LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Smyrna

The service is always lovely once you get past the host stand, but the pandemic has wreaked havoc on this location, in terms of staff availability and quality of cooking.

When we started eating here about two years ago, we were very impressed with our meals. We always order(ed) ribeye and it was always cooked perfectly. The sides were delicious and also cooked well.

We have continued to come here often, but after our most recent experience we will finally be looking for a new steakhouse to frequent. Too many times now, I’ve clearly ordered a medium rare steak and explained what I mean by medium rare, was assured that my steak would be medium rare, and then served a medium to medium-plus steak, which for me is absolutely inedible given how dry and tough it is. This is always very disappointing, especially given how much effort I put into communicating exactly what I want.

We’ve talked about it many times, and we suspect that the pre-pandemic cooks have been replaced, and that the new cooks may be more comfortable cooking meat that is well done, or at least overcooked, perhaps due to some cultural differences…?? Or maybe just plain old inexperience! This is true, for example, in my husband‘s family, where any protein is always cooked about three times longer than I would like. Everything comes out extremely dry and tough, and that’s how the older folks in his culture like to eat their meat. So, perhaps this is some thing that is reflected in the back of house staff at this time. I’m not sure. I really think it’s one, the other, or both.

What I know for sure is that the prices have gone up, the quality of the food has gone down, my vegetables are always over cooked, my steak is always over cooked, and there aren’t enough delicious margaritas in the world to make up for that. The margaritas are good, BTW.:-)

I almost forgot… As if all of that over cooking weren’t bad enough, my husband indulged himself in a lava cake the last time we went, and he and my daughter dug through the entire cake, only to find… It was overcooked, too!! No “lava,” not one bit. They were very sad that night.

I’m really sad to say that I do believe Longhorn is starting a long, slow decline, and probably won’t make it back to where they were pre-pandemic. It’s really unfortunate, because when the food is cooked properly, it’s always absolutely delicious. The seasoning on the steaks is fantastic, the quality of the steaks is very decent for the price, and the baked potatoes are good. But it’s impossible to justify paying them $100 for a party of three, and spending half the meal complaining about how we can’t eat the overcooked steaks, but we’ll cut them up and they’ll make good treats for the dogs. We are heading into a recession – this is just not justifiable...

I think Longhorn restaurants as a whole are fantastic, unfortunately, the location in Smyrna, Tennessee was one of the worst dining experiences we have had in a long time. Upon entering the restaurant my husband and i were greeted by two very rude hostesses that refused to allow us to sit at a booth in the bar area( even though there were only 8 people total in the restaurant). We were finally seated at a booth in the bar area ( after the hostesses extreme hesitation) . The waiter took our drink and appetizer order, but only brought water. Upon reviewing the menu we discovered that no prime rib was listed. We asked our waiter if they served it and were told it was only on the dinner menu and if we ordered it that it would be more expensive. We said fine and requested dinner menus. After an extended amount of time waiting on our drinks and dinner menus the waiter came back and asked if he could take our order. My husband said "you were supposed to bring our drinks and dinner menus". Our waiter said " i have asked the bartender twice for your drinks and she has broomed me twice saying she was on her cellphone and she would get to it when she was ready". At that point my husband asked if he could speak to the manager and our waiter said "NO". Then he walked off. Upon returning to the table...this time with dinner menus..and finally...drinks...my husband asked to have the check. The waiter seemed unbelievably surprised that we were not going to order entrees. We had finished our drinks and waiting another extended amount of time for him to bring our check. Upon receiving the bill...$34.64.. For 2 beers and an appetizer..my husband handed the waiter a $100 bill, to which the waiter asked, " do you need change"? My husband replied. " do you think? ? ". Then we waited another extended amount of time for him to bring our change. At this point the bartender approached our table asking if we wanted another drink. We said no thank you.. and that we were leaving....she made a comment in a very snide tone that we could not make out as she walked away. Our advice is to avoid this location as there are my other fine restaurant s in Smyrna that do value...

The food is always good and consistent. On July 11, 2024 we called in to place an order for pickup at 9:05. They close at 10, so you would think calling almost an hour before closing is enough time to place and have an order made for pickup, not even dine in. We were on hold for about 20 minutes, in the middle of which there was an answer from someone that said “please hold” and we continued to be on hold. and we were very close by at the target across the street so we decided to go ahead and go in. By that time of course it was 5:25. We came in and we were told to order at the bar for pickup. Understandable. The bartender was rude. Her name was Christiana B I believe as that was the name on our receipt. Immediately she said “once 9:30 hits you all decide to come in” I let her know that we called in ahead but were told to wait on hold and were still on hold as we were standing there. She was making comments about us walking in to order to the other customers sitting at the bar. For example, “if this was half an hour ago I would be fine but not at this time.” “I’m going to scream.” It was extremely unprofessional and humiliating to be talking about us in that way to other customers at the bar when we were clearly right there in front of her and in front of them. We could hear everything and they could see who we were. It was embarrassing. She said she would take our order this time but that she would not do it again. Very dry and obviously bothered. I get that might be her humor, but it is inappropriate to have that demeanor not only towards us, but also about us to other customers in our presence. Maybe she had a bad day and had low staff. In that case, please hire enough staff to better the service experience and for the sake of your employees mental health. I don’t think it’s fair to let out your bad mood on other people even if you did have a bad day. Noteworthy to say that we are Mexican and she was speaking to the other white people at the bar about us. We've been coming here for years and love it but being treated this way was disappointing. Especially involving other people into...