The Only Steak Cut Texas Roadhouse Might Cook From Frozen

Texas Roadhouse prides itself on its hand-cut steaks, slow-cooked ribs, house-made rolls, and tasty side dishes. Each restaurant has a skilled butcher and a baker on staff to ensure that the chain's various steak cuts are properly prepared and its rolls are baked to perfection. According to Texas Roadhouse, every steak is hand-cut by an in-house meat cutter. You can even ask to pick out your own Texas Roadhouse steak before it's cooked. 

Texas Roadhouse's success story is as legendary as its delicious steak seasoning. There are over 700 Texas Roadhouse locations worldwide, and each restaurant's meat cutters carve up approximately $1 million worth of meat per year. It turns out, however, that the Texas Roadhouse porterhouse T-bone steak, which is commonly served as a great alternative to the standard T-bone steak, might not be cut in-house and may sometimes even be shipped frozen to Texas Roadhouse locations. 

Eat This, Not That! reports that a "self-described meat cutter" who works at Texas Roadhouse emailed to explain that porterhouse T-bone steaks are shipped pre-cut and frozen to that employee's unidentified restaurant location. And Reddit user Tychillyst, who also claims to be a Texas Roadhouse employee, commented that porterhouse T-bone steaks are shipped frozen to their (also unidentified) location, too. While these claims of frozen steaks are difficult to verify, we did uncover more information about Texas Roadhouse's porterhouse T-bone steaks.

If you've ever been to a Texas Roadhouse, you know that the on-site meat-cutting operation is the real deal. Meat cutters work in 34-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, according to Texas Roadhouse, and their hand-cut steaks are proudly displayed in a meat case that rivals any butcher shop's beef display. Their work area, however, isn't huge, and this might explain why the restaurant chain's porterhouse T-bone steaks may not always be cut in-house. According to Yucatán Magazine, Mexico's first Texas Roadhouse, which opened in Mérida in 2018, planned to bring in vacuum-sealed porterhouse T-bone steaks from an outside location. 

Reddit user KSoccerman, who claims to have worked at several Midwestern Texas Roadhouse locations, stated that the porterhouse T-bone steaks are not cut in-house because the restaurants don't have bone saws on-site. Also, an unknown person created a Quizlet flashcard set for the Texas Roadhouse restaurant employees in Greenville, South Carolina. This Quizlet set includes a flashcard stating that the porterhouse T-bone steak is not cut in-house because the restaurant lacks a bone saw. So, while we can't verify that all Texas Roadhouse restaurants have their porterhouse T-bone steaks cut off-site, it seems likely that at least some locations follow this practice. This could explain why the porterhouse lands itself on our list of items that you should avoid ordering from Texas Roadhouse.