There's unlimited rolls, and two sides including a choice of baked potatoes (which need to be baked for an hour), salads with hard boiled egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato and dressing, chili, and a host of other choices that are included in that price. Does this particular steak make money. I wouldn't know. I do know it's not going to be a lot. Any profit on alcohol or even soda (which costs like 5 cents) is going to blow that away.
My guy I read 10-Q and 10-K reports on profits and losses from publicy traded companies and you know, read in general.
Fountain drinks, iced teas, and alcoholic drinks have some of the highest markup and profit margins in any casual estaurants.
Appetizers & Add-Ons: Items like the Cactus Blossom (deep-fried onion), Rattlesnake Bites, and add-ons like extra cheese, bacon, or sauces have very low ingredient costs relative to their menu price.
Chicken Critters (chicken tenders), Grilled BBQ Chicken, and Pulled Pork typically yield better profit margins than beef steaks, as chicken and pork carry lower wholesale costs than beef.
You mean a menu item or promotion sold at or below its production cost price to attract customers through the door, with the goal of making up the loss through high-margin add-ons, drinks, or repeat visits?
Yep. Suspected it might be given its really low price compared to Outback selling the same cuts for $29 and our local steak restaurant selling it for $48.
Texas Road House does not publish that data. But on their q2 2026 earning call they did talk about it.
Texas Roadhouse uses steak as a "loss leader" to drive massive foot traffic, while relying heavily on alcohol, appetizers, and premium add-ons to generate actual profit margins. While food accounts for roughly 85% to 87% of total sales, its overall food and beverage cost sits high at 35.4% as of 2026 due to compressed margins on hand-cut beef.
Texas Roadhouse processes their own beef in house and buy in bulk when volatility is lowest. Every restaurant has butchers and thus saves a lot of overhead.
There's 1400 calories in a double quarter pounder with cheese meal with a regular soda. The argument wasn't Texas Roadhouse is better (it is) but that it was comparable in cost. It isn't.
Umm the number of calories is a terrible measure of how good the price is. Ultra processed garbage food doesn’t fill you up and just leaves you hungry. So if anything a more filling meal like roadhouse would be better. And also if you were counting calories the free rolls you get alone would double that quarter pounder so paying more for something you can split into a ton of meals is just a better deal overall
I hardly argue that comparing cost by calories is reasonable. It’s very easy to get EXTREMELY high calorie foods from an absurd amount of fat and oil with significantly less actual food than the comparison
The discussion was over Texas Roadhouse being just as cheap as McDonalds. It's not. Yes, McDonalds food is crappier but it is clearly not as expensive. One person, who deleted their comment, mentioned a calorie comparison.
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u/thingsorfreedom 5d ago edited 5d ago
Texas Roadhouse sells alcohol. Their food is a loss leader. A soda pushes the Roadhouse meal to $22.
A double quarter pounder with cheese meal is $12.49 in South Jersey/Philly area.
A Double Cheeseburger, fries, 4 nuggets and a drink combo is $6.