Texas Roadhouse — Restaurant in Williston

This place was busy, as in packed. We were a small party, and had never been here, but we were hungry and thought it was worth a try. Unfortunately, the wait to sit and eat was too long for us to wait. The desk person saw me approaching while speaking to someone, they walked away, and the lady ignored me. I said hi, she said nothing, and turned her head, no acknowledgement that I was standing IN FRONT OF HER, or that I had started to try to get her attention, busy, sure, but I am a customer too; then the phone rang and she jumped on it like she won a prize, no 'excuse me', no acknowledgement that I existed. A waitress walked over behind the desk, as I'm sure my flabbergasted look was still on my face, and I said "Excuse me, is there a way to just order, not eat here?" She was more than willing to understand we were not familiar with this chaos, (nor will I come back willingly), and expeditiously and politely pointed/explained where in the chaos we were to, signage was hidden behind the mass of people waiting to sit to eat. My party and I had already seen the menu before arriving, we knew WHAT we wanted to order, unsure of portion sizes so we didn't order as much as we might have had we had the opportunity to sit and ENJOY the experience of a new place. The food is over priced, the place is chaotic, signage is hidden behind the crowds; and most people there, minus the initial rude employee, was nice. The food portions were small, compared to what the prices are, the un ordered sweet rolls and cinnamon butter, were actually gross. I like rolls/bread, but this was more of a bad dessert attempt they are pawning off on unsuspecting victims. The food was warm when I picked it up, by the time I was sat down, less than 5 minutes from there, my food wasn't close to hot, couldn't have been that hot when it is set out. I was there for the text, I went right back in, instead of sitting and taking up space. My order was the only order sitting and waiting, she asked me my name, then didn't care and passed me the bag, with the wrong NAME, but the right number. The portions were small, but I lost my appetite when I tried the roll and the cinnamon butter, maybe it's better when the bread is hot, but, to me, it tastes 'funny', as they must have put sugar in the recipe, and coated it with a honey glaze, the butter is better suited on TOAST; the rolls turned my stomach, I have NEVER had sweetened bread without a warning, I guess I thought the butter was some sort of fancy type, I never thought to smell it before liberally applying it to half my roll, gross. I then tried the roll, thinking that I must have wrecked it with the butter, nope, it's a beautiful looking roll, albeit cold, kind of firm, but entirely too sweet with a mix of weird sugar/honey taste, and the butter cinnamon mix is okay on it's own, probably better on toast, but I wouldn't know, I pitched it because I had no way to keep it cold the next day with a 9 hour travel schedule. The Buffalo chicken was TINY, there was barley a serving worth. The potatoe skins were cold, the cheese was probably good when the potatoes were hot, but I wouldn't know, it was all room temp, from the 5 minutes in the car, to the house, it should have had been WARM at the very least. We ordered the braided/twisted mozzarella appetizer, thinking there would be enough for 3 people to have two, I had 1, that was the only way to make sure that the other people had more than 1. Other restaurants usually say how many mozzarella sticks come as an appetizer, this was not something I saw on the menu and assumed, wrongly, that there'd be a minimum of 6, some restaurants do 8 in an appetizer, not here, we got 5. There was not a lot of potatoes either. The main meals were less than impressive too. Maybe if we had been able to sit in the restuarant, we would have gotten our fair share, but, unfortunately, the take out portions aren't worth the price I paid for appetizers and entrees. Maybe, if someone else is paying, I might go out of my way to come back, but this whole experience left a bad taste...

If I could give no stars, I would. Last year I came here in December, food was disgusting. Server was great. Didn't go back. Tonight, my family and I decided to see if they had changed. I originally had a party of 9 and had been put on the wait list for 4pm on Thursday. I showed up at 3:20 and unfortunately only 4 of us could make it. I totally expected a wait. I went in and told them that our party was here. They told me I couldn't get in yet as they were busy, there were empty tables behind them. I figured, staff shortage. 4pm came around and somebody who arrived after me got seated before us. So I went to the host and asked what happened. She tried telling me that I didn't come when I got the message. Turns out, they put my number in wrong. So, we get seated with our rolls. No silverware on the table. After about 5 minutes, our server came to the table. Asked us what she could get us for drinks and I told her we needed silverware. She seemed annoyed and walked away and came back with silverware. She was never personable. She came to the table only when she was taking our order. Appetizers came out very quickly. They were bland. Then our food came out. I had asked the lady who brought our food to us if she could get us more drinks as I hadn't seen our server in awhile. I ordered medium rare beef tips. They came out cold. My husband told our waitress this, and her face looked annoyed she had to deal with this. My new plate came out quick and hot. My rice then tasted like I was eating sand. My son and husband tried it and said the same thing. Again called the waiter over and told her. She went to get the manager and the manager didn't even nicely great us. Walked up to me and said "where's the sand" I tried to explain to her that it wasn't sand I saw its how the texture and taste was. She asked to get me another side. I declined as this is the second time it had been made. The manager took my plate and said that shs would take my meal off as i had not ate more than 3 bites of it. My husband's country fried steak tasted weird as well. My daughters country fried chicken wasn't even crispy and bland. The salads are prepped and put in a plate and put in the fridge way ahead of time. We usually leave good tips but because of poor customer service and poor food, wedidn't. Our stomachs were so upset. Pretty sure this is how rats feel when they eat poison. Very...

. Arrived between 4:30pm - 5pm. Told to choose my steak from the deli case which I was not prepared for and wasn't there to get a steak.

Seated, of course, nearest the kitchen as most single women are seated!

Waited 15 minutes for server to appear. She was training a server who was quite nice...the trainee. Got the ordering to the kitchen seconds before the 5:00pm deadline for the lower cost meals. I could hear the server talking to the kitchen about its being 5pm.

There was a lot of servers conversing with bar patrons for extended periods of time about their lives, meaning the staff's stories. Just hanging out at the bar.

Its unprofessional to have the server call customers "Sweetie, Sweetheart, Honey etc." Its now considered demeaning and extremely lack of etiquette. Check the Urban Dictionary on that and you'll understand. Should listen to audiobook Unreasonable Hospitality for more training.

I ordered the BBQ pork dinner which came with extra bread. The 4 rolls were more than enough - delicious - took 2 home. Was I supposed to use the dried out toasted roll to make a sandwich? The BBQ was fine. It came with 2 sides. The sweet potato was excellent . The corn was fine.

Because the trainer was training, and a young couple came in I asked her if she carded them, because I didn't see her do that and they were in the booth next to mine. I explained that the trainee would want to know that there is a hefty fine for serving alcohol to anyone not 21 +. The guy had ordered a shot AND a beer which is NOT allowed in Vermont to my knowledge. Only 1 alcoholic beverage at a time is the rule. That was disturbing. Red Flag !

The manager came over and didn't seem at all like she was listening to my concerns. I explained to her that the trainers demeaning statements, along with the carding incident which I didn't see, was disturbing. I mentioned the long history of where the1950s terminology no longer is suitable for professional women or any women!

I didn't have my beloved dessert because it wasn't suggested at all when the trainer had told me how to pay on the tabletop kiosk and dropped another "Sweetie" comment. I would use their names but I don't recall they even stated them.

All in all, I've been to another Texas Longhorn and had a great meal and service but that didn't...