Taste of Texas - Tasteless
Tonight we ventured out to steak at Taste of Texas. I continued my streak of trying Rib-eye, medium rare. The building is huge, with 20 foot plus ceilings in some places, and the echo effect only adds to the high noise level. There wasn’t a wait, but I usually don’t expect one on a Tuesday night. We figured we were in trouble when we were seated next to a table set for a party of 20.
The ribeye is available by the pound, $1.95 per with a 16 ounce minimum. I was about to order a 24 ounce steak, when my waiter pointed out the Cowboy Steak or Ranchhand Steak or something along those lines, a 24 ounce bone-in ribeye for $35. Yes, the waiter saved me $11 or $12.
Sadly, the steak wasn’t worth $35. Now I’ve eaten at a lot of popular steakhouses in Houston before I started this blog, and the best steak I’ve had was at Brenner’s - a 24 oz bone-in ribeye off the menu for $53. IT WAS WORTH IT.
However average the steak was - not much flavor - meaning it probably was a bit leaner, and not cooked on as hot a flame/grill as other places - there was also no offering of crushed black pepper, and none on my steak as prepared. I’d prefer some sea salt and some fresh crushed black pepper on my $35 steak rather than the table salt and pepper that I’d find in a Whataburger.
So what else? It can’t all be that bad, right? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You have to get up and GO TO the salad bar. That’s probably a Pro for people that like salad and like to fix their own a particular way, but if I’m spending $200 on a couple steaks, an appetizer, and a bottle of wine - I expect my salad to be brought to the table by my friendly waiter.
So I had to fight my way back to the table as the party of 20 was coming - and the noise got even louder. Worse that the waitress for the 20-top kept bumping into my date’s chair and didn’t manage once to break out an apology or excuse me or I’m sorry. Jeez.
You want bread and butter pre-meal? Well - that’s at the salad bar too. Go get it. Seriously? So what exactly is the waiter’s job? I almost decided to tip the guy only the $12 he saved me on my steak - however, he was quite pleasant and polite, and did a good job - which I guess is easier if you’re not having to run around delivering salads and bread.
Needless to say - the meal was above average, the service was good, the atmosphere started too loud and ended up being way too loud. If it were quieter, we would have stuck around for coffee and desert. Their loss.
It might be a nice place to take 20 out-of-town guests who’ve never been to Texas to celebrate a birthday or something, but it’s hardly romantic for 2, and not really suitable even for a family of 4 - unless you’ve got 2 crying babies and you want the ambient noise to drown them out and not draw attention to you. I think I could have gotten the same quality steak and same atmosphere at Outback and saved some time - and had my bread and salad delivered nicely to my table. I certainly can cook a better steak.
It may be hard for Taste of Texas to make it into the top 10 - and I’ve only reviewed 1 or 2 places officially. 
