Is The Most Expensive Steak On Texas Roadhouse's Menu Worth It?

Everything may be bigger in Texas, but how big does a steak need to be to properly feed a Texas cowboy? If you ask chain restaurant Texas Roadhouse, a 23-ounce porterhouse T-bone steak might do the job. The porterhouse is the restaurant's largest and most expensive menu item, and it just might be worth the value if we hold it up to competing steakhouses.

Texas Roadhouse's porterhouse beats competitors if we compare the meat ounce to menu price ratio. Outback Steakhouse (22 ounces for $34.99), Longhorn Steakhouse (22 ounces for $33.79), Ruth's Chris Steak House (40 ounces for $119), and Texas Roadhouse (23 ounces for $33.99) had a median of 22.5 ounces for $34.50. Texas Roadhouse's porterhouse was the only one that exceeded the size median while staying under the price median — the best overall value, mathematically speaking.

Keep in mind that while these steakhouses were available around the same location for these prices, the cost of these porterhouses may differ depending on your zip code. Regardless, Texas Roadhouse still beats Outback and Longhorn for size, and it doesn't sell porterhouses over $100 like Ruth's Chris Steak House.

How the porterhouse steak compares to other menu items

Bigger doesn't always mean better. We recently ranked the best Texas Roadhouse menu items by taste, reviews, portion size, and overall value. The porterhouse came in fifth place, but we did affirm that it was still worth the splurge to many customers. Ultimately, the bone-in ribeye and filet medallions seemed to have a better taste and budget. A separate ranking done by the Daily Meal also concluded that the porterhouse, while good, couldn't beat the bone-in ribeye for first place.

Another critique would assume that this steak is cooked from frozen, according to claims circling from self-identified employees online. Texas Roadhouse prides itself on making everything from scratch, saying that their steaks are "always fresh, never frozen." Some foods don't taste as good after sitting in the freezer, but there isn't a significant difference with steaks that have properly been flash frozen, and they can even retain more moisture that way. So, whether or not the rumors are true, you're still going to get a tasty, well-valued porterhouse at Texas Roadhouse if that's the cut of steak your heart desires.

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