Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Statesboro

We are her 10/31, and had a wonderful experience, as we’ve had since they’ve opened. We went back 11/1, and we joined the waitlist online as we always do. 1 hour & 10 minutes to 1 hour & 20 minute wait time which is expected on a Friday night at 5:40 in the evening. So we wait in the car with our small children. We receive a text at 6:51 telling us to quickly gather our party and come to the host stand. We do, and are placed on deck #2. Then moved up to deck #1. After 15 minutes standing there, and watching other parties come in being seated that are similar in size or bigger, we ask to see a manager. Jessica is who came out, and she wanted to argue first that we had not been standing there 15 minutes because she “was just out here like five minutes ago helping them” . I told her we had been, showed her the message time and told her we had not even seen her, then told her that I wasn’t trying to argue I was simply trying to find out why we had to wait so long and explain what was going on, that we had never had this issue. She proceeded with “well it’s a waiting list not a reservation so you have to wait.” I told her that we understand that they do not do reservations, and I never claimed to have a reservation. I had eaten at this restaurant several times since they’ve opened and at the Pooler location more times than anyone can count, but that we were trying to find out why we were being skipped. She proceeded again to say “AGAIN, it isn’t a reservation so I’m not sure what you are wanting me to do? Would you like for me to go look because I still won’t be able to tell you anything else.” I told her that she was very rude and did not have very good management skills. As she walked off to walk up to the counter she turned to me in my face and said “LOOSE IT” and kept walking. As it’s very loud in there I had to yell because she continued to walk away and said/asked “excuse me, what did you say?” . Jessica turns around yelling back across people “I SAID LOOSE IT”. Then she proceeds to come back and says “like I told you it’s a waitlist not a reservation and you’ll be seated when we have something available”. I told her and pointed to a table and told her this plus other tables were just opened and these people were seated over us. She says “that one is a seven top and I’m not going to seat 5 people at the table”. I tried to explain to her we’ve sat there before with five people, but there were also other tables I was talking about other than that one table. She says “what are you not understanding?! You’re on a waitlist not a reservation, there’s no tables open, do you not comprehend this?” I told her again this was ridiculous and she had absolutely no management skills at all. There was an older gentleman and his wife that had been behind us listening and watching how she was acting in front of everyone plus my small children. He stepped up to say something, but his wife didn’t want the retaliation. Then as they went by us the older gentleman did stop and say “tell her you want a four top that’s what we just did and they have them open”. I told him thank you so much, turned to Jessica and said that we wanted a four top that my two year old could easily sit between my husband and I. At this point Jessica gets infuriated and starts pointing and yelling “GO! I WILL NOT SERVE YOU! YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO EAT AT TECAS ROADHOUSE ANYMORE! I AM REMOVING YOU NOW” and continuously motions us out, as we are walking out still telling us to go, as she walks up to the counter and removes us. I get a text saying she removed us as we are walking out. I stopped at the young lady out front to ask her for the regional or district managers number and the young lady said it’s inside I can go get it for you. I thanked her and as she turned to go in we both look up to see Jessica running out the door, yelling “GO GET OFF MY PROPETY! YOU ARE HARRASSING MY EMPLOYEE! GO!” I am runing out of room,Will have to...

If you're interested in trying out this new restaurant, I suggest doing it on a weekday and not during peak hours. I'm sure our experience would've been much better if it wasn't a Saturday night, but it was my mom's birthday and she really wanted to try it out. We called ahead and were told at around 5:15pm that the wait time was already nearing TWO HOURS. We persisted, and showed up with our party of six at the appropriate time.

Then, after ordering, it took another hour and a half to get our food. I'm guessing parts of it were ready to come out long before others, because when we received it some folks said their meals were fresh while myself and my sister weren't so fortunate. My salmon was very dry and tough, as was her steak. The green beans and steamed veggies were not very well seasoned. The rolls, however, were wonderful and worth all the hype. I'm pregnant, so I didn't get any alcoholic drinks, but my parents did and said they were very tasty.

A tip for those with little ones- be sure to avoid coming with small children. It's very loud and overstimulating in there. By the time we were through, my sister's 8-month-old was screaming (overtired, because dinner lasted over two hours and bled into his bedtime) and it was so loud in there that he was probably overwhelmed. My three year old was also exhausted and crawling all over me because she was out of sorts. We anticipated being a little later getting them home, but we had no clue the food would take that long after factoring in the wait to be seated.

If you, like me, are very heavily pregnant or have physical limitations, please know that the straight-back booths will be quite painful after sitting in them for a long period of time. By the end of the meal, I was in so much pain I think I would've paid any amount just to be able to get up and walk out of there. Again, this probably won't be an issue if you don't visit on a weekend, but just a heads up in case this is something that might apply to your situation.

Our waitress was initially very accommodating, but towards the end of the meal she became more scattered. She dropped off the checks and just... never returned? We figured out that we could pay using the kiosk on the table, but an expectation that we'd handle the checks without her help was never communicated and left us feeling weird about the whole thing.

Anyway, my honest takeaway was that this establishment certainly has potential, and perhaps we caught them on an off night, but I wish we'd come around 4pm if we'd known it would take that long to be seated and served. I'd recommend visiting during non-peak times for a better experience, but overall I wasn't impressed enough to want...

Long review. Sorry. I used to go to the Texas Roadhouse in Pooler all the time. Never had any issues. We came to this one in Statesboro for the first time this past weekend and was a little disappointed in how the workers at the front treated us. Story time: We got there around 4pm and got on the waitlist for 3 adults and 1 baby (8 months old). We waited about 20 minutes, which isn’t bad at all! When we went inside, my husband was only 5 minutes away as he was meeting us there after work. They told us they could not sit us until the full party was there. Makes sense and I was fine with that being he was close. My friend and I had a seat WITH THE BABY in hand, and my husband arrives. We go back up to the front, and the lady up there was so rude to us saying they could no longer accommodate our table because we told them “3 people” when it was actually “4.” We told them the baby was sitting in our lap and that we told the lady outside that we would have “3 adults and 1 baby.” She continued being snarky saying “so 4 people…. Not 3.” I would reply “3 Adults.. and an INFANT that is sitting in our lap.” We went back and forth for about 3-4 minutes. She acted like it was a game to her to make us feel dumb. After I stopped talking and sat down to wait on another table, her friends came up and they started talking and looking over at us sitting on the bench. We finally got a table and they asked if we needed a high chair so I said yes, and asked for an in-booth one. After sitting at the table for 10 minutes, a waitress finally comes up and gets our orders/brings us rolls. 15 more minutes go by and we still didn’t have a high chair. Which was fine because the baby could just sit in our lap. However, when we asked for one, the waitress kindly brought it and told us how she feels like there is no communication with her fellow employees. And started apologizing for our inconvenience. I wish I would have gotten her name because I felt so bad for her. You could tell she was super stressed.

I normally don’t write many reviews and especially on a restaurant that I enjoy going to (in pooler.) but I will willingly make the drive to pooler instead of this one and I hate to say that. I am 22 years old so I’m in with the college-age employees. However, they do need to learn that first impressions are EVERYTHING and when you make it seem like you hate your job or you’re being rude to customers, you lose people. I hope the management sees this and considers having the young women sitting at the front like that in a gaggle...