Longhorn Steakhouse, Madison, Wisconsin, American Restaurant Details

Food:

I'm a sucker for top shelf food porn and I'll admit, I fell hard for the pictures of the steak sandwiches on the Longhorn website. So after salaciously ogling the glamour shots of the Tavern Steak sandwich, I acted on impulse and sped off to their outpost near West Towne Mall.

When you walk into the recently built restaurant, it's abundantly clear you're in a Western-themed corporate restaurant, complete with the requisite paintings of cowboys and the head of a longhorn steer mounted above the bar. While the restaurant is clean and exceptionally well maintained, the atmosphere stuck me as sterile.

My server was efficient and polite - no complaints.

Longhorn Steak offers up a plethora of lunch specials for $7, $8 and $9. I elected to go with the $9 option - my eagerly anticipated Tavern Steak sandwich accompanied by a bowl of French Onion Soup.

While I've had worse, the tepid French Onion soup certainly did not rock my world. To make up for a thin broth, the kitchen topped it with a dense layer of cheese that begged for additional time under the broiler to impart more flavor, While the soup had a healthy dose of onions, they really needed more time in the sauté pan. I would have preferred a smaller serving of more flavorful soup, just sayin'

When my long awaited Tavern Steak sandwich arrived, I was crest fallen. It was miniscule, served on half of a hot dog bun. Instead of being topped with a mound of crispy onion straws, my pitiful sandwich had a heap of sad, soggy onion rings. And instead of an abundance of finely-cooked steak bursting from the sandwich, all of the contents of my meal neatly fit inside the 3 inch hot dog bun. Curse you, Darden Restaurant Group for your deception, bamboozling me with images of grandeur, then delivering this travesty of a sandwich!!!

But my tale of woe does not end here, gentle reader, for something was awry with that 3 inch hot dog bun. It tasted like off, like it was placed on a recently cleaned surface and it absorbed some of the cleaning solution. After two tiny bites, I called by server over, explained the problem, and he promptly replaced my meal with the shaved prime rib sandwich.

While this sandwich also had a wee little bun, the kitchen was significantly more generous with the contents, which like a cornucopia, spilled out onto my plate. While the onions on my sandwich needed more browning, but they did deliver a kiss of sweetness. The mushrooms had a gorgeous dark golden hue and intensified the beefy flavor of the tender prime rib. I was a little gun shy after my experience with my first sandwich, but all in all, I grudgingly must give the prime rib sammie a thumbs up.

I did fill out my customer survey regarding the off-taste of the Tavern Steak sandwich - it's been a couple of months and I've yet to receive a reply.

Food:

We used to think this was the place to go but the last two times have changed our minds. Although the wait staff is friendly speed is not of the essence. Not only do we wait for drinks the meals themselves have taken forever to be served. What should be a one hour family meal has turned into a two hour bananza. This is not acceptable. Likewise the food has gone down hill. Tonight one of our members was served burned chicken. A couple items were forgotten on the meals and had to remind the wait staff. The ribs were ok, our son ordered a steak that was not cooked correctly (medium rare) it was more medium well. No time to redo as we had other commitments. They can not blame a crowd as when we arrived there were only a few tables taken. Any crowd came after we left.

Food:

Went here last weekend for a quick get away for our Anniversary! We were seated quickly, waiter was very friendly, meal was phenomenal and dessert was simply amazing! ***Yummy*** (our tbone steak was not quite done as we expect. We ordered medium and it came out little more on the rare side, but was edible and very good)

Food:

This restaurant had such great service for my friend and I today. The food was phenomenal and our server was so nice! I think writing reviews is silly but our experience today was just so good!! Big shout out to the manager Blake, and our server Dominic for such a wonderful experience. (:

Food:

I have been going there for lunch at least 3 times a week for the past 2 months. Everyone there has been PHENOMENAL!!!! I always order at the bar. I do not remember all the Wonderful ladies names that have taken care of me but I remember Dominic's name. The young gentleman's service with a smile warrants a second visit by itself!!!