Texas Roadhouse Tries To Hide One Big Secret About Its Fries

Texas Roadhouse, one of the most popular steakhouse chains in America, is well-known for its claim that nearly everything it serves is made from scratch. That's quite a big claim to make within the chain-restaurant industry, which is notorious for cutting corners — often serving frozen, packaged, or microwaved food. But Texas Roadhouse proudly boasts that its steaks are hand-cut, the bread is baked every five minutes, and all the sides are freshly made. Although each restaurant reportedly has an in-house butcher and a baker, it seems that not every restaurant has an in-house steak fries maker. A representative for Texas Roadhouse confirmed to Eat This, Not That that the fries come to the restaurant frozen.

In Tasting Table's ranking of 12 popular Texas Roadhouse menu items, steak fries were placed toward the bottom of the list, precisely because it was obvious they weren't fresh. They were neither crispy nor hot, the two attributes we're all looking for. Other customers reported finding their fries still partially frozen or soggy, making it painfully obvious they weren't made from scratch. It appears that the restaurant tries to compensate for the lack of freshness by vigorously seasoning the fries, as some customers are complaining that the fries are too salty. It's perhaps not surprising that we've placed the steak fries on the very top of our list of 7 items you should avoid ordering from Texas Roadhouse.

Steak fries are not the only thing on the Texas Roadhouse menu that's misaligned with the made-from-scratch claim. The mac & cheese on the kids menu is none other than boxed Kraft Mac & Cheese. Although the restaurant has stated in the past that the origin of its mac & cheese is openly disclosed on the menu (and that some locations even make it from scratch), some restaurant goers have disputed this claim after being unpleasantly surprised by the overpriced boxed meal.

Forty-four percent of the menu at Texas Roadhouse is represented by steaks, so it's safe to say the restaurant is pretty serious about its meat — so much so that you can even pick your own steak. Having an in-house butcher at the restaurant means the steaks are hand-cut ... unless you're ordering the porterhouse. The porterhouse T-bone steak is the only steak cut Texas Roadhouse might cook from frozen. According to two users on Reddit who claim to work at the restaurant, some locations don't hand-cut the porterhouse because they lack the appropriate saw, and so the managers at those locations instruct the staff to not directly recommend the steak.