25 Popular LongHorn Steakhouse Menu Items, Ranked

Oh, LongHorn Steakhouse. How devoted patrons love this chain for its quality service and excellent steak options. If you have ever dined there yourself, you have to admit the chain does deliver top-notch chow. We say that it's because they have every steak, chicken, and fried appetizer down to detailed specifications to ensure every plate of food goes out the same each time.

All employees, including servers, bartenders, and line cooks, have elaborate procedures to follow to ensure service and food are executed well each shift. You'd be surprised to know about all the menu hacks and juicy details LongHorn Steakhouse offers.

While several of LongHorn's menu items do receive rave reviews, not everything on the menu deserves an A+. We have tried every single food item more than a few times and have ranked them from worst to best to save you the trouble of ordering something less than exceptional. 

We hate to say it, but LongHorn's Shrimp & Lobster Chowder is not what you think it is. After a first spoonful, you'll notice the overpowering flavor of red bell pepper, followed by chunks of potato and corn. From there, you will find tiny popcorn shrimp swimming around but don't search too hard for the lobster. 

The creamy broth is made with a lobster base, but there are no actual chunks of that beloved shellfish. Some folks absolutely love the soup, which is why it has stood the test of time, but we say all it is, is a glorified corn chowder.

The Texas Tonion is just meh. There is really no other way to put it. For just about $10, you receive fried onion petals with a zesty dip that does not excite the taste buds. Heck, the Tonion hardly wakes your taste buds up at all. Out of every appetizer on the menu (and every other starter is excellent), this one just doesn't cut it for us. 

You're better off saving your appetite for a beefy steak or something sweet at the end. If you are dying for something fried and crunchy to start, consider the Wild West Shrimp or Spicy Chicken Bites instead. 

Another soup that several LongHorn guests seem to enjoy is the Loaded Potato Soup, but we wouldn't recommend it, primarily because of its high fat and sodium content. One bowl contains 380 calories and 27 grams of fat. That is more than half the amount of daily fat you should consume on a 1,500-calorie-per-day diet, per Healthline. 

Plus, the soup isn't all that tasty and is loaded with big chunks of potato, leaving little room for a filling entree afterward. We say save your appetite for the actual steak and potatoes meal and skip the loaded potato soup.

The Cowboy Pork Chops at LongHorn Steakhouse are really not that bad. Many of us know how easily pork chops can turn tough when overdone. Luckily, LongHorn tends to deliver juicy, tender pork consistently. But here's the thing — if you are at a steakhouse, why would you order cheap chops?

You can go to the grocery store and buy a few chops for just a few dollars, but at LongHorn you'll have to pay 20 bucks. If you aren't a steak person, you can get a much better bang for your buck by ordering the Red Rock Shrimp, Grilled Salmon, or Parmesan Crusted Chicken entree.

LongHorn Steakhouse used to sell delicious burgers. We remember the oldies like the Campfire Burger, stacked high with homemade potato chips and a barbecue drizzle. The Big Sky Burger was a hit, too, stuffed with shaved prime rib, buttermilk fried onion straws, and Swiss cheese. Alas, they decided to ditch that one too, when prime rib left the menu.

So, you might wonder what they left guests with. The regular old LH Burger. And that is pretty much all it is — a regular old burger. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion with your choice of American, Swiss, or cheddar cheese all come with it. But besides asking for general condiments, the burger doesn't have much oomph to it. Not as much as the former selections did. In America, you simply can't mess around with our burgers.

If you are all about ground beef and not a big fan of regular steaks, then perhaps you will enjoy the Chop Steak on your next visit. It's pretty much a burger patty topped with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and a fancy gravy that LongHorn has deemed "savory garlic herb sauce."

Personally, if we are taking a trip to a steakhouse, we won't order a Salisbury steak for dinner, because that is really all it is. Salisbury steak is a cheap, convenient dinner you can make for the family, but not exactly something we'd recommend ordering at LongHorn, especially compared to all the other delicious options.

We know there are a lot of Steakhouse Mac & Cheese lovers out there who are probably wondering why this side dish is being ranked so low. While the cheese sauce is delicious, and the cavatappi pasta shape and texture are always spot on, we can't get past the chewy chunks of bacon.

Prepping this side dish involves measuring the cheese sauce, pasta, and bacon, which are all added to a plastic container that is then warmed and added to the oval dish before additional toppings are added. Unfortunately, because the bacon sits in the prepped plastic container for some time, it softens and often comes out chewy and unpalatable. It's a bummer because the side dish is so close to being legendary but isn't there yet. Perhaps switching up prep specs could improve that side tenfold! 

Longhorn Steakhouse does a great job with its Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders. Each raw piece of poultry is hand battered with buttermilk and flour, then fried and sprinkled with a secret prairie dust seasoning. If you have ever ordered these, and they tasted less than flavorful, your line cook may have skimped you on the dust. 

