The 9 Worst Things About Texas Roadhouse, According To Customers

Texas Roadhouse, America's biggest casual-dining chain, is known for many things; lively piped-in country music, hand-cut steaks, cinnamon-buttered dinner rolls, and a vibrant ambiance that harkens back to mid-century roadhouses are just a few. It's a surefire recipe that's made the chain a go-to spot for suburban sirloin-lovers since the first Texas Roadhouse opened in 1993. But, to quote a song title from the late Notorious B.I.G., "Mo Money, Mo Problems" — this perfectly describes the chain, which has over 600 locations in the U.S. at the time of writing. It's hard to avoid a hiccup here and there when your brand becomes that massive.

As a result, Texas Roadhouse has been on the receiving end of a lot of complaints over the years, many of which are aimed at the things that made it popular in the first place. From its deafening atmosphere and funky food quality to its lengthy wait times and questionable cleaning standards, customers have a lot to say. Here are nine of the worst things about Texas Roadhouse.

Dining out is meant to be a sensory experience, but at Texas Roadhouse, expect a sensory overload. Loud country music outside and louder country music inside, multiple TV screens showing sports games, raucous customers, and random choreographed line dancing, all melding into a cacophony of noise — that's the Texas Roadhouse experience. Steer clear if you're looking to enjoy a meal in a calm setting because this chain is anything but. That said, many customers are fed up with the noise level.

On a Facebook thread about the chain's overwhelming loudness, one customer replied, "Yes. My toddler is usually so well behaved when we go out to eat. Texas Roadhouse is the only place where he has a meltdown and I believe it is due to the noise level." Another person said that they've avoided it for two years because the noise was impossible to deal with. In an analysis of the quietest and loudest restaurant chains in the U.S., conducted by Soundprint, Texas Roadhouse landed at No. 3 with 79 decibels — nine higher than the maximum level considered safe for our hearing, per Hearing Health Foundation.

In a press release responding to a 2012 Consumer Reports study that named Texas Roadhouse the noisiest chain in America, the company's late founder and then-CEO, Kent Taylor, said, "We're proud to be loud. Upbeat country music, laughter, full restaurants and line dancing make for a great experience."

Despite being the biggest casual dining chain in the U.S., the food at Texas Roadhouse receives lots of complaints. From the famous dinner rolls and country-fried sirloin to the mac and cheese, strip steak, and more, a growing number of customers say the quality has nose-dived. One Redditor lamented how dinner rolls tasted pre-2020, saying, "Yes! Different and disappointing, their rolls have NOT been the same since early 2020. I tried complaining to the corporate office and they denied any changes had happened." Rumor has it that the rolls aren't as fluffy as they once were, even though Texas Roadhouse hasn't released an official statement about any changes to the recipe.

The food's purported downward spiral doesn't end there either. A TikTok user ordered a dinner meal that arrived with several slabs of uncooked, mushy steak that looked closer to pâté. "I put that in my mouth, and I thought I was going to hurl all over the place," they said in disgust. Customers also have the mac and cheese in their crosshairs, and apparently, the staff does too, according to one Reddit user, who was supposedly told by a waiter, "We changed our mac and cheese recently. The new one kind of sucks, you don't want it." (We added it to our list of items you should avoid ordering at Texas Roadhouse.) What's worse, several people have said that Texas Roadhouse is unsafe for people with celiac disease because of cross-contamination.

If poor quality food wasn't enough, numerous Texas Roadhouse locations have failed health inspections, and in some cases, multiple times. On June 18, 2025, the Texas Roadhouse on 8th Street in Colorado Springs required a re-inspection. The report cited several disturbing observations, including employees not washing their hands before preparing food, picking up fallen food without washing their hands and changing gloves, and storing unpasteurized eggs above ready-to-eat items. Those are only a few of the corrective actions the location was forced to make, and to make matters worse, that was only weeks after another Colorado Springs outpost failed an inspection. That same location failed an inspection the year prior on May 31, 2024.

In February 2025, the Monroe County Department of Public Health had to literally shut down the Texas Roadhouse in Henrietta, New York, to deal with a mouse and roach infestation. And, the following month, at the location in Topeka, Kansas, flour bags contaminated by rodents were found. With failed inspections in states across the U.S., it's clear that Texas Roadhouse has a serious quality control issue.

If you're hoping to stop by Texas Roadhouse for a quick bite, think again. Though it has hundreds of locations nationwide and overseas, the chain is notoriously busy with a wait time that can leave your stomach growling with impatience. Customers have reported having to wait one to two hours to be seated, and even then, depending on how busy it is, the wait can be extended to a later time. According to an employee on Reddit, Monday and Tuesday are the best days to go to avoid the front lobby purgatory, along with Sunday. If you can't make it on those days, Thursday is the next best option. But if you've got a craving for cinnamon butter dinner rolls on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday, you're better off making this copycat recipe.

To address customer complaints, Texas Roadhouse has a waitlist system that you can join online, via the app, or by calling your local outpost ahead of time. Unfortunately, the system is imperfect and has stirred up quite a few complaints for not being as reliable as it claims. People have complained of having to wait an additional 30 to 40 minutes past the wait time they were given. So even with the waitlist system, it's recommended that you head to Texas Roadhouse on weekdays (especially the aforementioned ones) to beat the rush.

