Big Texan Steak Ranch (Houston, Dallas: fit in, lease, job market)

[High_Plains_Retired]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

I'm going to have to stop by one of these days....the menu looks fantastic.

Is there seating away from the contest area, out of sight and earshot...? I would imagine that most of the 72oz steak stuff takes place in the evenings or on weekends.

I can't imagine going back to work after having eaten 72 oz of steak PLUS all the trimmings you have to eat with it, including shrimp cocktail.....LOL!!

Eww.

It's been about two years since I was up there but I believe you could be seated out of view of the "eating" stage. Only one of the two times we were there did two fellows try to eat the 72 oz steak. One actually succeeded! I seem to recall the price of not succeeding was about $52.00. The "steak" looks like HUGE roast in the display case. I do well to handle a 12 oz steak. They'd have to call an ambulance if I tried to eat more than 16 ounces. I did like their steaks though.

I had the impression that the troubadours were only in there at certain times but I don't know. I suspect they were like my jam buddy who plays in the evenings at a local Muleshoe restaurant for free.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by High_Plains_Retired

It's been about two years since I was up there but I believe you could be seated out of view of the "eating" stage. Only one of the two times we were there did two fellows try to eat the 72 oz steak. One actually succeeded! I seem to recall the price of not succeeding was about $52.00. The "steak" looks like HUGE roast in the display case. I do well to handle a 12 oz steak. They'd have to call an ambulance if I tried to eat more than 16 ounces. I did like their steaks though.

I had the impression that the troubadours were only in there at certain times but I don't know. I suspect they were like my jam buddy who plays in the evenings at a local Muleshoe restaurant for free.

I can just imagine what it looks like. It makes me queasy to even think of eating that much food at one sitting, LOL!! The fact that you saw it on one of only 2 visits makes me think it's fairly common for people to try it.

I might give them a call before I go if I ever get back to Amarillo and an opportunity to go. Thanks!

[Rangerdude_Charlie]

When I was younger, my twin brother and our parents took a road trip to visit our sister in Arizona. We stopped at the Big Texan. No one was taking the challenge but it would be fun to see. I think for me this would an instance where my eyes would be bigger than my stomach. Fun to watch and cheer people on.

Cadillac Ranch was awesome. No pun intended but they literally drove those cars into the ground. Wa wa wa!!!.

[bluelion_ms3]

A lil over two years ago, my brother, two of his coworkers and I drove up from Houston to do the challenge. Its close to a 10hr drive for us. They decided not to eat breakfast that morning and their plan was to just snack along the way. My plan was a lil different. I ate a mcdonalds breakfast meal (sausage mcmuffin and hash brown). And then I had a decent sized snack midday.... my brother and friends were chewing gum the whole way to curb their appetite, well not me...I didnt wanty jaw to be tired from chewing gum all day.

So we get there around 6ish. Sit down and waitress asks how we want the steaks cooked. And at this point I made the mistake of asking for it Medium (like I always eat steak). I should have asked for it medium well, or even well done.... my strategy was when the clock started, I was going to start cutting my steak into a bunch of small pieces. I did that for about half the steak, it started to eat into my time.....here was another strategy I had, while my brother and friends all ordered water, I orderdd dr pepper. Mainly because water will fill you up, and even though dr pepper will also, DP will make you burp and make you not feel as full......

Ok, so back to eating and cutting steak....I figured by cutting the steak first, I wouldnt allow my brain time to realize im full and I could eat faster. With every bite I took, I dipped it in steak sauce to help it go down. I ate as much steak as I could first before I started on the sides. I ate the salad next to help offset the steak..then moved to shrimp, then roll, and part of potato.... needless tk say.....I did NOT finish the challenge. We asked the waitress to weigh our leftovers to see how much we actually ate....

Me- 5'7 220lbs - I ate 52 oz., the salad, shrimp, roll, and part potato
Brother -5'7 180lbs - 35oz, salad, roll
Friend #1- 6'2 230lbs, 45oz, salad, roll, shrimp
Friend #2- 6'2 245lbs, 52oz, salad, roll, shrimp, part potato

And since we didnt finish the steak, we had to pay $72. ($1 an ounce). Not bad for a all guy road trip for a day. We went to hotel room and were miserable. Being full is an understatement

[Rangerdude_Charlie]

bluelion, thank you for sharing. Very cool.

[ETex2]

In the words of George Kennedy:

"man needs a brown bomber and a dose of salts".

[RJ312]

Every time that I am in Amarillo, I think about taking the 72 ounce steak challenge. I haven't done it. The last time that I was in Amarillo, I still had 6 more hours of driving to get to Dallas. When I think about it, something that I perceive is overlooked about the challenge is the fact that not only does one have to put down that behemoth steak, but one also must finish off a potato, side salad, etc.

I'm an in-shape, athletic guy. I think I could put down 30-36 ounces of the steak, but probably not much else.

[Creature of the Wheel]

The Big Texan is nothing but a tourist trap. Their food quality is horrible! Their chefs/cooks don't seem to know how to put out HOT food. It's always cold and very disappointing. I only go when friends are in town and want to go there. If it were up to me, I'd tell them to head over to Sakura on west side Loop 335 (Soncy Blvd). That is damn fine food right there!

[TXNGL]

Agreed that it's tourist trap. Over a year ago my kid and I went, we were in the area visiting Palo Duro and Caprock. We had never been so thought it would be a fun night. We had a ball. There was a guy there doing the challenge and he didn't complete it. My kid is a vegetarian so just had a salad and baked potato. I had the filet and it was actually pretty good. I ordered medium and that's how it came out. Was it the best filet I've ever had? No, not compared to the best steak houses in the country but pretty good. Worth the price for the piece of meat? Eh. Probably not but still a fun time.

[RJ312]

Originally Posted by Creature of the Wheel

The Big Texan is nothing but a tourist trap.

That is what I was thinking the last time I drove through Amarillo. I looked at the menu prior to and I didn't see what I thought was a good price-value proposition for a meal, so I just decided to keep driving back to Dallas.