rev:text
| - Unlike Dr. Who's Tardis, which is small on the outside and big on the inside, this steakhouse looks large on the outside, but surprisingly small once you are inside. I went for lunch (11:15am). I know this is a chain owned by the same company that owns the Red Lobster and Olive Garden, so I was not expecting a mom and pop local experience. That was good because my first impression was this was a 3.75 star experience (I rounded up to 4).
Let's start with the decor--every western cliche you ever heard of is here. A couple of horse saddles hanging from the ceiling, shelves of cowboy boots, pictures of the Grand Canyon, wild horses running and a waterfall at Yosemite, photos of cowboys at rodeos, map of Texas, and a whole wall of western belt buckles. Not just a casual decoration of the place--nearly every wall or surface is plastered with this stuff (sometimes less is more). The background music was country and western.
The seating hostess and server were very prompt, attentive, and just plain nice. The server brought warm whole grain bread and butter right away. I got the western mac n cheese and soup lunch combo for just $6.99. Now the motto here must be "Bacon hides bland food really, really well." The soup was a broccoli cheddar/asiago cheese with bacon bits. The mac n cheese had toasted bread crumbs on top and was loaded with bacon. The combo comes with homemade warm potato chips covered in cheese sauce and--you guessed it--bacon. Ironically, the cheese sauce in the soup, the mac n cheese and on the chips all tasted the same. There was no variation (do they get this from a can or something?).
Now, I know this is a steakhouse and I was scoping it out for a later dinner with my husband. So I watched attentively as an older couple at the table next to my booth dug into their steaks. They hacked and sawed and practically had to chisel the meat into bit sized pieces. After watching this struggle, I am guessing that these steaks are not especially tender. I can't say for sure, but that certainly didn't encourage me to order steak from here.
Parking was easy and close to the door. Would I eat here again? Maybe, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do so.
|