Brownies and Zucchini

Full Disclosure:  I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post.  The opinions are completely my own.

A few years ago a new restaurant opened on the east side of Madison.  This restaurant was a chain…..but it was also a restaurant that many people were excited to see open.  People were so excited that the parking lot was overflowing for weeks….ok it is still overflowing now, years later.

This restaurant is Texas Roadhouse.

I have relatives that want to go here every time that they are in town, because they have been to it in other cities and love it.  I’ve been there a few times with them so this time  I thought I’d review my experience for you!

One of the things that stands out about Texas Roadhouse is the peanuts.  They are known for having shelled peanuts as available for all customers, just as places might have bar snacks.  But not only are they peanuts, but you are encouraged to throw the shells on the floor when you eat them!  Its all a part of their roadhouse, southern home-cooking kind of style.  You would think that this makes the place seem messy, but it really doesn’t, its just all part of the atmosphere.

Along with the free peanuts, you also get bread as an appetizer.  This bread is SO good.  It is always hot and fresh and comes with a fantastic slightly sweet cinnamon butter.  Bread is definitely a weakness of mine, and this bread is SO hard to stop myself from eating a ton of before my meal.  Or during my meal….

I also started my meal off with a strawberry margarita.  I am usually not much of a tequila girl, but they do margaritas right here, and this one was definitely delicious.

My meal came with two sides.  I chose a side salad, and a baked potato that came with my meal.  This salad was good, and definitely one of the more hearty side salads that I’ve had.

For my dinner (along with the baked potato) I had the chicken critters, which are basically their version of chicken tenders.  These were good, but different than the generic chicken tenders that you find at a lot of chain restaurants. The breading is much more, um, BREADy.  It is still definitely crispy on the outside but it is thicker than a lot of others.  Not a bad thing, just different.  Oh, and I LOVE baked potatoes, this one was no exception.  Potato, butter, baked with salt on the outside, yum!

Overall the meal was good, not spectacular, but definitely better than most chain restaurants.  A note about the atmosphere: I enjoy it, but if you don’t enjoy loud and even sometimes slightly dark restaurants, or you don’t like country music,  you won’t enjoy it.

Taste:  A-, not anything spectacular but definitely not bad.  It really is more about the atmosphere than fancy food.
Cost: B+, considering that all of the entrees come with two sides, plus bread, and peanuts, it isn’t so bad.  Not super cheap, but a good price for the amount of food you get.

Would I go there again? Yeah, I think so. If nothing else, just for the bread…..

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Filed under: Restaurant Review Tagged: | food, madison, restaurant review, Texas Roadhouse