January-The Battle of the Texas Themed Restaurants

Our January choice is a chain restaurant, and not really thinking outside of our dinning box, but when a new restaurant comes to town, one feels a little obligated to give it a try.

In December a new Texas Roadhouse opened in our town. I had never been to one before and wanted to give it a try. We have a Texas Corral right down the street that both Brian and I enjoy. I asked a few friends who had been to a Roadhouse before how it compared to Texas Corral and everybody said it was so much better. I half agree.

The service and atmosphere at this Texas Roadhouse was much better that at the other place, however I chop that up to it being a new restaurant. Everything was clean and new, and of course their newly hired employees were eager to please. The staff was very friendly. I think five different employees smiled at us and asked us how things were going. As far as the layout and design of the restaurant, it looked like every other Texas themed restaurant I have ever been in. By the way since when did Texas become such a popular theme? Seriously?

The food was good, but I wouldn't say it was so much more amazing than the other Texas restaurant in town. I would say they were pretty equal. The one thing that I did enjoy much more at this place was the house salad. It was big, fresh, and the ranch dressing was tasty. For my main dish, I ordered an 8 oz sirloin and baked potato. The steak was good, nothing fancy. I wasn't a fan of their house steak sauce. It had an unusual taste that I was not expecting (I have told others it tastes like egg nog and they think I am crazy). The baked potato was seasoned with a lot of salt, but was pretty good.

I have been back to this restaurant a couple of times since this first trip, and I am sure I will be back many times as it is right down the street from us. It will be interesting to try different things on their menu to really see if there is a difference between our dueling Texas restaurants. After all it's hard to judge based on what I ordered. You can't really mess up a steak.

Food: 3 STARS

Price: Offer to pay.