Texas Roadhouse is now better than Outback.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue May 28, 2013 9:49 am

There. I said it. I can't un-say it. It's out there. There it is.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue May 28, 2013 11:55 am

Is your opinion based solely on the steak, or the entire dining experience?

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue May 28, 2013 12:35 pm

Flack wrote:Is your opinion based solely on the steak, or the entire dining experience?

Primarily on the steak, but all facets of the experience are taken into account.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue May 28, 2013 1:48 pm

I really wanted to jab with the fact that the first Texas Roadhouse was in Clarksville, Indiana, but the first Outback Steakhouse was in Tampa, Florida. This round's a draw.

I won't lie, I like both places.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue May 28, 2013 3:02 pm

TR is a high end Pondersoa. They play country music constantly, which is horrible. The place is always busy (45min wait time average) The restaurant is so loud that pilots flying airplanes overhead have to wear earplugs.

Other than that it's....meh.

THE
PROBABLY NOT GOING BACK
AARDVARK

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue May 28, 2013 3:35 pm

I respectfully disagree. I mean, not about the country music, but it's called "Texas Roadhouse", you were expecting Beethoven and white tablecloths?

I find their steaks to be expertly seasoned and grilled, and they have a wider range of side dishes to choose from and unlike Outback not everything is bathed in cheese and grease.

Also, the fresh rolls? With that honey butter? Damn.

Also their chicken fingers are epic-level.

Also it's 2/3 the price of Outback.

I thank you for your time.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue May 28, 2013 5:33 pm

OK..rolls and honey butter get a pass. I agree they are the best.

I would like to carry on a conversation, in a restaurant, in a normal (indoor) voice. This is just not possible with Conway Twitty crying in the rain cause his pickup truck got stolen by a beaver...or something. I was trying very hard to not pay attention. The redneck-o-meter is also on the high side.

Two visits...two mediocre steaks. What more can I say? Perhaps it's just the help and they're not doing it right. I dunno.

THE
STILL MEH
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue May 28, 2013 7:01 pm

The honey butter is indeed good. Charleston's (another steak place here) has cinnamon honey butter. I just might eat dog shit dipped in it.

Down in the stockyards here is Cattlemen's. In the stockyards you can eat a steak while looking out the window and see next week's steaks. I think Ronald Reagan and both George Bushes have eaten there. I know the last time Charles Barkley came to town he ate there too. It's really not more expensive than the other places we're talking about, but by being a smaller place it's a little slower and the menu is a little smaller. No Bloomin' Onions there.

http://www.cattlemensrestaurant.com/

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue May 28, 2013 7:58 pm

The blooming onion is kILLING this country. So Outback is out.

I should get my grill fixed, but I tried to swear off red meat. Fuck it. Meat is.... damn, I wish there was some sort of catch phrase for deciding to eat meat again! WTF, Internet!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue May 28, 2013 8:53 pm

AArdvark wrote:OK..rolls and honey butter get a pass. I agree they are the best.

I would like to carry on a conversation, in a restaurant, in a normal (indoor) voice. This is just not possible with Conway Twitty crying in the rain cause his pickup truck got stolen by a beaver...or something.

I am sorry for the noise problems you have had in the restaurant. Please accept this coupon for a free appetizer as my way of encouraging you to go back and give it another chance.

Two visits...two mediocre steaks. What more can I say? Perhaps it's just the help and they're not doing it right. I dunno.

My steaks there have been far superior to mediocre. I am sorry for the quality issues you've experienced at the restaurant. Please accept this coupon for a free dessert as my way of encouraging you to go back and give it another chance.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue May 28, 2013 11:07 pm

I have a bad restaurant story. Buckle up.

It was Friday night and I took my girlfriend into THE CITY. We were gonna split an appetizer for dinner and each have a drink. Splitting an appetizer is now the way to do it in this country. The entrees cost 29 dollars (OK, not really) and contain enough food to disband USA for Africa. The "appetizer", everywhere, has enough nutrients to colonize Mars. So splitting an appetizer in this nuclear-tipped smorgasbord of a country is how we roll.

We walk into the place where we had our third date. I don't remember anything, so she has to tell me. I remember that I tried, and failed, to explain text games to her. She brought it up, not me.

There are no tables on the patio, so we sit inside. I'm facing the street, beyond the glass. We each order a drink from a guy who looks like Keyser Soze. Not the real one, but the other guy. Pete Something. She is very aware of what is happening outside, whereas I could not tell you if it was day or night. Not now, but at the time I could not have told you that.

Well, a table outside opens up. She wants to sit outside.

A part of me knew that we would enter the "no-man's land" where our present waiter and future waitress would forget about us. And that's what happened.

Mr. Soze hands us the wine and we never see him again.

A girl comes to our table and proudly explains that she is not our waitress. Nobody else ever dropped by.

