Walking into the restaurant and seeing the case presenting thick, hand cut steaks made my heart glow eagerly. Any restaurant that knows enough to cut a steak thick must know enough to prepare it well!

I ordered the 12 ounce ribeye, one of the finest cuts of beef in the cow, well marbeled meat pakced with marvelous flavors. The bread was so wonderful, that my mouth watered for what was sure to be a wonderful meal.

When the waitress brought my steak to the table, my heart dropped. Where was the thick hand cut steak so proudly displayed in the case up front? What they brought to the table was a thin shaving of steak with the dreaded diamond criss cross pattern so common to low end steak houses. At that point, I knew that what I was served was a dreaded, over-marinated serving of tangy mush beef.

Fans of marinade love it because it makes meet "so tender". What they don't realize, I'm sure, is that marinade rips apart the meet proteins and replaces the flavor of natural beef with the tanginess of the vinegar or marinade agent.

Marinades are used when you have a piece of low quality, tough meat that you need to tenderize just to make it edible. Claims that the meat is "tender" and excitement over the fact that it "falls apart when I touch it with my fork!" are only evidence of a horribly prepared steak.

A good quality cut of steak is packed full of flavor and provides a chewy texture.

For my money, I might as well get a steak at Ponderosa as get one at Texas Roadhouse.

For those of you who find my post curious and wonder what a good steak actually tastes like, I recommend that you visit your local Ruth's Chris or Morton's. If you live in the country, I understand you might not have access to good steak, and my heart goes out to you. The best thing to do is go to Sam's club or Costco, buy a vaccuum sealed whole beef tenderloin, and visit foodnetwork.com to review Alton Brown's preperation recipies for Filet Mignon. It won't cost anymore than the roadhouse and the results will be fabulous.

Even though I have been disappointed by Outback time and time again, I say they do a better job than texas roadhouse. At least they don't marinate their steaks.

Of course, steak lovers like their steaks medium-rare. If you're the kind of person that likes a steak well done, then marinade usually helps prevent the toughness that comes with drying a steak out. If so, then you might love the Texas Roadhouse.