15 Things Steak Enthusiasts Should Know About LongHorn Steakhouse

LongHorn Steakhouse, famous for its high-quality cuts of beef and Western ambiance, is a solid place to get a steak. With more than 600 locations scattered across 43 states, it's also a pretty convenient place to find a steak — especially if you've ended up in a food desert or strip mall type of area, where lesser chains abound. This alone might be a good enough reason to give LongHorn Steakhouse a try. But we like to go the extra mile, so we've also put together a series of interesting tidbits to go with your tenderloin. 

That is to say, if you're a steak lover, you might be interested in knowing about some of the curious, amazing, or just plain weird things that go on at LongHorn Steakhouse on any given Tuesday. We'll cover everything from the challenging circumstances surrounding its origin story to the inside scoop on which steaks to order for the most enjoyable experience. So, let's giddy up and take a deeper look into this Western-style restaurant with a cozy setting and good steaks.

The name LongHorn Steakhouse conjures up images of vast expanses of cattle fields, possibly surrounded by ranches and gates topped with steer skulls with protruding horns. But LongHorn Steakhouse, for all its Texas bluster, was in fact founded in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia — which has a whole different type of vibe. But maybe that's the point. While some Texans take their unique Western style for granted, outsiders might look westward and see the potential to build a business around it. 

In fact, founder George McKerrow Jr. later told Rough Draft Atlanta, "If you go back to 1980, you had a fascination with country music and the Western motif." Amid the popularity of family steakhouse chains and the movie "Urban Cowboy," McKerrow himself was admittedly a fan of Texas-style "honky-tonk saloons" and wanted to recreate something similar. He explained to Atlanta Business Chronicle, "Our original concept was very simple, and my vision was to capitalize on the evolving style of people's dining preferences."

With diners perhaps attracted by a similarly romantic idea of the West, LongHorn Steakhouse has since been going strong — although that famous steer head that conjures those images of Western glory didn't show up in the restaurant's signage until 1996. Nowadays, these restaurants tend to be most popular on the East Coast, with Florida alone playing host to upwards of 70 restaurants. Even New Jersey, with a much smaller population, has 17 of them, as of this writing.

LongHorn Steakhouse is one of those "everything" restaurants that seems to be appropriate for almost any kind of occasion. It makes for a great destination for family dinners, it's perfect for casual business lunches, and it may even accommodate small celebratory gatherings like birthdays or bachelor parties. However, none of these events (except perhaps for the last one) provide any sort of clue as to what kind of establishment previously existed in the location of the very first LongHorn Steakhouse that George McKerrow Jr. opened in Atlanta back in 1981. That establishment was an adult bookstore, and we'd wager you'd never guess that unless you read it somewhere else. 

To be fair, the X-rated shop — located on Peachtree Road — had already closed by the time plans for LongHorn Steakhouse got going, so there was no actual overlap. Plus, plenty of renovations were done before the restaurant opened. And by 2014, this steakhouse location had been transformed once again into an Enterprise Rent-A-Car. But hey, it can be fun to know the history of a place.

Oftentimes, force majeure events like massive storms or global pandemics can cause the ruin of a new business — especially restaurants, which are already fairly vulnerable to all sorts of market and social fluctuations. But for LongHorn Steakhouse, the opposite proved to be true. As the story goes, a major snowstorm in January 1982 rolled through the Atlanta area — and not only did it not cause the restaurant to go out of business, but it reversed its fortunes.

Geroge McKerrow Jr., who owned the only LongHorn Steakhouse restaurant in operation so far (then-known as LongHorn Steaks Restaurant & Saloon), was on the verge of financial collapse when the three-day storm hit and forced many drivers in the area, stranded in the snow, to take refuge in the restaurant. Quick-thinking employees immediately took advantage of the situation, as LongHorn Steakhouse president Dave George told AirTrain Magazine in 2006. "We pulled a sign out front that said, 'Drinks $1 While It Snows,'" he explained.

The gimmick seemed to work, because the place reportedly filled up after that, as people came for the drinks and stayed for the steaks. Word-of-mouth praise for the steakhouse spread quickly, sealing the successful future of this now-famous restaurant chain. "We opened the second restaurant 22 months later, and it was an instant success," McKerrow told the Atlanta Business Chronicle. "The third and [fourth] came soon after and, after 10 years, we had 19 restaurants, and we went public in 1992."

LongHorn Steakhouse is a pretty big chain — and big chains don't stay afloat just by flying by the seat of their pants. There has to be some form of coordination, some master plan, some centralized form of authority that keeps everything together, consistent, and moving along like a well-oiled machine. That authority, in this case, has been Darden Restaurants since 2007 (LongHorn was previously owned and operated by RARE Hospitality International Inc.). This large food conglomerate owns a number of other famous chain restaurants, including Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Olive Garden, and The Capital Grille.

