LongHorn Steakhouse

This place needs to shut its doors! Horrible, bland, canned and pre-​packaged food; nothing made from scratch. Menu photos look better than the actual food. Servers aren’t very attentive and rush away from customers while they’re talking to them, thus resulting in inaccurate orders. New cooks and better server training is needed. I won’t be back! Servers are friendly though.

I have had 5 star experiences here and I have had too many 2 star. The service is consistently great and the food is generally worth the price but the quality of the food and the preparation of the food leaves much to be desired.
Let me start off by saying that this used to be the go-​to steakhouse for my S.O. and I. I tried Longhorn for lunch when it very first opened and was not impressed but gave it another go and was surprised at how great the steak was and the service.
Fast forward 5 years and we are back to my original thought: this place is not that great.
The last three times that SO and I have went have been disappointing. The range of visits were from January 2016 to last Thursday (April 21, 2016.)
In January my hubby ordered a seasonal steak that came with a bordelaise sauce and fried egg on top. The egg was cooked to rubber ball consistency (requested over easy) and the bordelaise sauce tasted like a salisbury steak frozen dinner. The steak was cold and it was obvious it had sat out for awhile before making it to our table. It was not pleasant. Lesson learned on trying something new. No biggie. Know not to order it again and to stick with the basics. I had no complaints on my food, ribeye cooked rare. The steak was great, warm, and seasoned.
We tried again in March. Again, the service was great. Our 6 yoa was celebrating her birthday date with her dad and she was tickled that she got to drink Shirley Temples. Our waitress was wonderful and kept checking on the birthday girl. The food was. meh. Our appetizer of Wild West Shrimp was excellent and it’s hard to screw up prepackaged salads. The steaks? They were okay. Normally, the steaks here remind me of when we grill our own and that’s why we liked coming here. Fatty and full of flavour. The ribeye I ordered was cooked great but it’s hard to not cook a steak rare. My husband also ordered a ribeye, medium rare, and it came out medium. There was a hair in my daughters macaroni and cheese and the manager came over several times to apologize and took her meal off. Okay, second not great experience but things happen. No biggie.
The third and last experience was this past Thursday. The host acted bored and had the personality of a wet blanket. Our waitress was great, as usual. The food? It was not good at all, not even meh. It was like I gave my 6 yoa steaks and told her to cook them however she wanted. Hubby’s outlaw ribeye came out black on one side, burnt to a crisp yet still raw in the middle. My ribeye looked like it had been exiled to a freezer in Siberia before being thrown on a grill. It had no coloring and a beige steak is not that appetizing. Hubby sent his back and it took about 25 minutes for them to bring him another one. That had one little tiny piece of bone. It was cooked fine but the long wait and the lack of presentation had ruined it. The manager was good enough to take his steak off but this is the third time that we have had subpar food and there won’t be a fourth.
I am not sure if they have changed food vendors or the cooks just aren’t upheld to standards but its sad when a formerly good steak place is now on par with the other meh steak places we have around here.

+ Medium sounds good for health, but can be tough to chew for the middle part of steak
+ outlaw ribeye rocks, but central part (in medium-​done) can be tough.
— Flo’s Fillet doesn’t tastes that well. But it’s pretty good for lean beef.
— Outlaw ribeye has 18oz, 1000 calories (60+fat, 90+protein) in total (whereas 10oz Filet: 480, 20 fat, 60 protein), be careful about this large portion served. Don’t blame yourself for it.
+ Sweet potato. Always like this back in childhood.
+ Server’s pretty nice
— (paying) Splitting a sharing item is weird here. Do they just don’t do half-​half split?
For Potato IDK, for other type of steaks I don’t know. Overall not too bad, but I probably won’t drive to marketplace simply for Longhorn.
April 9, 2016 afternoon
Nutrition:

