Harland S.
Google
I received a gift card for Longhorn and visited the Chantilly location this past Monday at 4:30 PM to avoid the potential of a dinner crowd. I asked to be seated at the bar. As I studied the menu, a couple of folks came to the bar to pick up carryout orders, and a couple of guys took seats just to drink. I ordered a glass of La Crema Pinot Noir and French onion soup to start. I encountered indifferent service from the young lady serving me. She spent most of the time in the adjacent kitchen near the bar, chatting with colleagues and occasionally glancing at the bar.
The soup was dominated by cheese, having very little onion and not much broth, which was salty. I ate some of it. I then ordered a porterhouse steak, medium rare, a plain baked potato with butter, and a mixed greens salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The salad arrived in a flash. It was ice cold, obviously made in advance and stored in a refrigerator. The only greens in the salad were chopped leaf lettuce, which included pulp. Other ingredients were diced cucumbers, diced tomatoes, grated yellow cheese that I think was supposed to be cheddar, and croutons. The cheese was totally flavorless, as were the diced tomatoes and cucumbers. The croutons were good, fresh, and crunchy, and the balsamic vinaigrette, along with some freshly ground black pepper, made the salad bearable. The tragedy for the salad was the extreme cold temperature. Cold temperatures kill flavor.
I thought the soup was salty, but it was nothing compared to the baked potato. It had two globs of caked salt on either side of the peel. I scraped off the salt, but it had permeated the peel. I ate part of the interior, and butter with fresh ground pepper helped. I asked for bread and received a small loaf of what appeared to be whole wheat, which was also void of flavor. It was served on a small bread board with a condiment container of butter but no butter knife. The tableware place setting did not include a butter knife, so I used the steak knife rather than ask the indifferent server for one.
The porterhouse presented fairly well on the plate visually, having a chestnut color with dark crosshatched grill marks. I think LongHorn corporate puts a great deal of effort into this visual imagery for brand identity. The true test is taste. I am certain the meat was USDA Choice, not Prime, and thinly cut, 1/2 inch thick after cooking. Choice grade has less marbling, and being thinly cut does not retain as much moisture during cooking. The LongHorn porterhouse was not rich and juicy. A thicker cut would yield a better flavor result. I was impressed that the kitchen achieved medium rare, as I asked, taking a great deal of skill to do on such a thin cut. There was 1/8 inch of sear on both sides and 1/4 inch of pink interior. My thickness report is accurate; I only ate a small portion at the bar and brought home the bulk of the steak, where I measured it.
The atmosphere is casual, and the furnishings are dated, but the restaurant is meticulously clean, including the men's restroom. Parking is ample.
