Texas Roadhouse

You open the menu at Texas Roadhouse and the wine section is basically a footnote between the frozen margaritas and the Bud Light. It's not that wine is an afterthought here — it's that wine was never really thought about at all. The list reads like someone grabbed whatever was on sale at the nearest Publix.

We're talking roughly 10-15 wines, almost entirely California with a lone Washington state appearance in the form of Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling. The anchor producers are Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi and Barefoot — both perfectly fine for a Tuesday night at home, but not exactly the kind of bottles you want next to a $30 ribeye. There's no real depth here: no interesting regions, no independent producers, nothing that suggests anyone curated this list with even mild intention. The gap between the quality of the food and the quality of the wine program is genuinely wide.

There are 6-10 pours by the glass, which sounds reasonable until you realize they're basically all from the same two or three producers. Rotation appears nonexistent — this list is firmly in set-it-and-forget-it territory. You're better off ordering a cocktail or a cold beer, which is honestly what most people at the table are doing anyway.