This is to review our visit on Friday March 18^th around 6:30pm. My family and I typically go to Longhorn about once a month and its usually one of our favorites. I have noticed a decline in quality over the past year, but still a good meal… not this time.
Only a 10 minute wait for a table, not bad for a Saturday night! We decided on the Crab and Artichoke Dip for an appetizer… HUGE mistake!!! This literally tasted like tuna fish from a can with a few pieces of artichoke floating in it. It was supposed to have four cheeses… more like cream of something soup. It was lukewarm and served with very hard fried bread. Just awful!
I ordered a ribeye with creamed Parmesan spinach. My steak was cooked properly, I ordered it medium, but the spinach was odd tasting… I cannot put my finger on it (my daughter said it tasted «fishy»). The cut of ribeye seemed like an old slab of prime rib that was then grilled. Mostly fat… huge pieces of fat. My husband ordered the full slab of ribs. He said they were dry (over cooked) and just a bad cut, hardly any meat and the sauce has changed, and not for the better.
Trying to catch our waiter turned into a game! If we could get him to the table, he was very nice… if you could catch him!
Unfortunately, Longhorn will be leaving our rotation of restaurants. After spending over $ 90 for a family meal, with this low quality of food, I think we will steer clear!

Decent chain, good food. I’d give it 5 stars if the services wasn’t such a hit-​or-​miss.

This is a decent place in Champaign for steak. The service is always good. Steaks are the same every time. You can rely on the reliability of this restaurant. Good cocktail choices.

Wonderful filet, so tender I could have cut it with a butter knife. Fiancé thought his bone in ribeye was amazing. Our favorite steak place by far

I really love this place! The food is very good, atmosphere is upbeat, and always great service! Visited tonight and our serve, Jordan, did a fantastic job! She was very friendly and didn’t make us feel rushed. She was always really nice to our 14mo daughter. The salmon was delicious and the warm cinnamon carrot cake might be the best dessert I’ve ever had! We will definitely continue to eat here.

Came here for lunch the other and day and expected much more for a $ 50 lunch for 2. Food was ok, expected more; my server didn’t seem very friendly, she might’ve been having a bad day. Not a bad place to eat but not exactly a personal choice for a steakhouse restaurant.

It is a typical chain restuarant similar to Black Angus, but cost little more. Staffs are friendly, seating is conformable.

The food was good. But he gave us a buzzer and there was tables wide open for us to eat at. Then it took a half hour before we ordered our food. we ordered appetizers and they didn’t even get there until our food was there. And then it took a while for food to get there.

Very texas-​y! The décor and the ambiance scream «HOWDY YA’LL.» Food is good. The fried calamari is not anything I had before. Their steaks though are pretty good. I got the sirloin with shrimp kabobs. The shrimp is perfectly cooked and jumbo sized. Overall, it’s not the best steakhouse but it’s good if you are craving steak I suppose. A bit pricey but it’s a steakhouse so no surprise there.

First time there from out of town. never again, ordered med rare p. rib, came rare, they cook it back, flopped it on the grill to darken it, the taste of oil was to much, they didnt charge me so i ate salad and
ladies meal was good she said, ordered 1side lobster tail, waitress forgot all about it, so 15min, later she brings it at no charge, stunk and was rubbery but free. The manager did offer a new meal, but when ur ladies done eating do u want to wait another 20, no, drinks were good, draft beer ice cold, the glass explay cases above us were dirty and nasty. not apart of there cleaning, We will try again in our home town, but not this one.

Was told that it will be a 30 – 40 minutes wait and given a buzzer. Walked around in other stores a bit. The buzz rang after 10 minutes.
After ordering, waited for the salad for maybe 15 minutes. Then after the salad, received the steak in 10 minutes.
Ordered a med-​rare «Outlaw Ribeye», it was well seasoned but a chunk of it was still rare. Didn’t call the waitress on it but was expecting more consistency on that piece of meat. The side ba
Overall, pleasant experience, the lighting was relaxing and the place was not too loud. The price is acceptable, if it wasn’t for that rare chunk of meat.

