Last Saturday the wife, I and good friends went to a Texas Roadhouse restaurant on I-35 in Pflugerville, just north of Austin. It was just after 7:00 PM when we arrived, the place was packed, and our wait was about 40 minutes. We amused ourselves by talking and eating the peanuts we took from a huge barrel conveniently located by the front door.
Since the wife and I had just got back from a trip to Harlingen, Texas where we stayed in the Airstream, and I enjoyed way too many margaritas, tonight I drank lemonade. We ordered two of the country fried sirloin dinners, a pulled pork dinner, and a fried catfish dinner. Each dinner came with two sides, and ours included mashed potatoes, green beans, a side salad, and baked sweet potatoes.
Clearly the country fried sirloin is the Roadhouse’s take on a Texas favorite, chicken fried steak, and although nicely cooked, mine was over seasoned. It was also too thin making it more like a wiener schnitzel than chicken fried steak.
My wife’s pulled pork was cooked just right, tender, but not overly so, and the BBQ sauce was tangy without being too sweet. A baked potato that mistakenly showed up was cheerfully replaced with a sweet potato. 
The well breaded catfish filets were happily enjoyed. With the exception of a rather meager looking side salad all of the sides were very good. The mashed potatoes were nicely seasoned; the sweet potatoes baked perfectly, and the green beans cooked with bits of bacon.
The orders as served were attractive, and large; we all left with portion of our meal in a Styrofoam takeout box.
This was not our first time eating at a Texas Roadhouse. On a previous visit we enjoyed a “Cactus Blossom”. This attractive appetizer is a whole, lightly battered, deep fried onion sliced to resemble a flower, and very tasty indeed. Unfortunately, the New York strip steak that I ordered medium rare on that visit was on the tough side and over cooked.
On both occasions the service was fast, once seated, and very pleasant.
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