OUR PARTNER
Great food, consistent, excellent service and affordable prices combine at Texas Roadhouse, Paducah.
It’s these qualities that have hungry patrons waiting out to the parking lot every weekend to partake in this local restaurant’s fare. Outsiders may think that our locals are crazy for waiting in line at a chain restaurant, but this chain restaurant isn’t operated by a corporate conglomerate but rather by folks who live and serve this very community
Ryan and Joelle Long have been Texas Roadhouse Paducah’s Owner/Operators for the past 9 years after Ryan relocated here from the Indianapolis area. The Longs are very active in our community. It seems like almost every charitable event or fundraiser I attend is catered by Texas Roadhouse as a donation. They also host their own local fundraiser – the annual Texas Roadhouse Stomp Towards The Cure, which helps local hospitals treat cancer patients.
We could talk at length about the Long family’s backstory and its generosity, but let’s jump in to the real reason for this article – a review of the food!
I was thrilled at the opportunity to feature Texas Roadhouse Paducah as one of our Parake Food Reviews. Before I was served, I was able to go through the kitchen and check out what goes down behind the scenes. Did you know that all the recipes they serve are made from scratch? Even the salad dressings are made from scratch! I saw the dough for their homemade hamburger buns and rolls in the mixer, which I later saw rolled and portioned by hand right by the front door as fellow guests watched. I also observed homemade croutons going in and out of the oven. They also have a meat cutter that cuts the steaks fresh each day. In fact, meat is bundled up and cut inside a huge walk-in refrigerator to keep the steaks as fresh as they possibly can be.
After my kitchen tour concluded, it was time to get down to brass tacks. I was served a Texas-sized buffet for one of all the Roadhouse favorites. Naturally, I began with the side salad. A refrigerated bowl filled with crisp and cold vegetables topped with a little shredded cheese, their homemade croutons and the made-from-scratch ranch dressing. In my opinion, salads are best kept simple but can be ruined by small details like room-temperature greens or off-the-shelf dressing. Texas Roadhouse doesn’t overlook the details, and their salad is a prime example of that effort.
Here in the south, sides are so good that you often don’t even want an entree.
The sides here meet that southern expectation: sweet whole kernel corn with just the right amount of black pepper for balance, green beans cooked the way your southern grandmother does them, with bacon and onions, beefy chili with plenty of beans, topped with a little shredded cheese and diced red onions for a little texture, baked sweet potatoes topped with cinnamon and toasted marshmallows, and let’s not forget the rolls. Everyone knows the rolls deserve an article of their own, but that’s not what I’m here for. The dough is made fresh daily, rolled and measured by hand and baked fresh right before you arrive. Toasty on the outside but not overbaked to retain moisture inside, each sweet, chewy pillow of dough deserves its own cup of cinnamon butter but that’s just my opinion. The rolls could be a meal of their own, but I had a lot to eat that day so I had to stop myself after only one.
Texas Roadhouse Paducah is known for their steaks, and there’s a reason for that.
They know what they’re doing. I already mentioned the steaks are cut fresh daily but after that, they’re seasoned just right – enough to taste but not too much to overpower. The sirloin is lean, with no fat to trim off at the table. When you order it “medium” it’s served medium. (It’s hard to get that right when there are so many steaks on one grill, and yet they consistently pull it off.) I don’t even bother ordering steak at most restaurants because most are lacking flavor and/or not cooked properly. This is not the case here.
Moving on to the star of the show: The ribs.
Texas Roadhouse Paducah’s ribs are slow-cooked to perfection, then sauced and tossed on the grill when you order them. I’m a BBQ man myself. My pulled pork is top-notch and my brisket is to die for, but I’ve yet to dial in my ribs. They’re a finicky piece of meat. If you don’t cook them low and slow or long enough the results will be tough, chewy, inedible bones of trash because the dog can’t eat pork. If you overcook them, they either turn to mush and don’t taste like meat at all, or they dry out leaving you with rib meat jerky. When they’re just right though, they have a little bit of chew with just the right amount of smokey flavor to go along with the caramelized sauce, and the bones will be left clean. Don’t listen to people brag about fall-off-the-bone ribs – that means they don’t know what they’re doing. Ribs, when done right, should hold together and require just a tiny bit of effort to separate the meat from the bone. That’s exactly what Texas Roadhouse serves up. Their ribs are actually better than a lot of BBQ joints I’ve visited. If you’re picky about ribs, give them a try.
I’m lucky that Ryan brought me plenty of to-go boxes so I didn’t have to eat all of this in one sitting. I’d like to give a big shout-out to the whole crew at Texas Roadhouse Paducah for rolling out the red carpet and serving me like a king.
I’d also like to thank the WKCTC Clemens Fine Arts Center for sponsoring this Partake Food Review. The Clemens Fine Art Center as WKCTC has a series of performances coming up called The Arts In Focus Series. Check out the lineup here and be sure to stop for a great meal at Texas Roadhouse Paducah before or after your next show!
Texas Roadhouse – Paducah
