Why Texas Roadhouse's Mexican Menu Was Dropped After Just 2 Weeks

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Texas Roadhouse has become a pillar of the restaurant industry in recent years, dethroning Olive Garden as the top casual dining chain in the United States back in 2025. With this popularity comes a menu that many consumers know practically by heart, making the fact that there was actually an additional section of it solely dedicated to Mexican cuisine all the more surprising. However, to call it short-lived would somehow be an understatement, as the menu was discontinued by Texas Roadhouse after merely two weeks due to what the restaurant's founder said was a matter of "poor execution and almost no sales."

The first Texas Roadhouse restaurant was opened in Clarksville, Indiana on February 17, 1993 by Kent Taylor, who had ample experience managing nightclubs and restaurants leading up to that point. There, during its first two weeks, the restaurant offered Mexican cuisine alongside its steaks and ribs, a decision that Taylor went on to admit was a flawed one in his 2021 book "Made From Scratch," a biography about the success of Texas Roadhouse. " The founder explained, "Our kitchen wasn't set up to do Mexican food justice — it's an entirely different skillset — and it really didn't fit the theme of the place."

Now, with over 30 years of reflection and massive growth for the juggernaut restaurant chain, many likely wonder why Texas Roadhouse made an effort with Mexican cuisine in the first place. Well, there are likely a few reasons. For starters, Kent Taylor explained that both his first kitchen manager, Jeff White, and his managing partner for the first store, Brian Judd, had wanted to utilize their experience from working at Chi Chi's — a Mexican restaurant chain that barely exists today — to complement the steakhouse's primary menu items. "Before the opening, we also kept debating the menu," Taylor explained in his book. "With their background at Chi-Chi's, Brian and Jeff were convinced we needed a Mexican section on our steakhouse menu. Always willing to give things a try, I agreed."

However, beyond just members of the first Texas Roadhouse team lobbying for it, there's an argument to be made that a small menu with Mexican cuisine was a more fitting choice for the steakhouse than Taylor thought. While we all think of Tex-Mex as its own unique style of food, Mexican cuisine has had a profound impact on Texas cuisine across the board. Thus, while it proved unsuccessful, having both styles of food on the menu would be fitting of the theme the restaurant aims to achieve. Nevertheless, while it's unlikely we ever see the return of a Mexican side menu at the massive restaurant chain, a small piece of Mexican cuisine continues to be served at Texas Roadhouse: margaritas. Texas Roadhouse has some of the best margaritas of any casual restaurant chain, a quality that often helps the chain stand out in terms of alcoholic beverages overall.