"The two things I learned about being a publicly traded company, it's never about the money and it is always about the money, and you are beholding to very educated Harvard MBAs that want everything to fit into a conforming model," George McKerrow Jr., who left LongHorn in 2001, reflected to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. "... And that is why so many restaurants lose their soul when they go public." 

Luckily, that doesn't seem to be the case here. Despite the size of the muscle behind the LongHorn Steakhouse's management (Darden Restaurants is a Fortune 500 company with more than 1,800 restaurants and 175,000 employees), it seems it's been able to continue cultivating a cozy neighborhood feel, perhaps thanks to the dim lighting, laidback ambiance, and delicious yet casual fare. Local individualized touches also no doubt play a part, as many of the restaurants are franchises.

One of LongHorn Steakhouse's claims to fame is the fact that it really takes care to serve up good-quality steaks, particularly by making sure the meat is always fresh and has never been frozen. Not every chain of this size can make that same claim. This is likely based on the idea, backed by scientific evidence, that freezing meat can have negative effects on its color and flavor as a result of the formation of ice crystals on the meat. 

That said, storing meat by properly packaging it beforehand, and by not forgetting it in the freezer for months on end, can help to mitigate the negative effects of freezing meat. But using this as a tagline probably doesn't have as much of a ring from a marketing standpoint. Plus, a million things can go wrong when doing this on a commercial scale: perhaps the temperature of the freezer isn't right, or the meat doesn't freeze fast enough. In other words, we're glad LongHorn Steakhouse is sticking to its no-freeze guns.

Many large chains that serve steaks only provide a handful of options in the hearty meat department. But LongHorn Steakhouse, true to its name, has a long list of different cuts of steak to choose from. According to the restaurant's own site, some of its most legendary options include the Outlaw ribeye, Flo's filet, the fire-grilled T-bone, and the LongHorn porterhouse. None of these are for the faint of heart. But if you do need something a little lighter, you could go for the Renegade sirloin. There's even a kid-friendly sirloin for the little ones.

Adding to the menu's diversity is the plethora of sides that you can choose, from salads to soups and even surf and turf options, where you can order your cut of meat with a side of lobster or shrimp. Whether you are going for moderation or excess, there is seemingly something for everyone at LongHorn Steakhouse (but be sure to check out the online nutrition and allergen guide and talk to your server about any dietary restrictions). Though let's be honest, this is likely more an occasion for excess than moderation.

When you walk into any given steakhouse, you might not expect your steak to be prepared by anyone specific. But at LongHorn Steakhouse, you can be reasonably sure a grill master will prepare your meat. As you can imagine, the title isn't easy to earn: It takes extra on-the-job training, including on how to properly season a steak, how to prepare the meat according to the type of cut, and how to ensure perfect doneness every time, without fail. There can only be about two or three grill masters at each LongHorn location. 

Once grill master status is achieved, a chef can compete in an even more rigorous selection process to become a LongHorn Steakhouse steak master. For instance, in 2023, LongHorn bestowed the title of Grill Master Legend on an Ohio employee who had grilled 1 million steaks. Each year, some 5,000 experienced grill masters compete to win the coveted award, which included a $15,000 cash prize along with the championship title going to a grill master in Florida in 2024.

Many restaurants are careful about hiding their culinary secrets. If you particularly like a dish and venture into the kitchen to ask the chef for pointers, you might be met with a polite no or a brusque rejection. This is not the case with LongHorn Steakhouse. In fact, the chain is so open about its culinary knowledge that it even once hosted a hotline to help home grillers improve the steaks they made at home.

Known as the LongHorn Grill Us Hotline, the service was launched in 2013 to allow LongHorn lovers to call into the restaurant and speak to a certified grill master ahead of the 4th of July weekend that year. The grill masters were on hand to answer all sorts of questions, from how to choose the best cut of steak to how to properly set up their grill.

If you're going to LongHorn Steakhouse hoping to find a low-fat meal, you might want to try a different establishment. That said, you can still keep your fat intake moderate even at a place like this, so long as you carefully scour the menu and the nutrition guide. To that end, you may find it helpful to note that the Outlaw ribeye steak is the meal that contains the most amount of fat on the entire menu.

At 87 grams of fat, it beats out such whoppers as the LongHorn 22 oz. (which clocks in at 67 grams) and the LH Burger (which contains 63). The Outlaw ribeye steak also doesn't joke around in terms of calories: a single serving will set you back 1,250 for the day. This is almost as much as the LongHorn 22 oz., at 1,280 calories, but much less than the full rack of baby back ribs, which has 1,630 calories.