In an incident that occurred in Walpole, Massachusetts, on August 27, 2025, Texas Roadhouse landed in the news again via TikTok user Maymonayy, who, along with her mother and little sister, was allegedly served a dinner roll with staples baked into it. The user's younger sister was the unfortunate victim, and when they looked to see what she had bitten into, they found several staples stuck together. The family notified the manager, who told them that they'd be compensated in full for the meal. However, Maymonayy said that they never received the full compensation.

The video received over 1 million views, spurring Texas Roadhouse to issue a statement, saying, "We are aware of this situation and are actively investigating. The Health Department visited the store today and their report states there are no signs of physical contamination in the restaurant, including the bread and kitchen areas. We take concerns like this very seriously and our team has been in contact with the guests involved." Sometime after the video went viral, Maymonayy decided to delete her TikTok account. Since then, there have been no further reports about the Walpole location or whether or not Maymonayy's allegation was true, or just a ploy for an easy payday.

Crushed peanut shells on the floor were a signature part of the Texas Roadhouse experience for years until a lawsuit declared them a health hazard. In 2016, an Iowa man named Curtis Jensen filed a lawsuit against the chain after allegedly slipping on discarded peanut casings and falling to the floor, thereby shattering his knee. As quoted by the Des Moines Register, attorneys Thomas Frerichs and Luke Guthrie called the restaurant's tradition of giving customers buckets of peanuts to toss about a "marketing gimmick," and one that creates very dangerous conditions. They even called out the servers, who would brush any shells left behind by customers onto the floors. The slipperiness was allegedly intensified by the floor itself, which the attorney said was resistant to oil from the peanut shells.

Jensen's lawsuit was one of several alleged slip-and-fall incidents at Texas Roadhouse; there was one in 2008 and another in 2013. Presumably, this is why you don't see peanuts at Texas Roadhouse anymore. That said, eating peanuts and tossing the cracked shells on the floor didn't originate with Texas Roadhouse; it's a practice that's apparently been associated with bars and roadhouses for some time. Some say it became popular as a way to oil wooden flooring, and others as a way to absorb spilled alcohol. And beyond peanut shells, the floor has been a customary refuse for inedible food since ancient Rome.

Texas Roadhouse is no stranger to hiking up the price of its menu items. In a two-year span from April 2022 to March 2024, the chain raised its menu prices three times, citing inflationary pressures as the reason. Customers were none too happy to be paying what collectively amounted to around 10% more, especially when some people started noticing that the portion sizes seemed to be heading in the opposite direction.

According to a Facebook user, who called the restaurant out for "double dipping," the kids' mini-burger patty had gotten smaller, as did the regular burger steak and baked potato. Around the same time, articles started popping up about the dinner rolls being downsized, although that rumor was never verified. That said, the complaints didn't prevent Texas Roadhouse from raising its prices yet again in October 2024.

As beloved as Texas Roadhouse is, its customer service often leaves much to be desired. On TrustPilot, one of the largest independent customer feedback platforms, the company only has 1.9 stars out of 5, and that's from 141 reviews at the time of writing. In a summary of the criticisms, customers were unhappy with the quality of the food, with some saying their steak was undercooked or not cooked as requested and others suggesting the food might have been cooked in a dirty oven. Servers caught flak as well, namely for being unfriendly or distracted. Other criticisms include some of the aforementioned gripes, including slow seating, cold food, and overly loud music.

One of the more glaring incidents occurred in 2018 when a woman named Sadie Durbin filed a lawsuit against Texas Roadhouse after being told by a manager to cover up while breastfeeding her infant daughter. According to Durbin, manager David Mitchell told her he'd received a lot of complaints from other customers, but when she refused, he threw the napkin on the table and stormed off. Texas Roadhouse denied the allegations, and while the location's managing partner issued an apology, this happened only after Durbin posted a lengthy message on Facebook about the incident.

In 2022, Texas Roadhouse introduced Roadhouse Pay, a way for customers to pay for meals at their table via a tablet, rather than having to wait for their server. The touch screen tablets were made by Ziosk, a hospitality technology platform, and it didn't take long for them to prove lucrative for the company. In addition to letting customers pay more quickly, the tablets also offer surveys, games, gift cards, and a way for users to sign up for the VIP Club. Despite being touted as a next-gen experience, there have been complaints about how it functions, with some people even calling it a scam.

When TikTok user themusicroomme tried to pay for his meal through the tablet, he noticed a charge of $1.99 added to his bill that read "Ziosk Premium Cont." He admitted that it wasn't much, but that he'd rather use it to tip the waiter. He was told that he probably accidentally purchased one of the games, although he hadn't. Someone on Facebook had a similar experience, except they were charged $2.99 for a "Ziosk Game Pass," without having played any games. The manager on duty told them that the tablets were sensitive and that "sometimes you bump it when picking it up." Redditors also offered similar complaints, claiming that it happens frequently, but can be fixed by asking the manager to have the charge removed.