Texas Roadhouse has become one of America’s favorite places to grab a steak dinner without spending a fortune. The place is packed most nights, with families waiting outside for a table while snacking on free peanuts. Between the friendly servers doing line dances and those amazing rolls with cinnamon butter, it’s easy to see why people keep coming back. But here’s the thing – not everything on that menu is worth ordering. Some dishes fall flat, while others just don’t taste as good as they sound. After looking at customer complaints and expert opinions, these seven items probably aren’t worth your money.
Country fried sirloin tastes way too salty
This dish sounds like it should be a home-run – a big piece of fried steak covered in gravy. But what shows up on your plate is a different story. The breading is the same stuff they use on the Cactus Blossom appetizer, which means it’s thick and heavily battered. That might work for onions, but on steak it just tastes overwhelming. The worst part is how salty everything tastes, from the breading to the gravy that’s poured all over it. Some people say the gravy has a strange smoky taste that doesn’t quite belong there either.
When you finally cut through all that coating and gravy, the actual steak underneath is pretty thin and chewy. It doesn’t have much of its own taste, which might actually be a relief after dealing with all that salt. For a restaurant that prides itself on good steaks, this country fried version misses the mark completely. You’d be better off ordering one of their regular grilled steaks and asking for a side of something else. At least then you’d taste the actual meat instead of just breading and salt.
The mac and cheese might be Kraft
When you go out to eat, especially at a steakhouse, you expect the food to be better than what you make at home. That’s kind of the whole point of paying restaurant prices. But Texas Roadhouse has a problem with their mac and cheese. For years, multiple customers have reported getting served what looks and tastes exactly like Kraft mac and cheese from the box. Some TikTok users even showed themselves getting charged four dollars for a small cup of those famous orange noodles. That’s a pretty steep markup for something you can buy at the grocery store for about a dollar.
The restaurant has tried to fix this problem at some locations by switching to what they call “homemade” mac and cheese. Unfortunately, that version isn’t much better. It’s got way too much gooey cheese sauce and not enough noodles, plus it tastes pretty bland. There’s barely any seasoning – not even basic salt and pepper to give it some personality. You can pay extra to add cheddar and bacon on top, but that just means spending even more money to make a mediocre side dish slightly less boring. Just skip this side and get the baked potato instead.
The All-American cheeseburger needs condiments badly
You’d think a place that specializes in beef would know how to make a decent burger. The All-American cheeseburger looks pretty good when it arrives at your table – it’s stacked tall with a thick patty, lettuce, tomato, and onion, all held together with a toothpick. But once you pull that toothpick out and take a bite, things go downhill fast. The meat is often overcooked and chewy instead of juicy. Even worse, there’s no seasoning on the patty itself, so it tastes pretty bland and boring.
The biggest surprise is that the burger comes completely naked – no mayo, no ketchup, no mustard, nothing. You have to ask for condiments and add them yourself, which seems weird for a restaurant burger. Without any sauce or seasoning, you’re basically eating a dry piece of cooked ground beef between two buns. For the price they charge, you could buy burger ingredients at the store and make a better version at home. If you really want a burger at Texas Roadhouse, at least try the bacon cheeseburger or BBQ version, which have some extra toppings to help with the taste problem.
The porterhouse T-bone arrives unevenly cooked
This is the most expensive steak on the menu, weighing in at 23 ounces of beef. It combines two different cuts – filet and strip – which sounds amazing on paper. The problem is that this massive bone-in steak is really hard to cook evenly. Even when you order it at a specific temperature, you’ll often get dried-out edges while the meat near the bone is still practically raw. That’s a frustrating experience when you’re paying top dollar for what should be a premium cut of meat.
According to someone who used to work at Texas Roadhouse, there’s another issue with this steak. While most of their steaks are hand-cut fresh in the restaurant, the porterhouse T-bone apparently arrives frozen and pre-cut. That’s a pretty big difference from how they handle their other steaks, and it shows in the final product. The former employee even called it one of their “not so good” steaks. For the amount of money you’ll spend on this thing, you’re much better off ordering the ribeye or Dallas filet instead. Those cuts are consistently good and don’t have the same cooking problems.
Green beans come out watery and mushy
If you’re trying to add some vegetables to your steak dinner, you might think the green beans are a safe choice. Unfortunately, they rank as the absolute worst side dish at Texas Roadhouse out of all 16 options. The restaurant tries to make them taste homestyle by adding bacon bits and diced onions, but both of those ingredients seem undercooked and don’t add much. Meanwhile, the green beans themselves are cooked way too long until they’re falling apart and practically turning to mush.
