Restaurant Review: Texas Roadhouse, Springfield, MO

This is a relatively new restaurant in the Springfield area. Springfield has one of the highest number of restaurants per capita in the country and many new restaurants simply don't make the cut. They are open for a short period of time and then the building is vacant, waiting for the next restaurant to try and, many times, fail. This even includes some national chains.

I don't think Texas Roadhouse is one of those restaurants. In our quest to be debt free, we don't eat out nearly as much as we used to but this is one place that we try to put in the budget every couple of months. We drive by at least two or three times a week and our older two daughters, ages 5 and 3, squeal "Mom, Mom - it's the peanut place!!!"

The last time I went, I went with my sister and my three daughters. The four of us that were on my ticket ate for about $17, including tip. I had the bacon cheeseburger. It's thick and quite good - usually too much for me to eat in one sitting. My three girls split two kid's meals [the little one was only 1 at the time - not big enough for her own meal]. They substituted the fries with one of the kid's meals for a salad for my five-year-old, for a small charge. They had no problem with our 'special orders' - leaving things off my cheeseburger or out of my daughter's salad.

Every meal comes with all-you-can-eat peanuts and rolls. The rolls are delicious - some of the best I've ever had. They come with a different kind of butter I don't recall off the top of my head - perhaps honey butter - but our family prefers regular butter, which is easily obtained. They have also provided honey on request. We eat a lot of the rolls and they always provide plenty.

We've had both the sirloin steak and barbeque chicken - both were delicious. One fellow diner said, "You know, I don't like steak, but this is great. I've actually found myself craving it." My father-in-law is a big meat fan - especially ribs. He is very picky about his ribs. He said they were "not the best I've ever had, but one of the best values. I've had many more expensive ribs that aren't this good." He is hard of hearing and was concerned it would be too loud, but they seated us in the back, as we requested, and it was fine.