What's The Best-Selling Steak At Texas Roadhouse?

America loves steak, but even more than that it seems like we love steak from Texas Roadhouse. The cowboy-themed steakhouse has been one of the biggest success stories in the restaurant world recently, with 12 straight years of increasing business, including a massive 14% jump in 2023, even as the many other sit-down chains suffer slowdowns due to inflation.

Although there are several non-steak offerings at Texas Roadhouse, some of which you should avoid, more than 40% of the company's menu is steak, and each location sells an average of over $1 million of steak per year. Those are a lot of big numbers, but Texas Roadhouse's best-selling steak of the bunch is surprisingly humble — a 6-ounce USDA Choice sirloin steak.

That's right — Texas Roadhouse counts 10 different steaks among its offerings, including perennial favorites like ribeye and New York strip, but the less glamorous sirloin beats them all. For a value-focused business like Texas Roadhouse, this actually shouldn't be surprising, as the six-ounce sirloin is the chain's most affordable steak. And while your porterhouses might get all the attention, sirloin can still make a tasty, tender meal, especially in the hands of experienced cooks who know how to handle them.

Coming from near the hip of the cow, the sirloin gets a lot of exercise. That makes the meat leaner and a little tougher than more desirable cuts like tenderloin and ribeye and helps explain its affordability. However, higher quality sirloin can still make a great steak, as it's got plenty of flavor and the meat is still decently tender and marbled with some fat. That makes it a great budget steak.

The way Texas Roadhouse does business also likely helps elevate affordable cuts of steak. The company's USDA Choice-graded beef, while not as high-quality as Prime, is still considered very good while being lower in cost. Texas Roadhouse also employs meat cutters to break down the beef cuts in-house. This serves two purposes, making sure its steaks are as fresh as possible before they hit the griddle and reducing labor costs. 

Finally, despite not advertising it, the restaurant's employees have revealed that the cooks use a special seasoning mix, which can help boost the flavor of less rich cuts like sirloin. And if you didn't know, you can go the extra mile and ask to pick your own steak at Texas Roadhouse from the display case, so you can score the most-marbled pieces of even the cheaper sirloin. With food prices remaining high, it's clear America will take any chance they can get for an affordable, quality steak.