How Much Did A LongHorn Steakhouse T-Bone Cost In The '80s Vs 2026?

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Looking at old restaurant menus is great for invoking a hearty dose of nostalgia and wistfulness ... wistalgia, maybe? We love looking back at beloved menu items, and we definitely get a pang of longing for those amazing prices of yore. Remember when an Olive Garden menu from the '90s got us all in our feels? That same tangle of feelings arose in our hearts when we caught an (expired) eBay listing for an '80s-era LongHorn Steakhouse menu, which highlighted the price changes of a classic T-bone steak from then to now.

The Reagan Era was a time of big hair and cassette tapes, but it was also an age when little on a chain steakhouse menu topped 20 bucks. Particularly, we were interested in the price of a T-bone, which is still on offer at LongHorn today. This mammoth primal cut has a New York strip on one side and a filet mignon on the other, with the two sides separated by a T-shaped bone. Back in the 1980s (we don't know exactly which year), a 16-ounce LongHorn's T-bone sold for just $13.95. This included salad bar access, your choice of soup or juice, a potato side, and an individually-sized loaf of bread.

Today, a LongHorn Steakhouse location in St. Petersburg, Florida is selling an 18-ounce T-bone steak for $33.29 — and keep in mind that prices are subject to change based on location and availability. Today's steak is served with your choice of two sides. For an upcharge, you can enjoy those honey butter Brussels sprouts that we love to try and recreate at home. Does that sound like a major increase in price? Nominally, it might be, but the truth is that you actually get a better value today.

If a price difference of almost $20 for a piece of steak sounds ridiculous to you, it may surprise you to know that LongHorn Steakhouse's T-bone has actually gone down in cost over the last four decades when inflation is factored in. As per the CPI inflation calculator, $13.95 in 2026 prices is actually $43.29. That's calculated off of the 1985 dollar, to choose a midpoint in the '80s. Given that the 2026 T-bone steak is "only" $33.29, that's actually $10 cheaper than it would be if it was more directly linked to the value of a mid-'80s steak.

While a lot of things have changed between the '80s and today, including widespread internet access, the genesis of artificial intelligence, and the whole of Taylor Swift's career, some things have stayed the same, including the reason that steaks taste different at a restaurant. You might face a very changed menu when you dine at LongHorn, and you might be confronted with some very different menu items (the skewered shrimp described as "a dieter's delight" has thankfully been left in the last millennium), but it's good to know that a quintessential steakhouse fave, the T-bone steak, is still hanging around ... and that, dollar for dollar, we are actually paying less for it today.