This Rainforest Cafe Sister Chain Is A Rustic-Style Steakhouse That Rivals Texas Roadhouse

Texas Roadhouse is the current king of steakhouse chains, but there's a massive conglomeration of restaurant chains that has plenty of potential rivals to challenge it for the crown. Like some bigger-name restaurants in the group, such as Darden, the group's namesake seafood chain restaurant, Landry's, is certainly a name most will recognize. From its founding, Landry's has gradually gobbled up dozens of other chains into its own restaurant group, which includes not only the enduring theme restaurant Rainforest Cafe, but Morton's, Bubba Gump Shrimp, Joe's Crab Shack, and many more smaller chains you're likely familiar with. One of those chains, a casual steakhouse called Saltgrass, has been expanding recently.

Saltgrass Steakhouse was founded in 1991 in Houston, Texas, near the original Landry's location in the region. It gets its name from the Saltgrass Trail, which was a cattle trail that ran to the Texas Gulf Coast, where the cows would feed on the abundant saltgrass. The original Saltgrass Steakhouse location was located right along this historic trail. In its first decade, the chain expanded to 27 locations before Landry's grabbed it in 2002. Since then, it has steadily expanded to 96 locations nationwide, growing from Texas to 16 states. It's now part of a truly huge team of steakhouse chains operating under Landry's, which includes Mastro's, Mitchell's, Kincaid's, and Del Frisco. It may not be anywhere near the almost 700 locations Texas Roadhouse has hit, but Saltgrass certainly seems to be aiming for a similar experience.

Like Texas Roadhouse, Saltgrass Steakhouse is going for a real, and there really is no other way to say this, roadhouse vibe. The interior is covered in faux-aged wood, neon beer signs, stuffed animal heads, and other Texas regalia. The menu is pretty similar as well. While Saltgrass can't quite hit the unbeatable affordability of Texas Roadhouse's steaks, it isn't exactly a premium either, costing about $10 more per steak on average. It also offers baby back ribs, chicken fried steak, and pork chops.

That similar rustic menu and aesthetic is something you find at a lot of casual steakhouses, but the Texas Roadhouse similarities at Saltgrass don't stop there. Saltgrass also uses a signature spice rub on every one of their steaks, and also has a complimentary house bread with a sweet flavor, although in this case it's a whole grain roll made with bock beer and sweetened with honey. Saltgrass has been around long enough that it's exactly a copycat situation. However, it's likely that Landry's recognized Texas Roadhouse's success, because Saltgrass underwent a pretty rapid expansion at the end of last decade as its rival was rising. There is clearly enough hunger for affordable steaks out there, so there should be plenty of room for both, and unlike Texas Roadhouse, which was founded in Indiana, Saltgrass has real Texas history to lean on.