Let's get this out of the way: Texas Roadhouse is NOT ACTUALLY FROM TEXAS. They're based out of Indiana. Indiana Roadhouse seems like a perfectly lovely name to me, but I guess the marketing geniuses must've realized our state is just better in every way and went ahead with one of the biggest lies ever made, ever, in the history of the restaurant biz.
Really, do we even have places like this? Part of it tries to be somewhat divey with the peanuts on the floor, but the rest of it is just too...neat. Put-together. Corporate. The overall ambiance of Indiana Roadhouse is a confusing mish-mash of contradictions. Like, are the waitresses required to wear the gaudiest rhinestone belts they can find, like they're straight outta Tyler? But...but......the food is straight off a national menu--that makes no sense.
I'm not a fan of the peanuts on the floor thing. Like, at all. Call it undiagnosed OCD, but it just seems dirty. I mean, the rest of the restaurant seems quite clean and all, but then you step out of your booth onto the floor and--*crunch*. You know what else crunches when you step on it? Cockroaches. Crickets. All manner of unsanitary insects. No, sir, I don't like it. I've never actually seen any insects here because in all other respects, the dining room is kept neat as a pin, but I still feel...dirtier than I should be somehow. Peanut dust. Everywhere. Not a good feeling.
The food is...edible? It's your average chain steakhouse, nothing more, nothing less. Everything's just a little bit salty for consistency and preservation's sake. The fluffy rolls are pretty good, but...that's all I got.
Service is all right. Lots of friendly high school chicks. Roadhouse seems like a solid "My First Waitressing Gig" for those who work here.
My parents liked it. It's close to Baylor. Do the math. They win at picking a location.
Overall, though, there's really not much to set Roadhouse apart from Outback, Logan's, or any number of chain steak joints in town. Maybe they should've been "Indiana Roadhouse," gone full retard with the theme, and stole Quaker Steak's Days of Thunder.
