4 Texas Roadhouse Add-Ons Worth The Money, And 3 To Skip

When you want to go out for a steak but don't want to spend a ton of money in the process, Texas Roadhouse is an excellent place to go. It's one of the more casual steakhouse chains out there, and it boasts a wide-ranging menu that appeals to steak lovers, chicken eaters, and seafood enjoyers alike. Plus, you can customize many dishes at Texas Roadhouse, helping you build a meal that aligns perfectly with your tastes. Some of these customizations are free, while others are add-ons that will cost you more money than the standard dish on its own.

So, how do you know which add-ons are worth it and which you should probably skip? Well, as a Texas Roadhouse fan myself, I've tried a lot of these add-ons, and I'm here to deliver the 411 on my favorites as well as those I wouldn't order again. By having a better sense of what you'll get with these add-ons (and how much you'll pay for them), you can better decide whether these upgrades are worth it to you. Who knows? Maybe you'll discover that adding bleu cheese to your steak isn't quite as strange as it may seem.

Although you may assume that Texas Roadhouse is really just about steak, that's not true. In fact, steaks make up only a small portion of what the chain offers. Some of Texas Roadhouse's best menu items can be found in other sections of the menu. The appetizers are some of my favorites. They generally lean into more of the bar food vibe as opposed to the seafood towers and bisques that you might expect to find at a higher-end steak spot. If you're looking for something filling and snackable to share with the table, the cheese fries are an excellent choice. If you order them as they normally come, you'll find that they're topped with cheese and bacon for a savory and gooey bite.

But if you want to take those cheese fries to the next level, consider adding Texas chili with beans to the dish. It only costs 99 cents — a steal — and it makes the cheese fries a lot heartier. Since this chili is quite hearty, it makes the whole dish a lot more filling and can even transform it into an entree if you're craving something that packs more carbs than a typical steak. Who doesn't like chili cheese fries?

If you ask me, a steak should be prepared as simply as possible. If you're working with good-quality meat, you don't need to add a bunch of unexpected flavors — salt, pepper, and maybe some herbs will do the trick. Of course, there are some solid steak toppings out there, but in my opinion, mushrooms and onions aren't some of them. They add more rich, intense notes to your steak without offering any flavor contrast that could make things more exciting. That's why I wouldn't recommend smothering your steak with sauteed mushrooms and onions at Texas Roadhouse. They mask the flavor of the meat itself (which is the whole reason you're eating there anyway) and could potentially make the steak taste too heavy, especially if you've already ordered a fattier cut of meat.

For some reason, this steak topper will cost another $2.29. Considering that you're just getting a smattering of vegetables, that seems like a pretty steep price. If you want to add some veggies to your meal, order them on the side, where you'll at least get a proper serving.

One of the more unexpected add-ons you'll find at Texas Roadhouse is bleu cheese crumbles. You can add these crumbles onto steak as well as a variety of other meat-based entrees at the chain. I've only tried the bleu cheese crumbles on a steak (specifically, a New York strip), but I can attest to how delicious they are in this context, and they seem like they would work well with many of the other dishes on Texas Roadhouse's menu. I think it has something to do with flavor balance. The funkiness and acidity from the bleu cheese function as an interesting, tangy counterpart to the otherwise ultra-rich steak, which brings a nice lightness to the dish.

Although bleu cheese can be pricey if you buy it from the store, it doesn't cost very much to add these crumbles to your dish — you'll only be charged an extra 79 cents. Of course, if you don't like bleu cheese, you'll want to skip this add-on, but lovers of the funky cheese should absolutely give it a try to upgrade their meals.

Arguably, the most cursed add-on of them all available at Texas Roadhouse is Jack cheese. If this were only an add-on for potato dishes, burgers, and other sandwiches, I would have no problem with it. As a cheese lover, I believe that even a cheese as simple as Jack can upgrade a wide variety of foods. But when it comes to a steak, opting for Jack cheese as an add-on is a terrible idea.

You may be wondering why I'm okay with bleu cheese on my steak but not Jack. Well, first of all, Jack cheese often isn't a very high-quality option. There are some brands of Jack cheese that are solid, but most varieties (including the one I expect they use at Texas Roadhouse) are subpar compared to higher-end cheeses. But even if Texas Roadhouse were using the best-quality Jack cheese available, the real issue is that Jack cheese is rich and creamy and totally absent the tang that makes bleu cheese an acceptable steak topping. Instead of enhancing the dish, it weighs it down and masks the meat's flavor.

Out of all of the steak toppings available as add-ons at Texas Roadhouse, this is the cheapest, coming in at only 50 cents. But honestly, you'd have to pay me to add Jack cheese to my steak.

You know those times when you go out to eat and feel hungrier than usual? You may not be hungry enough to order two full entrees, but you want something extra on your plate to make your meal more filling. Luckily, Texas Roadhouse delivers on this front. The chain offers "sidekicks," or additional protein sources, to add onto your dish, and they can provide that extra bit of food you're looking for. The grilled shrimp just happen to be the best. It gives you a little something extra on your plate, but the shrimp are light enough not to overpower any other element of your order.

Admittedly, this is one of the pricier add-ons at Texas Roadhouse. A sidekick of grilled shrimp comes in at $7.99 at the time of writing and appears to come with five or six shrimp, depending on the location. But since you're basically getting a smaller version of another entree, it's worth the extra cash. If you're craving grilled shrimp but don't want quite as many, you can also order a smaller-portioned shrimp steak topper for $3.99 — this comes with three of them. If you're ordering a steak, it'll give you that surf-and-turf feel without requiring you to pay a fortune.

The other sidekick that's available to you at Texas Roadhouse is ribs. They cost an extra $9.99, making them the most expensive add-on that appears on this list. While I'm all for adding grilled shrimp to your meal, I think that getting the rib sidekick is actually a bad idea, particularly if you're getting a steak. That's because with both a steak and ribs on your plate, you're getting way more meat than you actually need. And since the pork ribs are so flavorful, they'll distract you from your steak (which is likely the whole reason that you're at Texas Roadhouse in the first place).

That doesn't mean you shouldn't order the ribs sidekick at all. It might be a nice addition to some of the lighter dishes on the menu, but if you're ordering a steak, you can skip it. It's both expensive and too heavy, which makes it a no-go from my perspective.

Sure, baked potatoes are delicious in all their forms. A hot potato coming straight out of the oven is pretty much always going to taste good, especially when you eat it alongside a steak. But if you're ordering a baked potato at Texas Roadhouse, you should really go all out with the toppings. Otherwise, you're just getting a plain potato that you could just as easily make at home. When you get a baked potato with all the toppings, it'll come out topped with sour cream, butter spread, bacon, and cheddar cheese. Yes, it's heavy, and yes, it should technically also contain chives or scallions to really bring the whole dish together. But despite that oversight, this combo of creamy and salty ingredients absolutely takes a basic baked potato to a whole new level.

Luckily, adding all of those toppings isn't very expensive — it costs $1.29. If you don't like any of these toppings, though, you can add them à la carte to really customize your potato. That said, I think it's worth it to go all out and get all the toppings available.

I based these picks on my own personal experiences at Texas Roadhouse, where either I or someone else at my table ordered these add-ons (and I tasted them for myself). I looked at both price and what you get for that extra cost to determine which add-ons are worth it and which aren't. These assessments are subjective, but hopefully, they can help you decide whether you want to order any of these specific add-ons based on the descriptions and rationales provided here.