YEE: Longhorn Steakhouse

Best way to take a break from moving and cleaning all day. My mom was complaining that if we didn’t have to come here, everything could get done. Nah. Steak prevails.
I brought my mom because she was in town and initially I wasn’t even going to RSVP because of the whole moving thing, so I sent her a screenshot of the event details and asked if she wanted to go. «hell yeah!» so there we were!
I decided to get a watermelon margarita and it was amazing. The description on the menu leaves out a very important detail: THERE IS A STICK OF ROCK CANDY IN THE DRINK. And that is why you should get one.
The menu was a bit different from the previous Longhorn event I attended in East Cobb, so that was good. Of course, they seem to highlight a couple seasonal things and it was finally feeling like fall and the menu related.
We had some of the same appetizers to start: Wild West Shrimp, Spicy Chicken Bites, and Sweet Corn Fritters, and then also got to try the Brew Pub Pretzels, which were easily my favorite even though I only ate one. I wanted to eat more. But I knew what was ahead.
The Bleu Ridge Wedge salad was kind of meh but that’s because I am not a fan of blue cheese at all. Blue cheese dressing, ok, blue cheese itself is just gross. and I didn’t think ahead of time to say no to it, so I just sort of pushed it off and ate some of the rest of the salad. It was kind of weird because it’s not like a wedge salad at all in that they used leafs off a romaine heart rather than iceberg, though of course romaine is faaaaar preferable of a lettuce to me.
For a steak and side, I went with the gigantic ribeye with leftovers in my sights, along with the steakhouse mac and cheese because I’m addicted. The steak was awesome, both at dinner and for lunch the next day. And the mac and cheese, let’s just say it’s amazing because I don’t want to start craving it.
For dessert it was the Chocolate Stampede along with a seasonal Pumpkin Spice Lava Cake. I love chocolate, and of course that one is known in these events now. The lava cake was kind of just okay. I should know from my time at Starbucks that it was probably just spice cake rather than being pumpkin with the spices but I feel like that would be soooo good.
As usual from something like this, I left super psyched and ready to sleep. So much food. It was nice to be able to bring someone, too!

Unilocal has completely transformed my perception of Longhorn, I’m so impressed! I’ve been to one other Unilocal-​Longhorn event prior to this one and was completely blown away by their generosity and level of customer service — this event was no different!
We were all spoiled by the amount of food provided, and it’s safe to say we all left full and satisfied.
Dinner kicked off with a round of various appetizers including a serving of pretzel bread, fried shrimp, fried corn fritters, and spicy chicken bites — all quite delicious, but I have to admit the shrimp was my favorite. Next up was the blue ridge wedge salad, which everyone was provided a full serving of (!). Typically, I find wedge salads a little bit difficult to eat — I would prefer if they just cut up the damn lettuce (lazy diner), but the size of the salad made it much easier, and of course it was delicious and very fresh.
Next up was the main course, we had three choices of steak cuts, and while it was quite the decision, I settled on the Harvest Mushroom Steak filet with the loaded baked potato as my side. I also got to sample quite a bit of the ribeye. Needless to say, everything was perfectly cooked (medium rare) and perfectly flavorful — especially with Longhorn’s custom made steak sauce. Finally, the night concluded with two desserts the Chocolate Stampede (chocolate mousse and ice cream) — which is just pure decadence — so. good — and the pumpkin spice lava cake which is such a lovely autumn treat! In addition, I had the watermelon margarita — which is probably one of the better margaritas I’ve had in life (no exaggeration), and I’m not just saying that because it comes with a rock candy garnish.
Thank you so much to Heidi for another lovely event and a huge thanks to the staff at Longhorn for being so lovely and accommodating, I had an amazing experience!

What an awesome event! It was totally worth having to drive to Kennesaw to get to eat an 18oz ribeye (and three other courses of surprisingly delicious chain restaurant food) for free AND to get to share the whole thing with a guest.
Longhorn is actually my favorite chain restaurant. I’ve always preferred their low priced steaks out of comparable red-​meat slinging chains, and the food we enjoyed at this event confirm
The new appetizers were quite tasty. Loved the spicy chicken (it was actually spicy), and the ooey gooey butter drenched pretzel breadsticks (that were definitely worth breaking a low carb diet for). The salad was described as a wedge salad, but it was actually made with whole baby romaine heads, not the traditional iceberg wedge, and was covered in blue cheese crumbles, tomatoes, red onion, bacon, and blue cheese dressing. It was delicious, and topped with a couple of slices of steak, would have made a perfect dinner on its own.
The highlight of the meal was of course the bone-​in 18oz rib eye steak, cooked perfectly medium rare. For my side, I chose the asparagus, which were (suprisingly) not overcooked and well seasoned. Dessert was almost as impressive as the steak. The chocolate stampede cake was supposed to feed four people, as it’s two GIANT wedges with multiple scoops of ice cream and a literal mountain of whipped cream, but I honestly could have eaten the whole thing. This is the kind of trashy, sinful, previously frozen dessert you don’t want to admit to liking but can’t help but licking the plate clean.
Thanks to Heidi for also covering the first alcoholic beverage for those who chose to imbibe and for the great Unilocal swag (sunglasses! playing cards! pins! oh my!). Great idea to invite some newbie elites to experience it as well –what an intro to elitedom for them!

