Texas Roadhouse Steaks, Ranked Worst To Best

Known for its mouthwatering steaks, savory sides, and famous rolls, Texas Roadhouse combines rustic roadhouse flair and stick-to-your-ribs food. When you walk in the door, you're greeted with the scent of freshly baked rolls, plus the mouthwatering sight of a case full of steaks you can choose from. The ambiance tends toward country with a distinct focus on grilled meals like steaks, ribs, and burgers. There are 10 menu options — including kabobs and chopped steak — on the hand-cut steak list, and we sampled the seven classic cuts to see which were the best.

With popular steakhouse cuts like rib-eye and porterhouse on the menu, we knew that we were in for a dinner delight. The restaurant had a nice selection of budget-friendly items as well, like sirloin and New York strip. Each steak comes with two sides, plus the included basket of rolls and peanuts. If you want to enjoy a tasty steak at a neighborhood spot that isn't too upscale and expensive, we've got you covered.

Prime rib has the same marbling as ribeye because it comes from the same part of the cow — the rib area near the backbone. The meat cut from this section is super tender because the muscle isn't used as much as those needed for walking, but prime rib is distinctly different from ribeye in both preparation and serving. It is cooked slowly, which keeps it even more tender. Then, it's sliced from a larger cut and served with the interior of the steak up. You often see prime rib carving stations on buffet lines, but the Texas Roadhouse version comes with a thick cut and two sides.

This was our least favorite of the options at Texas Roadhouse, but it's hard to compare this cut to those with seasoned and seared exteriors because it's a different style. When we go to a steakhouse, we want a super flavorful cut with a nice exterior crust, and prime rib just isn't that dish (nor is it intended to be).

It was tender, but didn't have nearly as much salty flavor as the other steaks. If you like to taste the meatiness of your steak rather than the seasoning, this is a good choice, but we'd opt for one of the other cuts to get more flavor. The prime rib is also a bit pricier than some of the other menu items at $26.99 for a 12-ounce steak.

For steak on a budget, try the hand-cut sirloin. It comes in four sizes and is one of the cheaper options on the menu at just $14.99 for a 6-ounce steak. Compared to pricier cuts, which can be upwards of $30 or more, this is a good option if you want steak without spending a fortune. Sirloin is a lean cut and not the most popular for tender steaks, but that also makes it much cheaper.

When we ordered the sirloin, it came out cooked perfectly to order and had plenty of seasoning on the outside. It was pretty salty, but still had a lot of meaty flavor and a nice crust. What put it on the lower end of our list was the tougher texture of the cut compared to the more tender options on the Texas Roadhouse menu. It was chewy and required quite a bit more forceful cutting to get bite-sized pieces. There wasn't a lot of fat or marbling in the steak, which is common for sirloin. For taste and texture, it ranks low, but it's hard to beat the price, especially considering it comes with two sides.

The addition of the bone in the bone-in ribeye adds flavor and keeps the meat even more tender. Ribeye is generally considered a great cut for grilling, so we were excited to get a taste of this option at Texas Roadhouse.

The steak was seasoned perfectly and had a delicious exterior crust, plus a super tender inside that practically melted in our mouths. It only comes in one size, however, which is one reason it ended up a bit further down on our list than it might have otherwise. Our bone-in ribeye was also pretty fatty, with large deposits of fat throughout the steak. This helps keep it tender and juicy as it cooks, but we had to cut around quite a few. The result was less steak we could actually enjoy after putting in this extra work. It's $32.99 for a 20-ounce steak, which is a bit on the expensive side compared to other cuts on the menu — even more so when you consider that a large portion of the steak is bone and fat. We enjoyed eating it, but it just couldn't compare to the flavor and texture of other menu options for the price.

The bone-in ribeye ranks high on the customer-reviewed best Texas Roadhouse menu items, so maybe the fattiness of our steak was a fluke. We'd give it another try to see if it lives up to the hype, but when compared side-by-side with other steaks, it was middle of the pack.