According to a former LongHorn Steakhouse employee's report to Tasting Table in 2023, steaks at the chain are either cooked on a flat-top grill, which is a flat surface where the meat doesn't come into direct contact with a flame, or a char grill, which is a grated contraption that allows flames to reach the meat. Both are excellent cooking methods, but she claims that the char-grilling method is superior for all cuts of meat in all cases, quipping, "We love flames, and so do steaks." Indeed, some foods just cook better on a charcoal grill.

Many steaks on the menu automatically get cooked on the char grill, including the Outlaw ribeye and the porterhouse. But it may be worth requesting that your other steaks also get cooked on the char grill, including the filet mignon. The direct flames help improve the flavor of the meat and work with the seasoning to create a nice, crunchy outer crust. For an even better effect, choose one of LongHorn Steakhouse's iconic seasoning blends.

If you like Parmesan crusts, rest assured that at LongHorn Steakhouse, you can add Parmesan crusts to practically any dish, at least according to our exclusive with a former LongHorn employee. This includes your favorite steak cut, if you so desire. The topping is made with homemade ranch dressing, grated Parmesan cheese, garlic, herbs, and panko breadcrumbs, and it seems to go well with chicken above all, but also with a number of other LongHorn mainstays.

As the former employee puts it, "With almost a decade of Longhorn employment under my belt, I have seen just about everything parm crusted." She goes on to specifically mention parm-crusted steak tips, chicken tenders, salmon, and even mashed potatoes. So, if you want to have something parm crusted that may seem unusual, there's no need to feel self-conscious about it. It's probably nothing the servers or kitchen staff haven't seen before.

When you go to LongHorn Steakhouse, you really should just stick to the steak. This is not to be snobby about the matter, it's just that if you were thinking you might avoid some extra calorie intake by ordering a salad in the place of a steak, you might be in for a disappointment. That's because many of the salads at LongHorn have as many calories, if not more, than some of the steak cuts. Unless you can somehow finagle a plain green salad with nothing more than oil and vinegar as a dressing, you're going to be dealing with salads that have high concentrations of sugars and fats in their toppings.

For instance, the grilled chicken and strawberry salad has 530 calories and 41 grams of sugar, while the LongHorn Caesar salad with salmon has a whopping 800 calories to its name. You may even have to be careful with the plain veggie sides. This writer's order of steamed broccoli on a recent visit was tasty, to be sure, but it also came with a suspiciously copious amount of butter.

If you love steak but hate the hefty price tag that often comes with it, consider heading to LongHorn Steakhouse for lunch instead of dinner. Although many of the items on the menu will be the same with the same portion sizes, the prices are a little lower — perhaps enough to make it worth your while, as long as you don't mind missing out on potential extra sides.

For instance, at a location in Massachusetts, you can get an Outlaw ribeye with a side salad for $31.49 for lunch, while a dinner order of the same steak, which comes with a salad and an additional side, will set you back $32.99. This may not seem like a huge difference, but if you order many dishes, or you go to LongHorn often, it adds up. The lunch menu is available Monday-Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at most locations.

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the restaurant industry as a whole, causing some restaurants to have to fold completely while others were able to implement creative fixes or extensive overhauls to stay afloat. One such restaurant was LongHorn Steakhouse, which survived the scourge but did have to make some changes to remain profitable.

As a former LongHorn employee reported to Tasting Table, the restaurant chain was forced to ax its seasonal menu, which was a popular feature that appeared every three months. The supply chain challenges that came in the wake of the pandemic, and which still linger today, made it too difficult for the restaurant to introduce new menu items this way. It instead chose to stick to its tried-and-true LongHorn Steakhouse menu. One mainstay item that disappeared from the menu, however, was the prime rib, which had apparently never been very profitable and wasn't worth hanging on to for that reason.

By this point in the article, you must be jonesing for a LongHorn Steakhouse steak. Why else would you have stuck with us this long? But if you don't have any restaurants near you, take heart, because there may be one coming to your neighborhood soon. In fact, LongHorn Steakhouse's parent company, Darden Restaurants, announced in 2023 that it would be opening new locations throughout that year and 2024, and the latter isn't over just yet.

In particular, the company plans on opening some 10 to 20 new LongHorn Steakhouses, along with a number of restaurants belonging to its other chains. This has been the direct result of increased growth for the company, which can only mean good things for the longevity of LongHorn Steakhouse. One of the apparent reasons for this, as a Darden Restaurants spokesperson told CoStar, is that the chain (and others under the food conglomerate) consistently prices below inflation.