LongHorn Steakhouse

This is our most frequent spot to dine out.  The manager is almost always visible..and she greets customers!  The food is not fine cuisine, but neither is the price you pay.  The steaks are prepared well and the Wild West Shrimp is always a good appetizer!  Their serving staff can be hit-or-miss but 60% or so will be on their game.  Overall though, we have not found a comparable $60 (with drinks for me) meal in or around Springfield.  We are there 1-2 times a week.

After a week of home-cooked meals, we opted to go out for dinner.  Being the holiday season and without a reservation, we (a party of six) like had to wait about 20-30 minutes.  There were approximately 20 people in total waiting to be seated, without a large enough waiting area.  

The place was a bit kitschy - not in a bad way - lots of cowboy, western paraphernalia.  It a comprehensive theme.

We happened to be standing where we could see a vacant and clean table that could accommodate 6 by pulling up one more chair.  As a restaurant, would you seat two people, who arrived first, or a party of 6 at a table for up to 6 people?  This wasn't the annoying bit.  We also saw another table that was vacant, but needed to be cleaned.  It took over 10 minutes for someone to come over and wipe down the table (and a poor job at that - there were crumbs on the chairs).  This ended up being our table.

We tried a variety of dishes - ribs, sirloin, chop steak, steak stuffed with crab, and ribeye (they were out of prime rib).  My father ordered his ribeye medium, and it came out well-done.  We cut the steak in half and it was barely pink on the edges.  The staff was very prompt in making a new ribeye, but only after getting someone's attention.  A cook actually came out and delivered the steak and made sure it was to my father's satisfaction.  My husband and brother had ribs that fell off the bone (as advertised), but they were not wowed by it. On the plus side, my sirloin cooked medium was very tasty, the right color and with a nice spice rub.  They also have a good selection of sides - first time, I saw sweet potato as an alternative to the baked or mashed potato.

Like I mentioned earlier, the staff was very prompt in handling the overcooked ribeye.  However, there were times where it took awhile before we could wave someone down (e.g., should the bread come out only when the steaks are served  and not with our salads?  should the waitress asked us what sauce - A1, Worcestershire, etc. - with our steaks, before they arrived??).

There were a few brilliant moments at Longhorn, but not enough of them to make the experience more than a three star.