We like the thick cut New York Strip, which comes in an 8-ounce or 20-ounce size. New York strip comes from the short loin section of the cow, which is just behind the ribs. A New York strip has been our preferred cut when we're not sure what to order because it's a good balance of quality and cost, coming in at just under $20 for an 8-ounce steak. Compared to ribeyes, which are cut from the nearby rib section, New York strips often have less marbling. This makes them leaner overall, but that also means slightly less flavor and juiciness. It's hard to notice unless you're sampling the two side-by-side.

The Texas Roadhouse New York strip came out perfectly cooked with a tasty exterior crust. It had a bit more fat than the ribeye, which was surprising, but not unwelcome. This meant that it was super flavorful and delicious. It's good if you like the meatiness of sirloin, but want something that's more tender and less chewy. Just be ready to trim the fattiest sections off before enjoying your steak. We'd happily order this steak again from Texas Roadhouse.

Ribeyes have plenty of marbling, which gives the steak a lot of flavor. Paired with the perfectly charred crust, it will make your mouth water from the first bite, which was exactly the case with this cut from Texas Roadhouse. It was the first that we sampled when trying all of the steaks side-by-side and remained toward the top of our list throughout the meal. The ribeye is cut from near the rib, but this version has the bone removed. It had a lot of marbling throughout the steak but not many large chunks of fat that we needed to cut off.

It was the saltiest of the steaks that we tried, so be ready with a glass of water or a cold beverage to enjoy alongside your dinner. Because it's a fattier cut, stick with a bold beer if you're imbibing, such as stout, sour beer, porter, or certain IPAs. Expect to spend a little bit more for the high-quality cut, which costs $25.99 for a 12-ounce steak and all the way up to $30.99 for the largest 16-ounce version. We promise that it's worth it for the deliciously tender and flavorful dish.

The Dallas filet is pricey but one of the most tender options on the menu, earning it our number two spot. It comes in two sizes — 6-ounce and 8-ounce — which cost $24.99 and $28.99. It's looks similar to a sirloin on the plate, but it's much more tender. When you eat them side-by-side, it's even easier to taste that difference. Texas Roadhouse boasts that this cut is the most tender steak on the menu and we have to agree.

It's cut from the tenderloin section of the cow, which is why the end result was so tender we could practically cut it with a fork. It was cooked to order and a bit thicker than the similarly-sized sirloin. Like other steaks at Texas Roadhouse, it comes with two sides. Paired with their famous rolls with honey butter, which are also extra soft and pillowy, this would be a great meal for those who like food that has the perfect texture as well as plenty of flavor.

If you want a large steak, this is it. The Porterhouse T-bone includes the filet and the strip steak. Porterhouse and T-bone steaks are actually distinct from each other based on size, but Texas Roadhouse labels this cut as a porterhouse-style T-bone, thanks to its massive 23-ounce size. It costs $34.99, making it the most expensive steak on the menu, but if you share it between two people, it makes it more affordable. Because it includes two steaks connected by the bone, it's plenty large enough for a shared dinner unless you are ravenously hungry. The bone also keeps the steaks from drying out as they cook, helping it stay extra juicy.

We sampled all of the steaks with a party of five, and the porterhouse T-bone was the favorite of two people — plus, it got an honorable mention from two others. It's hard to beat the extra tenderness of the filet section — cooked alongside the bone — and the meatiness of the strip steak on the other side. It had marbling throughout the steak, but minimal large fatty sections that we had to cut off. Other than the bone, we could enjoy just about every meaty bite that we cut without navigating around much fat.

Sampling steaks is a tough job, but somebody has to do it, and we broke out our steak knives to dig into all of the cuts available on the Texas Roadhouse menu. After perusing the meat case to see what looked good, we tried all of the main cuts side-by-side, evaluating the taste and texture of each. We also looked at price to see which ones were worth the biggest bucks. 

Tenderness was a top consideration, since a tough and chewy steak isn't nearly as enjoyable as one that is tender and juicy. We also liked the steaks that were full of meaty flavor, plus a nice exterior crust thanks to the preparation. We ordered all of our steaks medium and most came out just as we ordered. As we expected, bone-in cuts tended to have a more pink interior than those without bones, and those with a lot of marbling were the most tender.