cheese and a few others. They serve bread and butter and the bread is kind of sweet wheat bread it's also very good. Our servers at either restaurant have been excellent. Although I will say the hostess at this one near Fashion Square mall was not great. We were waiting for over 10 minutes and two servers came over and apologized and said they would send the hostess however she never came. She finally came over after the manager saw us and must have said something to her. She didn't apologize, she didn't explain it, she didn't have a smile, and she wasn't very nice. I would say she needs a new job not working with the public. But oh well, the server was a pleasure so no biggie. Anyway I would say it's a very nice place to go if they would just tone...

I called LongHorn Steakhouse early Monday afternoon today 8/11/2025 to follow up on a curbside complaint I submitted in their survey. My issue was that it took over 30 minutes past my scheduled pickup time to receive my order, and one of their employees marked it as “picked up” when it wasn’t.

When I spoke with the manager, Krystal, the conversation immediately became frustrating. Instead of apologizing or trying to understand what happened, she began poking holes in my story. It started with, “That’s weird this happened at 9 PM,” followed by, “Well, I wasn’t there to verify.” She then questioned whether I had the receipt, claiming they couldn’t validate an email. After I provided my check number, she still refused a refund and instead offered me a gift card, which I politely declined.

I even gave her a couple of suggestions on how she could have handled the situation—such as verifying why her employee was sending out batch orders instead of fulfilling them as they came in, and simply offering an apology to try and retain my business. Instead, she responded by accusing me of cursing at her, which was completely off guard and absurd, as that never took place.

Her tone was dismissive and unprofessional throughout the call. Rather than getting to the bottom of why my curbside order was late, why the wrong order was prepared, and why it was marked as picked up before I arrived, she focused on denying my refund request—even with valid proof. Only after I mentioned legal information did she finally agree to process a refund, stating it would take 7–10 business days.

For a $50 steak made incorrectly and such poor customer service, this experience was unacceptable. It’s disappointing that this location is part of the same restaurant family as Eddie V’s and Ruth’s Chris, yet handles customers this way. Needless to say, I will not be returning.

FYI I did notify Krystal I would be reporting her so this review should...