By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Brewery Is more than a restaurant, it’s an empire. The family-owned establishment in Amarillo serves over 600,000 lbs of beef a year to more than 600,000 guests and ranks as arguably the top attraction in the Texas Panhandle city that is also home to the famed Cadillac Ranch art installation immortalized in song by Bruce Springsteen.
The restaurant – in operation since 1960 and now recognized by the Hampton Hotels Save-a-Landmark program – is a can’t miss stop on the I-40, having relocated from Route 66 nearby when the Interstate opened, though it is currently part of that travel route’s 100th anniversary celebrations in 2026.
Bright yellow with sky high signage and a giant cow, the restaurant has regularly appeared on Man v. Food, Food Paradise, Conan O’Brien, and many other TV shows.
Part restaurant, part spectacle, the Lee family-owned establishment is beloved by visitors and locals alike, even serving as a setting of a wedding proposal made onstage on the night we visited.
Notably, that followed the more common theatrics of a patron attempting the “challenge” of eating a 72-ounce steak (with rolls, baked potato and salad) in less than 60 minutes.
Proposal guy was more successful than steak guy.
In fact, only 10% of challenge contestants (1,000 people over the past 60 years) has accomplished the eating feat and had the cost of their meal waved and immortality recognized in the restaurant.
The most famous, according to restaurant signage, is 125-pound Molly Shuyler, who packed away the steak dinner in 4 minutes and 18 seconds in 2015.
The bold diet-defying attempts are even live-streamed in places like China, leading to one clueless cheating challenger being caught on camera trying to stuff food in his pocket.
Most patrons, of course, settle for lesser portions of the locally sourced steaks (sirloin and ribeye are the top sellers) and prime rib, and another specialty, “mountain oysters,” aka bulls testicles, which Lee family grandson Patrick Leahy says are extremely popular.
On a “quiet night” – we only waited about 30 minutes to be seated – Lee admitted that some nights it’s hard to move in the place and that reservations are highly recommended, especially in summer (two weeks ahead at that time of year).
While waiting, patrons can check out a gift shop filled with Americana and Route 66 merch – and a big fat resident rattlesnake (caged!).
There are also homey benches and porch swings out front, a bar in the back that serves multiple varieties of the establishment’s own craft brew, such as Whiskey Barrel stout, and Rattlesnake IPA, and wandering country minstrels.
And if all that isn’t enough, just down the road, people can stay in Big Texan brand accommodations, including chuckwagons.
“This restaurant,” laughs Hope Hoeffner of Visit Amarillo, “is the repository of ‘everything is bigger in Texas.’”
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