Are The Rolls At Texas Roadhouse Actually Getting Smaller?

Texas Roadhouse has one of the best free bread offerings on the scene, but some customers aren't happy. Social media is putting Texas Roadhouse through the ringer after a slew of videos recently came out showing how tiny the steakhouse's bread rolls had become. Some people were quick to assume the worst, decrying a popular restaurant chain taking advantage of its customers, but the story doesn't seem so clear cut. 

Regarding when exactly the rolls got so small, one top comment read, "When everybody put them on the map and kept talking about how good they are so of course they had to make them little." The comment was peppered with angry emojis as the commenter vented over what they perceived to be impersonal, corporate greed. With all the talk of shrinkflation going around, their sentiment isn't entirely unwarranted; but a rise in popularity wouldn't necessarily lead to intentional shrinkage since the company likely wouldn't want to mess with a good thing. That free bread is what's known as a loss leader, where the company intends to lose money on the bread in the hopes that customers buy something else to make up for it.

Texas Roadhouse has responded to increased demand for its rolls in recent months by releasing a new frozen mini-rolls grocery product. But while the mini-rolls are clearly labeled mini, the rolls you get at the restaurant aren't labeled the same. So what gives? Is Texas Roadhouse trying to pull one over on us or is something else going on?

Although we don't know for certain, it appears that the tiny rolls some are getting as a side to the best-selling steak at Texas Roadhouse are due to human error more than corporate penny pinching. The company claims to make a fresh batch of rolls every five minutes, and part of that process involves allowing the dough to rise. As one commenter put it, "I work at Texas Roadhouse and basically it depends if the baker is taking [their] time to let them rise." Other posters backed up this claim, and still others suspect it was a one-off issue at a particular location, adding that all things bread are normal where they dine.

If whoever is cooking the bread makes a mistake or doesn't have the time to do it right, then there's no corporate conspiracy to take away all the things that we enjoy in life — only a single person who isn't making the rolls the way customers are accustomed to them being made. This is one reason why chain restaurants will usually go to extreme lengths to ensure that the food coming out of the kitchen looks and tastes exactly the same no matter what location you go to.

Shrinkflation is a real thing and it's almost certainly affecting your food budget, but the Texas Roadhouse rolls probably aren't where your wallet is getting hit. If the company was trying to tighten its belt at your expense, we're guessing it would start elsewhere.