Texas Roadhouse does a lot of things right. This is why it is the most popular casual dining restaurant chain, in terms of sales, in the United States. The steakhouse chain has outperformed competitors, including Outback and Longhorn, as well as other casual dining chains, like Olive Garden and Chili’s. Although steaks are often highly praised for their quality and value, that doesn’t mean all is well at Texas Roadhouse.
In fact, the chain has a few traditions that customers and employees just wish would go away. At the top of this list are the frequent line dances. If you’ve ever visited Texas Roadhouse, you know how it works. Basically, at different times depending on the location, all the servers stop what they’re doing and “entertain” the guests with a two-minute line dance routine. Whether or not you want to watch line dancing, you don’t have a choice once you’re seated at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. The same goes for employees at some locations, where it is one of 10 rules employees must follow. Yes, Texas Roadhouse employees need to learn how to hit the ground running when the time comes.
While some customers may enjoy their T-bone with a side to a Kenny Chesney song, many others downright hate it. One snarky Redditor described line dancing this way: “Sure, let’s ask everyone to stop what they’re doing every 30-40 minutes, turn the music up so loud you can’t hear your partner talking to you from 12 inches away, and not be able to bring food or refill your drinks because you’re too busy dancing.” Another Reddit user agrees: “We don’t want to see it. Your employees clearly don’t want to do it. And it bothers us when we have to go to the bathroom.”
It’s not just customers who hate Texas Roadhouse’s line dancing tradition.
Customers aren’t big fans of the line dancing at Texas Roadhouse, and neither are many former employees. “Most employees don’t like it either,” says one commenter on Reddit. “I worked in one of the top-performing stores and we had to dance every 45 minutes or so during rush hour.” Another former employee agrees. “I was trying to be a server there and the level of anxiety this company tries to push you to is horrible,” they said.
Why do so many Texas Roadhouse locations force their employees to dance in the middle of service? Reddit’s theory is that the chain deliberately does line dancing every 45 minutes or so to prevent customers from “camping out” at the tables. This also gives the kitchen a few minutes to catch up on tickets without new orders arriving. Noise level also has its uses, according to a Reddit user who said he worked at Texas Roadhouse: “They turn the volume up to max when they’re dancing.”
Maybe Texas Roadhouse has heard some of the complaints. Some commentators report that line dancing has stopped altogether in some places. While it seems like the steakhouse chain has good intentions in creating a fun environment, we hope they continue to realize that line dancing doesn’t attract many customers and some employees. Music that’s too loud is annoying enough, but adding “forced fun” like line dancing is just a bit too much.
Gn bussni
