Gourmand-logic reasons that, when dining at a burger joint, it’s best to order the burger. Same thing goes for the pasta from a pasta restaurant, the fish from the seafood place, and so on. But, despite specializing in the red meat realm, many of the best things to order at Texas Roadhouse aren’t steak. According to customers, and our taste tester’s ranking of 12 popular Texas Roadhouse menu items, one surprising offering climbed the ranks to take second-place — and it wasn’t a steak. The Texas Roadhouse dish that claimed the coveted runner-up spot in Tasting Table’s menu ranking was none other than the grilled shrimp, leaving several of the meaty competitors for which the chain is known in the dust.
By our taste tester’s count, Texas Roadhouse’s grilled shrimp trump its ribs, chili, and sirloin steak. The shrimp is thrown on the grill with garlic lemon pepper butter for a dimensionally smoky, charred flavor, but despite grill-cooking, it isn’t overdone at all. As Crawford Smith wrote in the ranking, “Shrimp is a delicate protein, and a few too many seconds on the grill can make it go from juicy and succulent to chalky and disappointing.” To their surprise, “the shrimp came out perfectly cooked, with moist, translucent interiors and charred exteriors.” In the flavor department, they also praised the shrimp seasoning, which, while undisclosed by the restaurant, seemed to include some combination of “cayenne, paprika, dried herbs, onion, garlic, and maybe even some celery seed.”
Read more: 15 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Eating At A Steakhouse
Grilled shrimp delivers the flavorful smoky char that some steaks lack
table of food from Texas Roadhouse – Faiza Rajiwate/Shutterstock
The nine-piece grilled shrimp entree from Texas Roadhouse includes your choice of two sides and costs $18.99, or $21.99 for the 12-piece entree, depending on the location. Notably, the shrimp skewers were served to our taste tester over slabs of garlic bread instead of rice, so preparations may vary by location. Still, if customer reviews are any indication, all of the preparations seem to deliver. One Texas Roadhouse fan praised the dish on Reddit, writing “I was so surprised by how good their shrimp is. Now I get it with everything.” Another customer responded, adding that they were “surprised at how tasty the seasoning was.” Apart from ordering it as an entrée, some locations also allow you to add a side order of grilled shrimp to your meal for $7.99.
Tasting Table digs Texas Roadhouse’s grilled shrimp so much that one of our recipe developers, Jenmine Rye, formulated a knockout copycat recipe. The internet is filled with other aspiring dupes from fellow Texas Roadhouse grilled shrimp fans who share our enthusiasm, too. In one contribution for I’m Hungry For That, Joseph Duff calls the dish “as good as seafood gets,” and Martha of Gourmet Martha agrees: “There’s something truly special about the grilled shrimp from Texas Roadhouse. The perfect balance of smoky char, juicy texture, and that irresistible buttery garlic makes it a favorite among seafood lovers.”
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Read the original article on Tasting Table.
Dining and Cooking