Prairie Dust complements most entrees at LongHorn, and the tenders should come boldly spiced every time. Because they are hand-battered to order, you should receive fresh, hot, and crispy tenders every time. But, alas, they are just chicken tenders — a meal you can get literally anywhere else.

LongHorn has a decent list of legendary steaks on its menu, but some are better than others. The cut of beef, the marbling on the steak, and the way it is seasoned and cooked make a massive difference in flavor and texture. So where does that leave the lean Renegade Sirloin? Towards the bottom of the list, and here's why. 

We won't say the steak is bad. The Prairie Dust seasoning and flat-top grill combination are great, just not nearly as great as any of the fire-grilled steaks on the menu. The Renegade is an excellent option if you want something small yet flavorful without a lot of fat. For additional flavor, we recommend having it Parmesan crusted!

Strawberries & Cream Shortcake hasn't been around since the beginning of LongHorn, but boy, do people love the light and flavorful layered cake. The dessert is stacked with layers of shortcake, strawberry jam, and vanilla cream, then topped with fresh strawberries. The dessert is so popular you'll find almost the exact same cake at Olive Garden, another well-known Darden restaurant. 

While this one might not trump the Chocolate Stampede for the choco-holics out there, it sure does meet the needs of almost everyone else's taste buds. The moist and scrumptious cream cake makes a lovely dessert if you are looking for something light and sweet.

The LongHorn Salmon is quite tasty. Each salmon filet is placed in a bourbon marinade for four hours to ensure the raw fish can suck up all that flavor before reaching the grill. Once it touches the scorching flattop, cooks are trained to regularly baste it with additional bourbon marinade to bring on even more flavor.

Right before the salmon is placed over a bed of rice pilaf, the fish will receive one final brush of marinade to ensure quality sweet bourbon flavor reaches your tastebuds in each bite. As long as the salmon is cooked nicely and not overdone, you should receive a lovely (and healthy) dinner entrée every time. 

The 7-Pepper Sirloin Salad is a fantastic option for anyone hungry for a steak without the additional heaviness of potatoes for a side dish. If you love blue cheese, that's an added bonus to an already delicious salad because the bed of fresh field greens comes sprinkled with blue cheese crumbles and pairs beautifully with the homemade blue cheese dressing.

Beyond fresh greens and yummy salad dressing, one thing stands out above the rest — the 7-pepper seasoning. This seasoning is a pepper-lovers dream and complements the sirloin salad so exquisitely. If you get any salad on the menu, please let it be this one.

Spicy Chicken Bites are pretty much just a few tenders cut into bite-sized pieces, then battered and fried. Once they leave the fryolator, they get tossed in a sweet chili-ginger sauce before reaching the table. We understand that you can get boneless chicken bites in many restaurants, but you cannot find this sweet chili-ginger sauce anywhere but LongHorn. 

If you love the tangy, bright orange sauce as much as we do, we recommend ordering chicken tenders as an entrée and requesting the tenders be tossed in before plating. This secret hack is something they will undoubtedly accommodate for you if you ask.

After slow-roasting Baby Back Ribs for a few hours before opening the restaurant, LongHorn cooks will cool and grill a rack per order. Because they are rubbed with a special rib seasoning before the slow roast, you'll find plenty of flavor without the barbecue sauce. While cooking over a hot flame on the char grill, line cooks generously baste them with barbecue sauce. 

We'll be honest with you — the ribs themselves are almost always fall-off-the-bone tender, but the sauce is on the sweeter side. If you want to enjoy the taste of meat with little sauce, consider requesting sauce on the side.

LongHorn does an excellent job with its French Onion Soup. The onion-filled broth has tons of flavor and soaks right into the bread slices before being topped with cheese. Let's talk about that topping for a minute, shall we? The thick-cut Swiss cheese is placed over the top before panko breadcrumbs, garlicky herbs, and shredded provolone cheese are added too. 

From there, the bowl will reach the broiler making the top perfectly crisped. The soup is a bit filling thanks to the generously cheesy topping, making the soup a perfect addition to any combination you order during a lunch visit. 

LongHorn's Redrock Grilled Shrimp is super popular and downright delicious. The cooks top each skewer with a garlicky butter called smoky tomato butter, which gives the shrimp tremendous flavor. Smoky tomato butter is essentially garlic butter combined with a sundried tomato paste. 

We combine sundried tomato pesto with garlic butter at home and make our copycat version. It is delicious every time. For just about 20 bucks, you can order eight or 12 shrimp and get away with three side dishes. It usually comes with rice and two sides, but you can substitute the rice for something else. If you are feeling steak but want to try the shrimp, consider ordering a combination with either one or two skewers. 

The Chocolate Stampede cake has existed for many years, and we hope it sticks around forever! The decadent layered cake is a chocoholics dream, loaded with six different types of chocolate and finished with a final drizzle of chocolate sauce totaling seven types.

