Texas Roadhouse is a steakhouse with a Texas and Southwestern flavor.
Each restaurant has a baker and a butcher, to be able to provide as fresh meat and bread as possible.
Like many restaurants, it employs a lot of college-age people, and there are a wide variety of jobs that can be done there.
It gets mostly positive reviews from former employees, especially for its career development and working atmosphere.
There are a few complaints, but overall, people like working there.
Table of Contents
Pros of Working at Texas Roadhouse
Fun environment
Texas Roadhouse has great steaks, and it also wants to be a fun place for customers to dine.
The fun happens because of the employees, and they get to have a good time as well.
A smile may be required, but most employees like the vibe of working there because it is laid back and fun.
There’s line dancing that everyone has to participate in, which is designed to make it more entertaining.
There is a friendly competition between workers and between stores.
Workers are called roadies.
The pay
Texas Roadhouse employees average $14 per hour, which is about the national average.
Meat cutters make $29.
A prep cook can make $17 per hour, and a dishwasher can make $16 per hour.
Servers get paid a decent hourly wage, and they can make a lot of money off tips.
The pay is above average for this type of restaurant.
The pay varies across the country, but it is considered a good-paying restaurant to work for.
While the pay is good, raises are not given very often, former employees say.
Solid benefits
Texas Roadhouse offers the typical insurance package that starts with part-time workers and gets better with full-time workers.
There are discounts on food for employees and their immediate family if they are dining together.
The company offers paid vacation and paid sick days.
Flexible work schedules are also available.
Workers also have a paid vacation after a year and an annual holiday bonus.
People in management get monthly profit sharing.
Helping workers
The company offers some other benefits that are above and beyond.
It starts with reimbursement for tuition expenses if you are a college student.
You can get even more if you are in management.
“Andy’s Outreach Fund,” is another perk that will help employees who have a major crisis in their life.
This is funded by the company and fellow workers.
Advancement opportunities
The opportunity to advance is something cited by many former employees as positive to working at Texas Roadhouse.
There are steps with any path you might choose at the restaurant.
You could start as a dishwasher, for instance, and move to cook, meat cutter, kitchen coordinator, and finally, kitchen manager.
Experience counts and they like to promote from within.
Texas Roadhouse is one of the few restaurants where you could have a long-term career.
Training programs
The company spends a lot of time training for every job at the restaurant.
They want a consistent experience throughout all the stores, so they train people to do things the way they want them done.
There are also solid training programs for advancement into management and leadership positions.
A lot of the training can be transferred to other jobs outside the company, so it is a very valuable benefit.
Fast pace
You won’t get bored working at Texas Roadhouse.
They want customers to be waited on fast, and they want the food out to the customers fast.
There is a learning curve, and speed is expected.
That is part of the fun to a lot of people.
Most reviewers say it is definitely doable once you get the hang of it.
If you like being active, this is a good place to work.
A good place to start
For many people, a restaurant job is a short-term job on the way to something else.
But if you really want to be in the restaurant business, this is a good place to start.
There are a lot of expectations, and that is a chance to grow.
Solid training is available, and there are advancement opportunities.
A lot of restaurants have a lot of turnover, but there are people who work for years at Texas Roadhouse, advancing in their careers over time.
Cons of Working at Texas Roadhouse
Are we having fun yet?
The company wants customers greeted in a fun and cheerful way.
You are required to put on a happy face and give the customer a good fun experience.
Line dancing is also required.
In a sense, entertainment is part of the job, and you have to do that in addition to the regular restaurant job.
This may not be a negative to some people, but the company does require you to put on a little extra excitement whether you are feeling it or not.
Scripted spiel to customers
Greeters have to give customers a standard opening line when they arrive, telling them how happy they are to see them.
You must use phrases like hand-cut steaks, fresh-baked bread, and so forth.
You also have to try to upsell extras to the customers when taking orders.
Most servers know how to make customers feel welcome, but Texas Roadhouse makes you use certain words and phrases as part of an overall sales pitch.
Hurry it up
There is a lot of emphasis on speed for most jobs at Texas Roadhouse.
There is training and you can learn it in a little while, but there is always that pressure to get things done as fast as possible.
Servers have to greet customers within a certain time limit, and food has to go out in a certain time frame.
Most employees like the fast pace, but the constant pressure to be fast can be irritating.
Spies
Texas Roadhouse uses secret shoppers to get reviews on the employees.
They can report what you do and do not do while working.
The company promotes a fun atmosphere, and most workers try to do a good job.
A lot of workers feel the secret shopper thing is an overreach or a lack of trust in employees.
The company may be trying to just make sure things are going well, but it rubs some employees the wrong way.
Steep learning curve
They want things done fast and in a certain way.
There are a lot of steps to getting things just the way they want them.
There is training available, and tests at times.
It can take some time to learn.
Most figure it out and do fine after a while.
Just be aware that you will have to learn a lot in a short period of time if you start working there.
What is family?
The company preaches a family environment for workers, that everyone is on the same team and everyone should look out for each other.
Many former employees say the company fails to live up to this promise.
Upper management is not always supportive of employees who struggle with their jobs, for example.
The fun environment can be spoiled by unrealistic expectations from management.
Not many breaks
You get a 30-minute break for lunch if you are working an eight-hour shift.
Other breaks may be 10 minutes and that is at the discretion of the manager on duty.
If it is busy, you may not get your break at all.
Sometimes long hours are required, but other times they are not.
The restaurant may be overstaffed or understaffed on any given day because it is hard to know what is going to happen.
Not getting many breaks is a common complaint among employees who write reviews.
Bad management
Good managers are great, and bad ones are awful.
If you happen to get a bad one, the job will not be much fun.
This is especially hard when you have to act like you are having fun whether you are or not.
It is also hard when the work is fast-paced and there are a lot of expectations.
A bad manager can pop up at any time, and you don’t really know until you start working there.
Bad managers were mentioned in some reviews written by former employees.
16 Pros and Cons of Working for Texas Roadhouse – Summary Table
| Pros of working at Texas Roadhouse | Cons of working at Texas Roadhouse |
|---|---|
| Fun environment | Are we having fun yet? |
| The pay | Scripted spiel to customers |
| Solid benefits | Hurry it up |
| Helping workers | Spies |
| Advancement opportunities | Steep learning curve |
| Training programs | What is family? |
| Fast pace | Not many breaks |
| A good place to start | Bad management |
Should You Work for Texas Roadhouse?
If you like restaurant work and have a bit of an adventurous spirit, Texas Roadhouse seems like it would be a good employer.
It can be a fun place to work once you get all the requirements down.
A downside is that you have to fake the fun when you are not feeling it, but that can be overcome fairly easily.
It is fast-paced and that is a negative for some people.
It is a positive for many people though, and it does make the shift go faster.
Texas Roadhouse has high expectations, but it also pays well.
The level of expectation and pay often go hand in hand, and it does here too.
There are a lot of positives to working for Texas Roadhouse.
If you like restaurant work, this would be a good place to work overall.
The few negatives are canceled out by the positives.
