Omnivore - Longhorn: never again

The chain restaurant’s quality decreases

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My favorite dining experience for most of the last two years has been joining five or six friends every Friday night. This started when I went with them to Longhorn Steakhouse and was shocked by the cost and mediocre food. I told them that Atlanta is blessed with countless interesting restaurants, many of them much cheaper, where they could have better meals. Thus was born our Friday Night Dining Club.

Last Friday night we returned to Longhorn on Piedmont Road for what one of us, Ryan, called a “reset.” I found the food worse than my first experience of it. At least then, I could compliment the restaurant for its simple, grilled steaks. This time, I ordered nothing that I could finish except for a baked sweet potato in which sugar, butter, and cinnamon were dumped. Candy!

I ordered the filet “stuffed,” according to the menu, with white cheddar and bacon (photo above). There was nothing “stuffed” about it. The tasteless cheddar was dribbled on top of the gray meat along with a tangle of burnt bacon. The meat tasted like it had been “tenderized.” I found it so unpleasantly mealy that I gave half of it to our table’s garbage-mouth, Frank.

Just as unpleasant was a Caesar salad so drenched in dressing that it bordered on soup. I picked the cheese and croutons out and threw the bowl aside.

Bobby ordered an entree that looked like it needed return to the kitchen. It was another filet, topped with an offensively over-cooked lobster tail. His mom ordered a Cobb salad, probably the most acceptable dish on the table.

Perhaps it was because of Thanksgiving the day before, but most of the restaurant was empty. I’m not going back.