Critic's Review
It's been a long time since I've been to a longhorn; the 3 nearby locations used to be a regular stop. I found a Darden gift card I'd forgotten about, so it was time to have some steak for lunch.
Their online menu is TRASH. Many of these dopey chains have removed the full menu with the descriptions of their products with a clunky online ordering system that makes it way too difficult to see the totality of their product. The Longhorn's site is particular disastrous. Luckily not much has changed, except for higher prices.
The place was uncharacteristically loud at 2:45p as there was a Christmas party lunch going in the back. I got the dunce booth next to the ramp; very secluded but also with a bit of privacy.
A server brought me iced tea and took my order: wild west shrimp appetizer and a flatiron steak, medium rare. I also took the break, mainly because it comes with butter that would work on the broccoli I ordered with the steak.
I instructed her to bring out the steak whenever it was ready rather than staggering the order and the shrimp came out in 7 minutes.
This $10.75 App is similar to the $18 calamari offering at Capital Grille (same owners); fried shrimp with hot peppers.
The sauce is a terrific house ranch dress, which pairs magnificently with the shrimp. One of the tastiest apps in the city.
Music here is Country Christmas, with Toby Kieth's "Frosty the Snowman" mixed in with Thompson Square and The Mavericks.
The steak came out 10 minutes later.
I added the butter to the broccoli but there was also some sort of seasoning on the florets; the vegetables were properly steamed. The flatiron was perfectly medium rare.
To me a flatiron is the perfect in-between a sirloin and a filet; more tender than sirloin with a beefier taste (and lower price) than a filet. I'd much rather have a flatiron than a filet.
I wasn't eating all of this food (I'd also sampled the warm, freshly baked bread); I ended up taking half of the shrimp home for a late night snack and also about half of the steak.
My server was very attentive until the end; which by now it was 3:45 and in that dreaded dead period when servers eat and change guard. It was quite a long time before she came back to take the card after dropping off the check.
Conclusion
This was one of the better meals I've had at a longhorn, which is really an Outback copycat owned by Darden. I used to really like Outback, and I liked what I had today. At Capital Grille this would have cost over $50 and not been any better, save the white glove service.
Review 8/27/18
I was headed to the LongHorn the other day but diverted to Duffy's when I remembered that the Yankees had a day game. This Longhorn is about the same distance from downtown as their Fort Lauderdale location, and about as easy to get to; it's literally right off of 595 on University. The grounds are strangely overgrown; typically you don't want your big $5000 sign covered up by palm trees.
LongHorn Steakhouse is a member of the Darden Family, who also own Capital Grille, Olive Garden and Season's 52.
The first thing I noticed about this location was the smell; it wasn't a good smell. Unlike Fort Lauderdale, which has a big horseshoe bar in the front, this place has a nook that's clearly separate from the dining room, probably not a bad place to have a beer and a steak at the bar.
I prefer the dining room, this one isn't bad decor-wise. After 10 minutes or so you don't notice the smell. They have a lot of longhorn-related decorations.
They ask you if you want bread, I didn't but I got in anyway. It reminded me of the mini-loaf you get at Outback or Boulder Creek on Long Island. Kind of sweet, with a nice mound of soft buttter. These steakhouses do the bread right.
They've added an "Under 500 calories" menu and their 7 oz flatiron steak had caught my eye. I also noticed that they added a Skirt Steak (Churrasco) with chimichurri, but I thought that a 6oz steak for $13.95 was a weak offering considering that you can get an 8oz at any Cuban place for $8.95 for lunch. I ordered the 7oz Flatiron with green beans.
They play country music; Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Chris Young. It's all very thematic. The steak comes out with minimal presentation.
One good thing about getting the bread is that you have a big thing of butter to lop onto your vegetables. The steaks here are seasoned, unlike the high end steakhouses that are afraid to offend the seasoning police. It has a nice flavor. I ordered the steak medium rare, and it came out leaning rare, but not bad.
The steak looked small, but it was enough for lunch. The beans were garbage; too skinny and too overdone; when beans are too skinny they're just all skin. And cut off the ends please; you're not being edgy by serving untrimmed beans.
This "meal" is listed at 400 calories; with the bread and butter it likely breached the 500 calorie threshold, but thankfully this isn't Season's 52; it was a pretty good steak.