Life > April 19, 2007

By Sara Bivin | Staff Writer

Sagebrush Steakhouse and Saloon is unlike most of the restaurants in Winston – a saloon atmosphere with amazing home-style food.

Don’t let the saloon style – bare wooden booths, posters and neon signs everywhere – deter you from coming in and eating.

The food is delicious, they have a wide range of platters and your initial reaction will wear off and everything will soon seem very quaint.

The staff is young and welcoming and the first thing you get upon sitting down is a pail filled with peanuts accompanied by an empty one for the shells.

Be careful it’s easy to go through half the bucket before your main course arrives. 

Sagebrush has a wide range of the usual appetizers – fried chicken tenders, onion rings, jalapeno poppers, cheese fries and their special southern quesadilla. All starters range from $6 to $15.

You can also get soup or homemade chili as an appetizer ranging from $3 to $4.29 for cups or bowls, respectively. 

Although they only have two salads on the menu, the Sagebrush house salad and the classic caesar salad, each $7, they have six different meat options that you can add to them, allowing you to create your own protein-filled salad.

Grilled, smoked and fried chicken, salmon, shrimp, ham, turkey and steak can all be added for a mere $2. 

True to its steakhouse title, there are 12 different steaks from the classic New York strip, $17 to sirloin tips to slow roasted prime rib. Each comes with your choice of two sides. Steak toppers such as grilled mushrooms and onions can be added for $2. 

If steak isn’t your meal of choice, you can choose from chicken dishes or seafood such as salmon, shrimp, crab cakes and catfish.

I went with the “rodeo chicken” – two grilled chicken breasts topped with crisp bacon, grilled mushrooms, melted monterey jack, cheddar cheese and green onions ($13). For a steak and shrimp combo, you can combine any two meat choices in the Sagebrush combo for $16.49. Pork and ribs are also available. 

The last items on the menu are the wide variety of cheeseburgers and sandwiches from the Carolina chopped pork sandwich to the mushroom-swiss burger. Prices range from $7 to $7.49 for the burgers and are accompanied by french fries. 

Sagebrush definitely has the widest range of sides I have seen at a restaurant, with 12 different choices including macaroni and cheese, redskin mashed potatoes, fresh seasonal vegetables and rice pilaf.

The dessert menu is very unique and homestyle as well.  The menu includes banana pudding, fresh fruit cobbler and homemade bread pudding. 

Apart from just being a restaurant, Sagebrush also has a good-sized bar area, thus making it a saloon.  They have a wide selection of beers, serve Copperidge and Burlwood label wines, as well as margaritas. 

Sagebrush also offers a sandwich-centered menu, and they offer a takeout and party menu.

The take out and party menu offers everything from their garden vegetable tray to the triple stack club platter (sandwiches), the shrimp-lover’s platter, wings, chicken, ribs and “fixin’s” (beans, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese) – all of them with relatively cheap prices. 

If you are looking for a new atmosphere and a good homestyle meal that will leave you satisfied, Sagebrush Steakhouse and Saloon is the place to go. 

It is close to campus, located just down University Parkway – across the street from Cookout.