Properly cooking a steak is somewhere between an art and a science. There are multiple variables that come into play: the thickness, type, and quality of the cut; its temperature, seasoning, and marinade; and the cooking method itself.
Get them all right and it’s a culinary delight. Get even one wrong and you may be guilty of a crime against cattle.
The latter purportedly happened to one Texas Roadhouse customer earlier this month. On Oct. 10, Kort (@kortlynn333) posted a video showing the disappointing takeout she says she got from the chain steakhouse’s Visalia, California, location.
“Visalia Texas Roadhouse do better!! Ordered the New York Strip medium!” a voiceover on Kort’s TikTok says. “Also got the smothered chicken with onions AND jack cheese!”
The steak in the video is red and raw-looking with a very thin amount of the edge seared—in all likelihood, cooked rare. The chicken is missing the pepper jack cheese. Kort shows the receipt to prove that she did, in fact, order the steak medium and the chicken with cheese.
Kort’s TikTok has nearly 37,000 views as of this writing.
Mistakes can happen in any restaurant. After all, on a busy night, they’ll often serve hundreds of customers. At that volume, there’s bound to be a mishap or two.
Still, Kort’s post has people weighing in on Texas Roadhouse and its Visalia location specifically. It’s further giving rise to questions about whether chain restaurants, steakhouses in particular, are inferior.
The rise of chain restaurants
People have been dining in restaurants for thousands of years. For much of that time, the vast majority of restaurants were sole proprietorships, meaning each had its own particular flavor.
There was no such thing as a chain restaurant in America until early in the 20th century, when A&W (yes, like the root beer) and White Castle opened for business within a few years of one another.
In the century since, chain restaurants have flourished. From Maine to Mississippi to Hawaii and beyond, you can walk into a Texas Roadhouse and expect essentially the same dining experience.
There’s comfort in the familiar, and in a country as vast as ours, it’s nice to be able to have that common experience.
But not everyone is a fan of chain restaurants. Critics say too much of their food is pre-fab and that the emphasis on consistency creates a generic quality.
There can admittedly be something jarring about going into a restaurant that thoroughly clashes with the local culture. A Texas Roadhouse in Houston is one thing, after all; one in Wahiawa quite another.
Down with chain steakhouses?
Some people who commented on Kort’s TikTok said that you should never get steak from a chain.
“Your first mistake was going to a chain steakhouse restaurant, especially in Visalia,” a person going by Cassiopeia wrote, adding, “Please always avoid chain restaurants like that if you want quality.”
A second agreed, “Don’t order [steaks] at Texas Roadhouse; just get the apps and burgers. Cook your own steak. (Their steak is bland and unseasoned).”
Texas Roadhouse did not immediately respond to an email from the Mary Sue.
It’s also true that there’s sometimes quite a difference in quality between locations, even in the same town.
As a user named Ashley opined about the Visalia location in response to Kort’s post, “Their food is so Mid!”
Briana offered, “The one in Fresno is better.”
Others came to the chain’s defense. A woman going by knottypiiine said Kort’s steak “looks delicious.”
“I love the Visalia Texas Roadhouse,” she said.
Kort may not have liked her meal that night, but that doesn’t mean she’s off Texas Roadhouse for good.
“We love Texas Roadhouse, but this time I was so disappointed in [how] the steak was cooked,” she said.
Elsewhere in the comments, Kort said she had requested a refund. It’s not clear if she’s received one. Kort did not immediately respond to a direct message sent via TikTok.
@kortlynn333 So disappointed and called them and waited for someone to answer and they never answered! #texasroadhouse #disappointed #steak #raw #visalia ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
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