Big Texan Steak Ranch - Amarillo, TX

Posted By Michael Stern on March 29, 2000 12:00 AM

If you are a seriously big eater, you might already know about The Big Texan, where steaks are available in every size up to seventy-two ounces. That’s right: a four and a half pound hunk of grilled sirloin, accompanied by a salad, baked potato, and dinner roll. If you can clean your plate of everything but fat and gristle within one hour, you get your meal for free! Plus, you get your name inscribed on The Big Texan Honor Roll along with the nearly 5000 carnivores who have successfully ingested the ridiculously large hunk of beef since the free-meal offer began in 1960. Some 25,000 people have tried and failed. (If you do not finish it all, you pay $54 for the dinner.) A gentleman named Frank Pastore ate the whole thing in 9-1/2 minutes; Klondike Bill, a professional wrestler, ate two steak dinners in one hour back in the 1960s. The oldest person to do it was a sixty-nine year old grandmother; the youngest, an eleven-year-old boy.

We recently arrived in Amarillo, ready to tackle the challenge. Then the waitress said that anyone who picks up the seventy-two-ounce gauntlet must sit at a table on a stage in the center of the restaurant, where an illuminated scoreboard clock counts down the minutes. As you eat, you are scrutinized by the management, which makes sure you don’t share the meal and that you consume every bite except the inedible parts (of which the restaurant staff are the final arbiters). Daunted by the prospect of becoming a floor show, we demurred and ordered a mere eighteen-ounce Lone Star sirloin, a twenty-two ounce T-bone, and a mighty slab of prime rib with a cup of "au jus," which the waitress referred to as our "Oh, Jaws Sauce"! The meat was preceded by an order of “Texas hors d’oeuvre” that included rattlesnake chunks, calf fries (testicles), buffalo meatballs, and Texas caviar (black-eyed peas).

Despite the patent goofiness of this place, the steaks are quite delicious, and we’ll return to The Big Texan any time we’re traveling through the panhandle and feeling in need of a major protein fix. It is a big barn of a restaurant where beer is sold by the bucket (but there’s a four-drink limit just to keep the dining room civil), and where you can wile away the time by having a picture of yourself taken next to a stuffed bear or shooting popguns in a rifle gallery in the lobby. The souvenir menu is designed to resemble a hundred dollar bill. A true Texas eating experience!

Overall Rating

steak!

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Posted By Anne Ritchings on April 28, 2009 9:19 PM

As many times as we have passed through Amarillo we have never stopped at The Big Texan, although we have poked fun at it over the years. This place is noted for being the home of the 72-ounce steak, which is yours free if you can eat it in one hour. On this trip, we were approaching The Big Texan just about lunch time and decided to give it a try. The dining room is huge and has a place reserved, front and center, for those attempting the 72-ounce steak challenge. No one was giving it a go while we there.

Kay ordered the chicken fried steak, which is good. The meat is tender and the gravy flavorful and light. Our salads were good, with fresh ingredients and a decent dressing. Whenever I get near the South, I am always tempted by catfish if it is on the menu. This is a time when I should have resisted that siren call. I ordered the catfish fillets and thought them almost as good as Mrs. Paul's fish sticks. It was undoubtedly a mistake not to order what the place is known for--steak.

Even so, this place is a kick and very hospitable to those traveling with children. Little buckaroos get straw cowboy hats. It's a bit like the boardwalk--shooting gallery and candy counter--all under one roof.

Overall Rating

Chicken Fried Steak

Catfish Platter

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Posted By Treasure Ross on January 3, 2004 10:12 PM

I love the Big Texas Steak Ranch. The food is always good and the service friendly. The singing cowboys are always in tune. The desserts are fine.
I've driven coast to coast 8 times and I always plan to stay at the motel and eat there as well. I give it the highest rating... The prime rib is really good, juicy and succulent and done the way I like it, the salad crisp, the potatoes large and meaty, and the soup flavorful with every spoon. I've yet to be disappointed. I drove 100 miles out of the way to be there.

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