LongHorn Steakhouse — Restaurant in West Springfield

Me and my family wanted some really good steak so we wanted to go in early so it wouldn't be too crowded.

I would give them zero stars if Google let me.

Since, we were a group of 9 (7 adults and 2 young children.) We called Longhorn and asked them for a reservation. It does not allow you to join the wait list online because you only can have a party of 4. Longhorn said we do not do reservations but since we are not busy we cannot add you to the wait list but if you hurry and get down here we can sit you in 15 minutes.

We literally called at 4:15 pm and showed up at 4:25 pm. My brother went right in and put his name and phone number on the list. They gave him a 15-30 minute wait. There were other large parties coming in and being sat right away.

After, 15 minutes I checked with the hostess and they had Erica instead of Eric and the wrong phone number. Once we fixed that they told us that it would be another 15 minutes. The hostesses were not at all conversing with us at all more like talking and laughing with themselves. We had to keep going in there and checking.

After, 30 minutes of waiting I went back in to check our place and they said we were still 4th in line. Shaking my head.

At an hour me and my sister in law went in and spoke to the manager, who could careless about our complaint rolled her eyes and said the people who are at the table are all done but are sitting and conversing. The manager said I cannot ask them to leave. I asked the hostess how long they were there and she said they were there for about an hour and a half or longer. This is crazy to me. People should also be considerate and leave when they are done, especially when there are other parties waiting for the same table. What restaurant allows a bigger party to sit and converse for that long when you have other big parties waiting for hours to be sat down. Mind blown. I feel bad for the waitress or waiter that was working in this area as they are losing out. Makes no sense to me.

Since we had two younger children with us and it was getting later they were super hungry. At an hour and 15 minutes we started calling other restaurants in the area and they were busy but not rude about it. We left and went to another restaurant in the area that is always accommodating and sat us down as soon as we walked through the door and yes, we were still a party of 9.

The customer service in the front and management at Longhorn sucked! They don't care about their customers and my family will never come back to this establishment.

At 6:30 PM two hours later my brother got a text from Longhorn saying our table was ready. Ridiculous.

I will be following up with the general manager as well as corporate as nobody should ever be treated...

My husband & I used to come through every so often a few years back then consistency began to slip so we don't frequent much these days. But alas, my husband craves steak & this place is open later than many local spots post covid....

Both of the last 2 time we've visited, the host was not at their post. No big deal... until you're waiting... and waiting...multiple staff members pass with no acknowledgement. If it weren't for having almost no other option, I would've left. Not a great start. Finally acknowledged & seated. Table service begins alright enough, though declines not too far into the experience. I'm not sure if our server simply had something against bussing the table as necessary but when we got our meals, we not only had the side plates, salad bowls, bread board, app plate, and 3 empty glasses remain on the table throughout the entire time. Mind you, we had neatly stacked and placed these items at the end of the table to make for easy grabbing. Still no takers. The only time did our server clear the plates was when the check arrived. No check in during the meal. Had to ask another staff member for an item we requested earlier, fine, people forget, but there was literally minimum effort from anyone we encountered from the moment we walked through the door.

Food was OK. Pretty baseline. What irritates me is the terrible service. During a time where everyone is feeling the pressure from inflation, choosing to spend our hard earned money on a place that's not going to go remotely out of their way to make us feel welcomed or well taken care of, or at the very least do the bare minimum of what the job entails, is not going to fly anymore. We'll spend our money somewhere else.

From a person that has been in the hospitality & food service industry for a long time, the staff here is overdue for some training.

It's too bad more local spots don't stay open later than...

UPDATE: So we went back. This time about 6pm. Much busier but seemed better staffed. Again we ordered an app and drinks. App came out hot and fresh although I was mildly disappointed that the stuffed mushrooms were not just cheese topped but stuffed with cheese. Dinner was ok. GF ordered a sweet potato but when it arrived it came with cinnamon and brown sugar. She was never asked if she wanted that on it. The server also left someone's dirty salad dish on our table when delivering our drinks. My drink had lettuce on the bottom of it. GF was not amused at all. Steak was better cooked this time. Mac and cheese has less bacon but still all on the bottom.

Had a bit of a wait at 8pm. Was a little surprised by that but not unheard of. They acted like they were short staffed but there were plenty of people scurrying about. We got a table and had to wait for service. Put our drink order in and had to wait. Eventually got bread and our drinks. We ordered an appetizer and dinner since our server was so busy. After about 40 minutes our food comes out and we hadn't even gotten the appetizer yet. They were going to take the food away and wait. Like, who does that? The food would be sitting under a heat lamp for 1/2 hour. We told them to leave dinner and forget the appetizer. My steak was overcooked and small for a 6oz. Now, the parm crusted chicken was great, as were my Redrock shrimp. I would have liked the tails off, but meh. Mac and cheese was ok but looked like they threw a clump of bacon on the bottom of the bowl and just added the mac n cheese. Sweet potato was decent. Rice pilaf was pretty good though. I was surprised. They ended up making the appetizer to go for us and did not charge us for it. Overall, not the worst night we've had but not the best, but I'd chance...