We have been to the Big Texan many times over the past 20 years. I have not done the big steak thing (I have to drive after that meal) so I speak only from the position of an observer. Two of my sons have done the steak at one of our stops back in the early 90's.
A couple of things to keep in mind-
1. The meat is NOT a Prime Filet. It looks like Sirloin, or more probably Chuck. There is quite a bit of "trimmings" visible on those that I have seen 'live'. When I saw one being done on the Food Channel it looked like a much better piece of beef.
2. You eat "Center-Stage" with an observer watching your every move, the the restaurant crowd cheering (or heckling) as they see fit. Throw a chunk of gristle at a heckler and you are out of the running (I have seen that happen).
3. Size of the consumer doesn't seem to matter. Small, Large, Fat, Skinny. Lots of folks try it. One of my boys got it done in about 37 minutes, the other took 51 min. but also made it thru. They both slept the next 200 plus miles of I-40 as we continued our eastbound journey.
4. Janet and I stopped there mid-afternoon one day last February. The place was almost empty. The service was really bad. Our food sat on the kitchen serving shelf for over 15 minutes while our server had several B S sessions with various other workers. When we pointed out to her that we had been waiting for an excess amount of time, she got rather rude and insisted that our meals weren't ready yet...until I pointed to the serving shelf. The meals were both cooked medium well not medium rare, and I asked for a replacement...at that point she passed us off to a mangement person who took their time deciding if we warranted that consideration. We left quite dissatisfied with the place. Since we have had some fairly good (nothing real special) meals at the place over the years, I am willing to try it again another time...but if it gets another black mark, it will be off my list for good.