LongHorn Steakhouse pulls out all the stops in trying when it comes to impressing Unilocalers. That was the case last night at the most recent LongHorn OTP Elite Event, this time in Kennesaw. Originally scheduled as a Gold Elite Event, it eventually became open to non-​Golds as well, and it was unique because it allowed Elites to bring a guest. To my knowledge, +1s haven’t been allowed to an Atlanta area LongHorn event up to this point, so that was definitely a nice bonus.
Twenty of us dined on a four-​course, set-​menu, sit-​down, steak dinner courtesy of LongHorn. The only decisions we had to make were what type of steaks we wanted, what temperatures we wanted them cooked at, and what sides we wanted with our steaks. I believe there were new items on LongHorn’s special menu that hadn’t previously been on a LongHorn Unilocal event menu before. Here’s the rundown:
Appetizers:
Brew Pub Pretzel Sticks
Wild West Shrimp
Spicy Chicken Bites
Sweet Corn Fritters
Salad:
Bleu Ridge Wedge Salad
Steak choices:
8 oz. Renegade Sirloin
18 oz. Outlaw Ribeye
8 oz. Harvest Mushroom Filet
Side choices:
Loaded Idaho Baked Potato
Sweet Potato with Cinnamon Sugar & Butter
Fresh Steamed Asparagus
Steakhouse Mac &Cheese
Potato & Leek Au Gratin
Dessert:
Chocolate Stampede
Pumpkin Spice Lava Cake
Each dish was freshly prepared and came out hot from the kitchen. The Brew Pub Pretzel Sticks were unexpectedly good thanks to the dipping sides of Sam Adams beer cheese and honey bacon mustard. The beer cheese was like fluffy, buttery gravy. The Spicy Chicken Bites (popcorn chicken) was my favorite app. It came with a sweet and spicy chili sauce. The Sweet Corn Fritters were tasty as well.
The Bleu Ridge Wedge Salad was colorful, fresh, and crisp. While I’m not a huge fan of bleu cheese, I did like exclusive use of romaine lettuce in this dish. I’ve also tried LongHorn’s Grilled Watermelon Wedge Salad made with kale and other greens and I prefer it over the Bleu Ridge version.
As did most others, I went with the big steak of the night, the 18 oz. Outlaw Ribeye. I had mine cooked medium rare. I also tried some of the 8 oz. Renegade Sirloin. The manly, rebellious names for these steaks are funny. The steaks were good. They certainly weren’t high-​end steakhouse quality, but they were also a nice reminder that LongHorn can serve a respectable mid-​tier steak. My bone-​in ribeye was thick, juicy, and had just the right amount of fat. Very satisfying.
The sides I tried, Sweet Potato with Cinnamon Sugar & Butter and Potato & Leek Au Gratin, were tasty.
As for the desserts, the Chocolate Stampede was massive and decadent. It consisted of chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. There were six different types of chocolate in the Chocolate Stampede. The Pumpkin Spice Lava Cake was delicious. It consisted of cream cheese icing, bourbon caramel, and candied pecans. I really enjoyed the lava cake, especially its smooth, flavorful, and rich icing.
There was an Instagram contest throughout the night (#LongHornYelp). Three $ 25 gift cards were given away to lucky winners. My photo of the Wild West Shrimp appetizer (
) was one of the photos chosen. Annie L. and Amanda D. were also winners. Annie differentiated herself by posting videos instead of photos. These types of social media contests, which I’ve participated in at other Unilocal events, is an excellent free marketing opportunity for the host business. A prime example is one of the comments I received on an Instagram picture I posted of my ribeye: «Drools! I didn’t know longhorn could make steaks like that.» (
)
It was great to meet some newly minted OTP Elites in person such as Vivian and Ravi B. A big thank you to General Manager Lisa and the rest of the folks at LongHorn Steakhouse in Kennesaw for graciously hosting us. Service was spectacular. And thank you, as always, to OTP Community Manager Heidi for making the dinner happen. It was a fun and stomach-​filling Monday night.