My question for JC is:

Our drinks were $14. I had $14 in cash and after a half-hour of being completely ignored by the staff, I left $14 under an (empty) pklate. Would you guys have bothered paying at all? I am trying to decide if I should have bothered paying at all.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Wed May 29, 2013 3:09 am

Please accept this coupon for a free appetizer as my way of encouraging you to go back and give it another chance.

Actually we had a gift card for seventy five dollars...and we gave it away. So thank you for the coupon, but it's not necessary.

Re: forgetful wait staff

leave the fourteen bucks on the table and never, never go back.
There's too many really good chow houses fighting for survival to have that kind of negligent service.

THE CHOOSY PATRONS CHOOSE
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed May 29, 2013 9:39 am

@Bad Service
I would pay for the drinks but I wouldn't leave a tip and I also would do something passive-aggressive like leave a nasty message on the cash or sending feedback to their website that most likely would end up in somebody's spam folder. I agree with Aardvark, there are literally hundreds of independently owned restaurants around here that are dying to get customers in. I wouldn't give them a second chance.

@Portion Sizes
Over the weekend my wife, mother-in-law, and kids went to a local burger place known for their crazy sizes. The waitress suggested the new earthquake burgers. They ordered four of them. They were either 12oz or 16oz of meat each. They should have ordered one and split it four ways.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:26 am

Flack wrote:@Bad Service
I would pay for the drinks but I wouldn't leave a tip and I also would do something passive-aggressive like leave a nasty message on the cash or sending feedback to their website that most likely would end up in somebody's spam folder. I agree with Aardvark, there are literally hundreds of independently owned restaurants around here that are dying to get customers in. I wouldn't give them a second chance.

You are one of those maniacs that ruins Yelp for the rest of us. Yes, YOU.

Yelp would be a reasonable useful tool to decide where to have dinner, except the only people who post on there are people who went there and OH MY GOD, SOMEONE MADE A MISTAKE, so I'm going to go home and TYPE INTO MY COMPUTER ABOUT HOW UPSET I AM THAT SOMEONE MADE A MISTAKE AND I WAS INCONVENIENCED!!

If it happens twice, then you've got a point. But Jesus Christ, mistakes are going to happen, can you give a place or a person a break ONE TIME? Can you? No.

So every restaurant on Yelp, if you read the comments, is both the greatest restaurant to ever exist in the history of food, AND a disgusting crackhouse of filth, all of the employees of which should immediately be thrown in jail for life with no possibility of parole.

MANIAC!

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Wed May 29, 2013 11:10 am

Aren't you on a diet, eating apples?

CO · Post by CO » Wed May 29, 2013 11:55 am

pinback wrote:You are one of those maniacs that ruins Yelp for the rest of us. Yes, YOU.!

Bullshit, I'd rather read about one bad experience at a restaurant than one of the 30% or more of fake yelp reviews. One bad experience costs me not just the time and money but also additional time listening to the wife bitching.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed May 29, 2013 12:54 pm

CO wrote:
pinback wrote:You are one of those maniacs that ruins Yelp for the rest of us. Yes, YOU.!
Bullshit, I'd rather read about one bad experience at a restaurant than one of the 30% or more of fake yelp reviews. One bad experience costs me not just the time and money but also additional time listening to the wife bitching.

If you never go to a restaurant that has a zero-star "WORST PLACE EVER" review on Yelp, you will never leave the house.

CO · Post by CO » Wed May 29, 2013 12:57 pm

pinback wrote:If you never go to a restaurant that has a zero-star "WORST PLACE EVER" review on Yelp, you will never leave the house.

In Seattle anyway, that sounds like a good plan. I swear every fucking place to eat here is utter shit.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed May 29, 2013 1:15 pm

CO wrote:
pinback wrote:If you never go to a restaurant that has a zero-star "WORST PLACE EVER" review on Yelp, you will never leave the house.
In Seattle anyway, that sounds like a good plan. I swear every fucking place to eat here is utter shit.

I was only there for a year and a half, but my Seattle Great Restaurants list remained empty the entire time.

No, that's a lie. I lied to you, and I would like to apologize for my behavior in the previous paragraph.

Here is my Seattle Great Restaurants list:

1. http://www.ajaxcafe.com/

Of course, it's not technically in Seattle, so forget it.

ChainGangGuy · Post by **ChainGangGuy** » Wed May 29, 2013 4:31 pm

pinback wrote:You are one of those maniacs that ruins Yelp for the rest of us. Yes, YOU.

Yelp would be a reasonable useful tool to decide where to have dinner, except the only people who post on there are people who went there and OH MY GOD, SOMEONE MADE A MISTAKE, so I'm going to go home and TYPE INTO MY COMPUTER ABOUT HOW UPSET I AM THAT SOMEONE MADE A MISTAKE AND I WAS INCONVENIENCED!!

Is that what destroyed The Phoenix Palm?