Irene Jiang / Business Insider
I ate the same meal at Outback Steakhouse and LongHorn Steakhouse, and LongHorn was better in every way except one.
- $4 and $4 are both popular steakhouse $4
- I went to an Outback Steakhouse in Manhattan and a LongHorn Steakhouse in Queens to see how the dining experiences compared.
- I ordered the same meal at each restaurant: a house salad, the chain's most popular appetizer, a house margarita, and a bone-in ribeye $4 with a loaded baked potato and a side of vegetables.
- The quality of the food at LongHorn was better, and I was especially impressed by the house margarita and the signature appetizer. However, the fantastic service at Outback set a sky-high bar that LongHorn fell far short of.
- $4.
Longhorn Steakhouse $4 in a recent Market Force survey.
Outback Steakhouse trailed in a tie at No. 14, even though it has $4 - almost twice as many as $4.
Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I'd never been to a LongHorn Steakhouse. I'd eaten at an Outback at some point during my adolescence, but LongHorn had never been on my radar in quite the same way.
So what was the difference? A chain restaurant steak by any other name would taste as savory - or so I thought.
I went to the Outback Steakhouse in Manhattan and the LongHorn Steakhouse in Queens. I ordered the same meals at both restaurants: a house margarita, a house salad, the most popular appetizer, and a bone-in ribeye steak medium-rare with a side of loaded baked potato and steamed vegetables.
Here's how they compared: