LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in Waterloo

The wife and I visited February 28th. for lunch. Excellent experience! Place wasn't too busy, so we got seated right away. Didn't take more than one minute for the server to come with menus and take our drink orders. When she came back with the drinks asked if we needed a few minutes to look over the menu...we did, so we ordered an appetizer for her to put in while we decided on our main dishes. We got the "Texas Tonion"; this was a BIG canoe shaped dish full of onion petals---man was that good, and lots of them. For our main dishes, the wife ordered an 8 oz. Sirloin (medium well), and Mashed Potatoes (no gravy...just butter)...she also added a Salad for an additional $2.99. The steak was a little closer to well than medium well which was o.k. by her because it was still tender and flavorful and she'd rather have it a bit over-done than under-done. The Mashed Potatoes she said where phenomenal...REAL potatoes, fluffy and full of flavor too. She said their was some kind of sour cream mixed in that she was pleasantly surprised by. The salad was decent too. Two kinds of lettuce, and a few other vegetables as well...she traded her red onions for my croutons as we always do. The wife said this was the best meal she's had in a restaurant in years. I ordered a full rack of Baby Back Ribs (always order full rack wherever I go so I can take half home), and Baked Potato with "plenty" butter and sour cream...I too opted for the $2.99 Salad 'add-on'. Ribs were spectacular! There's no other way to describe them. Just the right amount of sauce in my opinion, but they bring a little bowl of extra sauce in case you want more on them. Fall off the bone too...someone knows how to cook ribs. The Baked Potato was big, and cooked perfectly...I LOVE it when they bake salt onto the skin. My only issue with it was their idea of "plenty" when it comes to butter and sour cream. I guess I could have asked for more, but I was getting full enough so just ate about two-thirds of the potato, and there was enough to cover that. Felt the same way as the wife about the salad...it was decent. Service was perfect in my opinion; just enough visits back to the table to take care of our needs, not too many to be obtrusive, or too few to be needed. She did a great job and her tip reflected it. I also should mention the bread. You get this nice little loaf of some sort of whole-grain bread that was tasty as hell. It wasn't one of those whole-grains where you're constantly bite'n into seeds, just had a whole-grain texture. It was perfectly sweet, and the crust was somewhat crunchy and the inside tender and moist. It was delicious. What made this a four star experience rather than five is: 1). The beer choices are BORING! Every other restaurant in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area offers the same boring beer selections...a great meal and atmosphere like Longhorn Steakhouse offers deserves some harder to find Craft beers, and maybe offer at least ONE Stout. You know how much better Ribs are with a good creamy Stout? 2). The Salad as an "add-on". No; $6.00 extra for the two salads is not gonna break me...but you already only offer one side dish with the entree, you can at least throw in a salad, or offer a choice between salad or second side. The prices are comparable to other similar restaurants in the Cedar Valley and they all offer two sides with an entree---salad being one of your choices. Otherwise; yes...I agree with the wife, one of the best restaurant meals we've...

I don't typically leave reviews, but I felt this one was needed. Yesterday I brought my mom out for dinner because it was her birthday. We were seated right away because they weren't crazy busy.

Once we were seated, we greeted our waitress with a smile and asked how she was doing. We ordered our drinks. We waited for about a good 10 minutes for our drinks. We wrote it off as her being busy. After we got our drinks we ordered an appetizer and food. She asked if we wanted bread, we agreed and said yes.

As we were sitting there we noticed other people being seated in the same section. We waited for nearly 20 minutes for our appetizer. The other tables seated after us had gotten their bread, drinks, and appetizers while we waited. When we received our appetizer, it was room temperature and it was brought out by someone else. My mom and I didn't want to inconvenience the waitress, so we continued to make the best of it.

As we sat there still waiting on bread and and our main meal, we noticed the tables that were seated after us were being served their food. After 32 minutes of waiting and no one checking on us, our food finally came out...... by a different person. My burger was room temperature. My mom's food was somewhat warm. My son's chicken tenders was the hottest food on the table. I asked the young lady that brought the food out, if I could get the condiments I asked for with my order and she said she would grab it. I watched the young lady tell our waitress to bring our condiments out and she brought them out and placed them on the table and walked off.

Once we were done eating, my mom asked for a box to take her food home. We waited for 10 minutes before getting the box. After receiving the box, we politely asked for the ticket. After we received the ticket, I place cash in the folder for payment. When the young lady brought back my change, she slammed it on the table and said, "Have a good night!" Very rudely and rolled her eyes and went to the table behind us.

I'm not sure if this young lady was overwhelmed or had a bad day, but that was enough to make a decision to not return to the restaurant in the future. We always try our best to appreciate anyone who serves us because they are providing a service to us. We always try our best to never inconvenience anyone. We always tip well. We've never had a problem here until yesterday. I was prepared to give a $15 tip for the sake of it being my mother's birthday and the previous experiences we've had before. But we were very disappointed with the service and food. Although the young lady was not very friendly, I still tipped her $5.00. I hope the young lady has better days in the future and I hope the service experience is...

We've had some good times at various Longhorn Steakhouse locations, but the service at this location has not been as good as others as of late.

We had another visit a few weeks before this last one that left a bad taste in our mouths, but this last visit took the cake.

We had a very unpleasant dining experience because of a particularly peevish waiter and cantankerous manager.

Our orders were taking a bit longer than we expected they would, so we were playing with a simple toy car with our special needs child to distract him from the wait.

A waiter from a nearby table came over and abrasively told us entertaining our special needs toddler with the simple toy car was disruptive to another table, though the way he spoke to us about it, you would have thought he was the one with the complaint.

The manager was not at all interested in our side of the story, or how her waiter's abrasiveness had tainted our experience and instead only added to the unpleasantness by being short and abrasive herself - only claiming the waiter simply "didn't know better" and that the situation had been a "learning experience" for him, poorly attempting to remove any responsibility from him and herself.

There was no mystery as to why we had the toy car out; our order had not yet arrived for some time and it was clear from every corner of the restaurant our child was happy and having a good time - it should go without saying he deserves to enjoy himself just as much as everyone else, who clearly weren't struggling to give or recieve their orders, eat their meals, drink their beverages, enjoy their party's company, pay for their meals, tip their waiters or issue petty complaints.

The fact that keeping our child in good spirits while waiting for our order was considered such a bother and dealt with in such a poor, abrasive manner by these employees left us feeling like our dining experience was not treated with the same level of care and courtesy as other tables.

We swear we saw a kids menu, high chairs . . . You would think this place was a family-friendly restaurant, in lock step with it's brand, but apparently we...