Restaurant review: Service shines at new Texas Roadhouses in Viera and beachside Melbourne

Lyn Dowling
For FLORIDA TODAY

Sometimes you just have to eat at those chain restaurants, especially when, if by dint of oncoming storm or ongoing epidemic, at least you know they’re open. And extra points to them if you keep reading about how terrific they have been.

Thus did we visit the new Texas Roadhouses in Viera and beachside Melbourne, and friends, certain locally-owned restaurants could learn from them about precautions: the way take-out ordering and pickup are organized, entering and exiting dining rooms, personal protection of servers and managers, scanning, cleaning, seating and proper distance between seated customers. 

It’s one thing to have these things. It’s another to do them without seeming uncomfortable or intrusive. The two newer Texas Roadhouses — and, we’ll assume, the older one in Palm Bay — manage to pull them off beautifully, without being intrusive or giving that vibe of areas being blocked or vacant.

That the restaurants are immaculate should go without saying. Gone are the barrels of peanuts and resulting shell-strewn floors so characteristic of Texas Roadhouse in earlier times, and bravo. Besides, you don’t need gimmicks when you have quality food and service.

The latter is immediate, professional and attentive, and apparently training includes emphasis on more than the usual congeniality, which could become annoying, but doesn’t, unless you really cannot stand loud music. It gets turned up every so often so servers line up to dance. It’s cute, and in this case, when we’re feeling less than cute in the Covidian environment, welcome. Truthfully, eliminate the dance and you still have servers who would be capable of working in the best high-end venues. They’re that good.

The 6-ounce filet at Texas Roadhouse was served with a cold, fresh salad and a loaded baked potato.

The food is, well, Texas Roadhouse: lots of beef, some pork and chicken. The hot rolls still rock.

We selected fried pickles ($5.49) and a Cactus Blossom ($6.99) as appetizers and they were not at all soggy or grease-laden, served as you would expect with the dipping sauce you would expect. Nothing imaginative there, although you could taste the onion and pickle beneath the breading, which does not always happen in other chains.

Main courses included the Dallas Filet ($18.99), Steakhouse Filet Salad ($14.49) a bacon cheeseburger ($10.49), Chicken Critters ($10.99), grilled pork chops ($10.99), and a pulled pork dinner ($10.99), all of which were acceptable. 

The steak salad, with enough steak to fill you and a variety of greens, was among the best of its kind in the area, period. The 6-ounce filet, served with a cold, fresh salad and a loaded baked potato, was appropriately grilled and tender, not the stuff of the elegant steakhouse, but by no means awful, either. It did come a bit wetter than the normal steak, perhaps a bit of the oil used in grilling, and presentation was nonexistent.

The steak salad at Texas Roadhouse came with enough steak to fill you and a variety of greens, and was among the best of its kind in the area.

The burger received high marks from the diner who ordered it, perfectly grilled as it was; so too the pork chops, which were as tender as they were big. The pulled pork was the shocker because it was far better than most of what passes for the thing at many BBQ joints, with chunks of smoky meat and a decent sauce, though it clearly had spent its share of time under the heat lamp. Chicken Tenders were hot, crisp and plentiful, nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either, served with green beans.

Sweet potatoes at Texas Roadhouse come with caramel sauce and marshmallows broiled to make them something casserole-like, the only touch of creativity we found there. The second time, we left out the caramel sauce, which made the first one almost intolerably sweet. The marshmallows are enough.

The potato, like everything else, simply was placed on the plate, in this case, separate from the meats, with no thought for artistry or inventiveness. So too with Granny’s Apple Classic ($5.99), which had ribbons of some indeterminable substance, but wasn’t bad.

Look, if you expect food as art form, Texas Roadhouse is not your place. If, on the other hand, you seek substantial, inexpensive food served with attention to currently required details and all the warmth humans can muster under the circumstances, head on over.

Texas Roadhouse

Three and a half stars

Addresses: 941 E. Eau Gallie Blvd., Melbourne; and 1975 Viera Blvd., Viera 

Melbourne hours: 3 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday

Viera hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday; 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Call: Melbourne, 321-773-3220; Viera, 321-785-8880

Online: texasroadhouse.com

Other: Texas Roadhouse also has a restaurant (not reviewed here) at 1181 Malabar Road, Palm Bay; full bar with specialty cocktails; children’s meals.  

About our reviews

Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by FLORIDA TODAY’s reviewer. The reviews are the opinion of the reviewer and take into account quality of the restaurant’s food, ambiance and service. Ratings reflect the quality of what a diner can reasonably expect to find. To receive a rating of less than three stars, a restaurant must be tried twice and prove unimpressive on each visit. Each reviewer visit is unannounced and paid for by FLORIDA TODAY.

Five stars: Excellent. A rare establishment to which you’d be proud to take the most discerning diner.

Four stars: Very good. Worth going out of your way for. Food, atmosphere and service are routinely top notch.

Three stars: Good. A reasonably good place with food and service that satisfy.

Two stars: Fair. While there’s nothing special about this establishment, it will do in a pinch.

One star: Not recommended. Don’t bother.

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