I was so lucky to get invited as a newbie to a gold event! This was my second Unilocal event after Olive Garden. It is kind of ironic that the two events I went to were both chain restaurants, but I enjoyed both of them. I had been going to olive garden for years, but never really got to experience LongHorn. I didn’t grow up eating steak in my Indian household so I relied on Chef Justin White’s expertise with meats. I got to learn about the different cuts of meat (ribeye, sirloins) and how LongHorn prepares these meats to give them a good flavor. They created an in-​house steak sauce that sizzles and it tasted really great on the steak and enhanced the flavors.
They had four appetizers we tried: (Off memory –) wild west shrimp, beer pub pretzel sticks, corn fritters, and there were some spicy chicken bites. I really enjoyed the corn fritters and the beer pub pretzel breadsticks were AMAZING. The corn fritters tasted like a corn hush puppy. The pretzel breadsticks tasted exactly like they sound! Gooey breadsticks with a pretzel twist! The sauces they came with were awesome too! The wild west shrimp was okay and I liked the spicy chicken bites, but they weren’t as spicy as I thought they would be. In between appetizers and dinner we got the bleu ridge wedge salad which I kind of picked at with the bleu cheese crumbles, tomatoes, and bacon bits with ranch dressing. It was kind of hard to eat the big pieces of lettuce without being awkward and without a knife. :P
Moving on to the dinner — The 18oz Ribeye was HUGE! Chef Justin White got that one and I tried his. It was juicy and wasn’t as seasoned as the sirloin I chose to try. I felt like my smaller sirloin packed a greater punch of flavor. But both were tender and flavorful and I enjoyed both of them a lot. Chef Justin White got the mac and cheese and I got the potato and leek au gratin. I enjoyed my potatoes a lot more than his mac and cheese, but both tasted great. I liked the crumby-​topping of my au gratin.
For drinks, I really liked Chef Justin White’s jack & coke Blueberry lemonade. Yum! It had the strong flavor of jack mixed into the sweet delicate flavor of blueberry lemonade. My watermelon margarita was awesome too! I feel badly that I didn’t get to finish all of it getting nervous not to be able to drive after: P
We were all way too full for the desserts of Chocolate stampede and the pumpkin spice rum cake, but I sneaked in a couple of bites of both. The chocolate stampede came with vanilla ice cream, but I enjoyed it without the ice cream, because it seemed to have its own mousse/​ice cream mixed in. It was chocolately without being overwhelming. In contrast though I felt the pumpkin spice had too much cream cheese on top.
The service at this event was awesome and the servers and managers were super nice and easy to talk to. This event was a great opportunity for me to be able to meet some gold members and elite members. Since the event was a little smaller than the olive garden event, I felt like I got to talk to more people and it was nice to be able to discuss foody-​things with new friends! I also got a cool pack of cards with an awesome slogan (Win some, lose some, Unilocal em all). I also got some red Unilocal sunglasses and pens with a free appetizer card from LongHorn.
Awesome event! I really enjoyed it.

This was kind of a ridiculous event. Ridiculously awesome I mean. Being Gold Elite has its perks, but this was fa and beyond amazing. The staff at Longhorn were really attentive, but not overly so … the managers were very gracious, and the food was amazing.
DRINKS
JACK AND HONEY BLACKBERRY LEMONADE
Great cocktail. I NEVER order anything with Jack Daniels, but this was really good. According to Chip, it’s like a long island iced tea with Mikes Hard Lemonade… which i think is the best description for this. Yummy.
To start, they brought out appetizers for the table to share…
BREW PUB PRETZEL STICKS
What?! These are freaking amazing. The salty pretzels dipped in a cheesy pimento dip and piping hot out of the oven. Wow. My favorite appetizer by FAR. I’m coming back to Longhorn just for these.
WILD WEST SHRIMP
Not a new menu item, but good nonetheless. Comes in a tray with some dip. The shrimp is small, just bite size, so it’s a great one to share. The batter wasn’t too heavy either.
SPICY CHICKEN BITES
I didn’t get a taste of this. It just flew past me and I didn’t catch it.
SWEET CORN FRITTERS
This was just an ok menu item for me. It was too filling and I wasn’t a big fan of the sweet taste of it.
BLUE RIDGE WEDGE SALAD
I’m a big fan of wedge salads. Especially ones that are nice and crunchy lettuce, good tomatoes, crispy bacon, and blue cheese. Came with a ranch dressing. Everything was good on this dish, but i could do with less onion. Just my preference though. But i would get this again!
Then came the entrees with a choice of 3 steak cuts: 8oz Renegade sirloin, 18 oz Outlaw Ribeye, and an 8 oz Harvest Mushroom Filet.
18 oz OUTLAW RIBEYE
I couldn’t pass this up even though the size literally blew my mind. I thought it was a typo. They were so generous on the portions for us, I was dumbfounded. I love ribeyes, and will pretty much always order it if it’s on the menu. The cut was amazing, but there was a lot of fat on it. I ate half of it, and I could have eaten the whole thing if I didn’t have anything else on the menu and just focused on the steak. The marbling was nice and even, and the fatty parts I just cut off in chunks and put them aside with the bone.
SWEET POTATO WITH CINNAMON SUGAR & BUTTER
This was amazing. I make sweet potato mash at home with these exact ingredients, so I was a big fan of this. The sugar was still crunchy, which threw me off a bit and I had to be careful to mix it well into the potato to make sure its in every bite.
POTATO & LEEK AU GRATIN
There was way too much onion in this dish for me, but my friend really liked it.
Desserts too…
PUMPKIN SPICE CAKE
I liked this cake a lot. I didn’t eat much of the cream cheese but I loved that the cake was warm still, super moist and fluffy and I inhaled my slice.
CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM
A lot of people loved this cake but I’m not a big chocolate cake person. I thought it was very nice, not too sweet and the cake was nice and moist.
Company was great on my end of the table and we had a blast meeting new Elites and veterans. Learned so much for Atlanta recommendations to try, routes to Tomorroworld as well as Napa Valley eats! Can’t beat that! Til next time Elites!