The first time I ate here was right after it opened. For some reason I did not like the food.
I gave it another chance a few months later and it went fine.
I recently came here for lunch and it was great. Our server was on top of everything. I had the Parmesan crusted asparagus (I’ve had it before) and it was delicious as usual.
My friend had steak and rice pilaf. I had the rancher’s burger. Everything was good and service was great.

We enjoy Longhorn very much, and it has become our «go to» for steak in Champaign. The food is delicious. The manager, Mitch Johnson, is very friendly and genuinely wants his guests to have a pleasant experience. He makes a point to check on you during your meal and usually follows up afterwards. If any Longhorn execs are reading this, Mitch is the real deal!

I’ve been twice now. And the overall impression of this place is it needs an overhaul on management and service. The food has been pretty decent, except the first visit my ribeye wasn’t they great. The second visit I went with the parm chicken and it was fantastic.
The service is where this place is lacking. The wait staff is horribly unorganized and fumbles everything. Our waitress repeated our dinner order back to us as if we were at a McDonald’s drive thru (was awkward). If this place is trying to be a mid to upscale steakhouse they need to hire professional and experience waitstaff! The time it took to get our check and pay took 15 minutes as she was waiting on her other tables first before simply dropping off our check that she had in her hand!
Oh, and don’t forget the rock hard butter for the soft bread. I really am mind boggled at this. How does anyone think this is a good idea? It basically makes the butter unusable.
Overall, I won’t be going back. I’m sure there are some good waitresses and waiters in this place but I am 0 for 2 and this place is too expensive to take a chance at.

THE GOOD: the décor/​ambiance is fantastic. You’re surrounded by dark wood and low lights. The server recognized that I was trying to cut calories on my meal and went more in depth into how my meal was prepared (cheese, croutons, butter, etc). This is much appreciated because sometimes you think you’re getting something healthy and then it comes with bacon. At one point, the chef even came out to help customize our orderThe food tasted pretty good but they were out of tilapia.
THE BAD: Although it was nice that they chef came out to speak with us, it became excessive. Our waitress was checking in with us, the chef came out twice, and then the manager stopped by. By the time the manager had come around, we were done talking to people. She didn’t have anything to say anyway! They over did that part. And they were out of tilapia (although they substituted it with salmon)
HOW TO FIX: coordinate with your servers, chefs, managers as to who is going to speak with the customers and how many times each has done so. Keep your fish in stock!
STAY OR GO: I’d go again for a family meal or date.

Friday night — 4 people — 8:30 pm
It was relatively packed. Our table ordered 3 drinks — a beer, whiskey, and mojito. The mojito was strong with simple syrup and not rum — not worth the 6.75. For entrees: prime rib + rice pilaf, filet + green beans, renagade top siroloin + loaded baked potato, filet + lobster tail + mixed vegetables.
Summary: Entrees were salty and the filet was anything but legendary. The meat consistancy was mushy and flavorless. For $ 100+ save your money.

I went here last night with some friends and the food was really good. Yes, it is somewhat expensive but good none the less.
I had signed up on their website and received a coupon for a free appetizer. We ordered the garlic shrimp and peppers. It was awesome! Some of the best shrimp I have had in a long time. And they have a kick to them which made them all the better.
I ordered the grilled chicken and stuffed portabella mushroom with a loaded baked potato. Both were really good. The grilled chicken was perfect as far as flavor and very moist. It had a mushroom sauce over it that was not too much or too little. The flavors went together quite well. The stuffed mushroom was tasty too. This entrée was only 12.99 only because it’s chicken. If you want a steak here it will cost you a lot more. However, there are coupons usually in the newspaper or online for $ 4.00 off 2 entrees. They did not put enough sour cream and butter on the potato but that was easily solved by asking my server to bring me extra.
I also like the décor of this place. It has a lot of interesting pictures. It was cow-​boyish but yet had a certain elegance to it if that makes any sense. I thought it felt comfortable. It was not too loud and the tables are not so close together that you can hear other peoples conversations. Yes, I would recommend this place to a friend.