5 Texas Roadhouse Add-Ons You Should Be Ordering, And 4 To Skip

In 2025, Texas Roadhouse took the title of America's top casual restaurant from Olive Garden — and, indeed, it's high on the love list in our hearts. That's not just because it has cheaper sirloin than Outback Steakhouse (and delicious sirloin, at that!), but because the menu is oh-so customizable. The long list of side items ensures that your entrée is exactly what you want, in terms of both taste and nutrition, and the equally-extensive list of upgrades, swaps, and tweaks means that your lunch or dinner at Texas Roadhouse can be made your way, every day. 

We've covered some fun menu hacks at this restaurant, such as upgrading your steak with portobello sauce (a very worthy special order, in our honest opinion), but what upcharges and changes are worthwhile, versus a waste of money or even a downgrade in flavor? That's what we're exploring today. Keep in mind that many of these add-on opinions are wholly subjective, so you may feel differently. Prices and availability of add-ons are subject to change by location; our sample was a restaurant in West-Central Florida.

Eating too many rolls at Texas Roadhouse is a rookie mistake that could jeopardize your dinner, but it's a delicious error to commit. For those who just can't get enough buttery honey cinnamon spread with their rolls, the restaurant is happy to sell you a generous side order of the stuff for $1.99. That's a bargain to have enough honey butter to scoop up with every bite, if you want — but you can also bring the leftovers home and slather it on your bagel tomorrow morning, prolonging your joy. 

Texas Roadhouse generally has great deals on ribs, but we feel that a side order is a bit much. For $9.99, you can add ribs to just about any main plate, including entrées as head-scratchingly contrasting as a chicken Caesar salad. Ribs just aren't a fitting side order for many dinners, or even most. They scream "main character," and we don't see how they'd add any value to plates like the salmon or Road Kill chopped steak. The add-on price is high, too. Why not just order a combo plate? 

While ordering a whole side dish of ribs is a bit ludicrous, a side skewer of pink shrimp is, as we see it, a welcome addition to several meals. While ribs are heavy and saucy, offering flavor that might compete with your main dish, shrimp is a light, versatile pop of protein that complements the salmon entrée as well as a steak. At $7.99, it's cheaper, too. Texas Roadhouse's steak seasoning tastes pretty darn good, but why not add a few shrimp to make your meal feel more upscale? 

One of the common mistakes people make when cooking sweet potatoes is turning them into de facto desserts. For $1.49, you can make your baked sweet potato "loaded" and drown it under a layer of caramel sauce and bronzed mini marshmallows. It's a weird pairing with savory steaks, though, and a strange thing to do to a side (a sweet potato) that's already yummy on its own. Instead, throw some cinnamon butter on that 'tater and call it a day. 

We love steakhouse mushrooms (the copycat tip for getting them right involves lots of butter) so much that we sometimes consider ordering nothing but a big plate of them. Of course, that's silly talk ... you gotta have steak at a steakhouse! For $2.79, you can still add a generous smothering of mushrooms and grilled onions to your steak that's as hearty as an additional side dish and genuinely enhances your beef. They make a steak taste more in the best possible way. 

We love Jack cheese (especially in grilled cheeses cooked on the grill for flavor and crunch!), but, sorry to say, it doesn't belong on steak. The 50-cent upcharge isn't the issue; it's the fact that, while Jack cheese might be okay with chicken — and even then, we'd choose a different type — it's a decidedly downscale option for beef. Swap it for bleu cheese crumbles if you really want dairy ... it's only 20 cents more, and the funk of bleu is, in our opinion, a far better pairing for your steak. 

A good steak sauce should complement, but not compete with, the beef. Texas Roadhouse is known for its affordable steak cuts, and its expert seasoning and grilling ensure that you don't really need to gild the lily. When a little something-something is merited, however, the 99-cent upcharge for some housemade chimichurri is the way to go. The herbaceous, oil-based sauce will add unctuousness and green savor to your steak without overwhelming it, which is the goal of any steakhouse condiment. 

Texas Roadhouse already has LongHorn Steakhouse beat when it comes to burgers, both in terms of price and options. Its delicious, enormous Smokehouse Burger comes laden with sautéed mushrooms and onions, BBQ sauce, two cheeses, and the standard burger buddies LT&O. Adding bacon for $1.29 is just superfluous, as we see it. We predict that the smokiness of the bacon will not only overwhelm the cheeses, but that the handheld would become impossible to eat without making a huge mess. 

For our money — and yours! — upgrading to a bowl of Texas Red Chili is a no-brainer. It costs only a dollar more than a cup, and going by the calorie count (240 for the cup versus 480 for the bowl), you get double the amount. The "beans in chili" debate will never die, but we love the pintos in Texas Roadhouse's bowl. Use the extra chili to smother your baked potato or french fries, or simply share it with your tablemate(s). The math is mathing, as the kids say.