The massive dessert is perfect for sharing, but it also boxes up and holds well in the fridge, considering you won't need to do any warming and cooling. We've enjoyed the cake several times over the years, and it never gets old. It's no wonder LongHorn named it the chocolate stampede because that's literally what you get with every bite — a stampede of rich and indulgent chocolate mousse and cake.

The LongHorn Porterhouse is one of those steaks that doesn't mess around, and we will tell you why. You receive two steaks in one, with all the benefits of fire-grilled bone-in deliciousness. The filet and New York strip steaks that come with an entire 22-ounce LongHorn Porterhouse alone make this a king-style steak, so be sure to order if you are extra hungry. 

You'll also love the unique char taste of the flame-kissed steak. Best of all, bone-in steaks carry additional flavor thanks to the bone, which slows down the cooking process near the bone and delivers more tender meat.

The 12-ounce New York strip is another fantastic cut of beef, but people usually don't order it for superb tenderness. Most choose this steak for its bold meaty flavor. If you love the genuine taste of meat and don't want to mess around with any bone or additional marbling, then you'll surely appreciate this steak. 

Like some of the other popular menu items, the strip is enhanced with additional flavor thanks to the dancing flames it sits over during the grilling process. If you're feeling up to a decent-sized entree and you want to really appreciate the intense beefy flavor, we recommend giving this a try, cooked either medium or medium rare. 

Not everyone has had the opportunity to taste the LongHorn Steak Tips because they are a regional menu item only found in the New England states. These tasty tips come bagged up in a sweet and savory marinade which means full flavor and all-around tenderness every single time. 

Once the bite-sized chunks of beef hit the flattop grill and are mixed with mushrooms, onions, and more marinade, they shine in the flavor category. If you are ever in the area and decide to stop in at LongHorn for lunch or dinner, be sure to give these succulent beef tips a try. You won't regret it.

LongHorn's Wild West Shrimp has been around for many years, and guests love ordering it time and again. A large portion of popcorn shrimp is first hand-breaded and then fried to crispy perfection before being tossed with pepperoncini, cherry peppers, Prairie Dust, and garlic butter. Before going out to guests, the appetizer receives a lemon wedge and ramekin of homemade ranch dressing, which pairs flawlessly with the app. 

The ranch has a way of cooling down the mild kick of spice thanks to the peppers. If you're going to order any appetizer, we recommend the Wild West Shrimp or the Cheddar Stuffed Mushrooms — which leads us to our favorite starter of them all.  

Cheddar Stuffed Mushrooms are, no doubt, the very best appetizer LongHorn has to offer, plus they won't fill you up as the other hors d'oeuvres will. When ordering this starter, you receive about five mushrooms per order, each stuffed with herbed garlic cheese and some of that famous panko garlic topping you'll find on other dishes. 

While the cheese-stuffed mushrooms are obviously the star of the show, you'll swoon over the four-cheese sauce they are plated on. Make sure to save up some complimentary bread; it is just what you will need to sop up the extra cheese sauce.

Flo's Filet is a super popular menu item, especially when paired with the lobster tail or Red Rock Grilled Shrimp. The steak itself is beyond tender — some say you can cut it with a butter knife to boast how soft the steak is.

Because the filet is cut from the section of the tenderloin, the balance of flavor and texture is superior to other cuts of beef. You'll find LongHorn's filet is no exception once you dig in and have a bite for yourself. The dainty 6-ounce steak is lovely for small appetites, but they also offer a 9-ounce version if you are feeling up for a few extra bites. 

Long ago, the chain created a unique chicken entrée for ranch lovers, and the menu item has stuck around for decades since. The Parmesan-Crusted Chicken is one of those meals that people just cannot get enough of, and we'll just have to tell you why. After grilling two 6-ounce chicken breasts, the cooks will add two generous scoops of Parmesan topping.

The topping is essentially LongHorn's secret homemade ranch (which is fantastic) combined with grated Parmesan cheese. From there, panko bread crumbs, garlic, herbs, and shredded provolone are added over that. The chicken sits under a hot broiler until the top crisps up to a gorgeous golden brown hue.

The moist chicken, smothered with this ranch-filled topping, beats any other chicken entrée you'll find in other chain restaurants. Don't believe us? Go try it yourself.

Anyone who has had this beast of a steak will tell you that there is no other like the Outlaw Ribeye. It is, by far, the best menu item LongHorn has to offer. The bone-in steak is cooked on the char grill, meaning beyond the delicious seasoning, your steak will come flavored with bits of charred beef thanks to the blaze that comes with each flame.

Ribeye steaks, in general, tend to be super flavorful and ultra beefy thanks to the fattiness that comes with the cut. The outlaw's side bone doesn't just embellish the steak; it also leads to a more tender and juicier cut. If you are looking for a steak with flavorful meat, enhanced with char lines and a tenderness that cannot be beaten, then the Outlaw Ribeye is your steak.