The whole mess is sitting in a pool of liquid that’s both watery and greasy at the same time. You might actually need a spoon instead of a fork to eat them because there’s so much liquid on the plate. Taste-wise, there’s a weird combination of smokiness and sweetness that doesn’t work well together, but mostly the beans just taste like nothing. If you want vegetables with your meal, stick to the steamed broccoli or order a side salad instead. Those options are much fresher and actually taste like the vegetables they’re supposed to be. Save yourself the disappointment and pretend the green beans don’t even exist on the menu.
The pulled pork dinner looks unappetizing
Here’s an interesting fact – despite having “Texas” in the name, Texas Roadhouse actually started in Indiana and is headquartered in Kentucky. That might explain why their barbecue dishes don’t quite hit the mark like they would in actual Texas. The pulled pork dinner is a perfect example of this problem. When it arrives at your table, it just looks sad and carelessly thrown on the plate. The pork is all shredded into bits and pieces without any real presentation, which doesn’t exactly make you excited to eat it.
The meat itself has major consistency issues. About half of what you get is fatty and full of gristle that you can’t even chew, while the other half is dried out and tough. The only thing that helps at all is the barbecue sauce, but even that can’t save this disappointing dinner. To make matters worse, it comes with crusty bread that’s often burnt instead of the famous soft rolls everyone loves. At least the meal includes two sides, so you can fill up on those instead of the mediocre pork. But really, why waste your money on this when there are so many better options on the menu?
Steak fries arrive frozen and cold
Fries should be one of the easiest things for a restaurant to get right. You’d think that a popular steakhouse would have this basic side dish figured out by now. But Texas Roadhouse serves thick-cut steak fries that consistently disappoint customers. The main issue is that these fries arrive at the restaurant frozen, which might explain why they show up at your table without being hot or crispy. Those are literally the two most important things that make fries good, and these fail at both.
The rectangular potato slabs are often lukewarm at best, and they have a limp, soggy texture instead of being crispy on the outside. Some people say they taste like they were cooked hours ago and have been sitting around ever since. When you’re paying restaurant prices for a side dish, you expect it to be better than frozen fries you could make in your own oven at home. These disappointing steak fries prove that sometimes simple foods are the hardest to execute well. Your best bet is ordering a baked sweet potato or mashed potatoes instead. At least those sides usually come out hot and taste freshly made.
The Cactus Blossom has way too much sodium
This deep-fried onion appetizer is Texas Roadhouse’s version of the Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse. While it might look impressive when it arrives at your table, the nutritional numbers are absolutely wild. A single Cactus Blossom contains 2,250 calories, which is more than most people should eat in an entire day. It also has 5,000 milligrams of sodium, which is more than three times what doctors recommend you eat daily. That’s a shocking amount of salt for one appetizer.
To put that in perspective, the Cactus Blossom has 36 grams of sugar, which equals about nine teaspoons. That’s like eating nine spoonfuls of sugar along with your fried onion. Many customers say it doesn’t even taste as good as the Outback version anyway, so you’re getting an inferior product with crazy high sodium levels. If you do order it, you should probably plan on sharing with several other people instead of eating the whole thing yourself. Or better yet, just skip it entirely and save room for your actual meal. There are plenty of other appetizers that won’t use up your entire day’s worth of calories and salt before dinner even starts.
Country fried chicken gets mixed reviews
Country fried chicken should be crispy, crunchy, and satisfying – basically the opposite of what some customers report getting at Texas Roadhouse. Multiple people have complained that this dish comes out way too salty, to the point where it ruins the whole meal. Others say the breading is too thick and the chicken underneath isn’t tender at all. That thick, hard coating makes it feel like you’re eating more fried batter than actual chicken, which defeats the whole purpose of ordering a chicken dinner.
Some customers have also reported getting the wrong dish entirely when they order this. One person said they asked for country fried chicken but got country fried steak instead, which they didn’t enjoy at all. Even when the right dish shows up, the reviews are all over the place. Some people think it’s fine while others say it completely ruined their appetite. That kind of inconsistency is a red flag that maybe this isn’t something the kitchen knows how to make well. With so many other good options on the menu, there’s no reason to gamble on whether you’ll get a decent version of this dish or a disappointing one.
Texas Roadhouse does a lot of things right – those rolls alone are worth the visit. But even popular restaurants have some dishes that just don’t measure up to the rest of the menu. The items on this list consistently get complaints from customers who felt like they wasted their money. Next time you’re looking at that big menu while munching on peanuts, you’ll know which dishes to avoid. Stick to what Texas Roadhouse does best – their hand-cut steaks, loaded baked potatoes, and those incredible rolls. Your wallet and your taste buds will both thank you for skipping these seven menu items.
