I think the Bloomin' Onion did me in - Outback Steakhouse
Written: Aug 15 '02 (Updated Aug 18 '02)
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Pros: They give you a lot of food.
Cons: They are not in tune with our local area.
The Bottom Line: I was excited about going to Outback, but I doubt I will go back.
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| CyndiA's Full Review: Outback Steakhouse |
I can’t tell you about all the Outback Steakhouses, since I only went to the local one. We don’t get new grub stops very often, so it’s a big deal when something new comes to town. When I heard that Outback came to town, I called up a high school girlfriend (and that goes a long way back) and said: “Hey, let’s check this out.”
We got to Outback about 4:30 pm. We both have kids, so it works out to hit the early shift in town and not take all night to eat dinner and pay out the wazoo for babysitting. That may sound excessive on arrival, but 5 or 6 pm would be the prime dinner slot in a town where the carpet gets rolled in by dark.
Outback sits on the Highway, so they probably are looking to attract the “hit and run” traffic and not the locals. They don’t open til 5 pm, but the door is open earlier. I don’t unlock my door until I get my clothes on, but that is just me I guess. My buddy and I walked right in which seemed to confuse the staff. The first thing suggested was that we watch the bar guy set up. He was not that cute, so we passed on that option. Then they decided to give us a high tech beeper that we could carry to tell us when we could get a table, which basically meant when they opened. We took the beeper and went to the local Wal-Mart which was the only thing in the area besides other eating joints. Sure enough, they beeped us about 5 pm.
We probably should have waited in the parking lot and listened to old tapes, because they had a line to get in at 5pm. Like I mentioned, people eat early here. We got to jump ahead with the handy-dandy beeper, but that is not a popular thing in a town where you walk past neighbors to the front of the line.
We got in and then our waitress came up and told us she was a trainer and then told us her suggestions. This kid is obviously one of our local high school or college kids, and she is scared almost speechless. She does know the spiel, so she spits that out. I am a major softie, so I order what she suggests. My friend was a waitress, so she decides to give the kid a hard time.
“I want the salad BEFORE the meal and the dressing on the side,” says my friend.
“OK,” says the new girl.
“That Bloomin’ Onion better be fresh,” says my friend.
“Oh, it is,” says the new girl.
“The meat should be done, and I mean done.”
“OK,” says the new girl.
I have never been a waitress, but I would not give one a hard time like this and especially a new one. I should note that my friend was not a waitress very long. She was fired for sitting in the laps of customers in a “mom and pop” style restaurant. “The tips were good while it lasted,” she said. So, I can’t really say that my friend had a really good idea as far as what it takes to wait on tables for any length of time.
The salads arrived as well as some dark bread. The salads were crisp and pretty with lettuce and a couple of other kinds of veggies on top. The salad dressing was on the side, but I don't know if that was just for us or the typical. The croutons were big. This is a “big” kind of place. The bread was not that big actually, but it was a full small loaf for two people with a big knife.
That Bloomin’ Onion was the next thing to show up at the table. Big also. Another waitress brought that after my friend went out of joint over getting sweet tea poured on her unsweetened tea by the trainee.
The Bloomin’ Onion was a huge thing with dipping sauce which reminded me of the Special Sauce on the Big Mac at McDonalds. I like that sauce at McDonalds, but I was thinking about those calories. My friend is built like Olive Oil on Popeye, and she constantly talks about weight. She is dipping as she mentions that she can’t gain an ounce no matter how hard she tries. I'm thinking that the tea with sugar might help, but I don't mention that.
Our new and trained waitress comes out with the dinners. They look nice. But, I wonder what happened to our original waitress. I hope she didn't quit and go home.
When my friend cuts into her steak, it leaks on her rice bed. This is the friend that wanted her steak DONE. She is REALLY ticked off now, and she flags the original trainee waitress who had probably just been hiding in the kitchen. By the time my friend tells her that she wants a well done steak and new rice and not the stuff on her plate with blood soaked in, the new kid looks like she is going to cry. I want to hug her, but I just slide way down in the seat instead and pray that the next plate of rice turns out white.
I want to slip out the front door, but I love to eat. I cut into the petite Sirloin. It does not take long to figure out that I got the WELL DONE which is what my friend wanted. First, I think about just eating it. But, a well done steak tastes kind of like cardboard. I quietly whisper to the old timer waitress that I got the WELL DONE rather than the MEDIUM. She whispers back that she will take care of it.
It does not take very long to char a medium piece of steak to the done state, but it does take a while to start over and get a new medium when you ordered medium and got well. Friend got her new dinner pretty fast, but I waited another half hour or so. I filld that time by eating the Bloomin's Onion.
As I said before, the portions are really big at Outback. By the time I had the salad and then that Bloomin’ Onion, I was getting pretty full. When my dinner came out, it was really nice. But, I was not very hungry by then, so I asked for a to-go box. I waited until the checked back later though, since I thought it would look like I was mad if I asked when the plate first came out.
Most places around here bring you a box and let you pack that. Outback takes the plate back and packs in a little bag. They dumped the French fries out which my boys would have loved (and my dog too) and packed the very small piece of Sirloin Tip that I ordered. It was not hardly worth it to warm up 5 or 6 bites of steak (since I had about half of that before I asked for a take-out box).
As you can see, this was a pretty stressy evening for a night out on the town. I had chalked it up, but then my stomach started to churn. I don’t really know if it was the stress or the food, but I was not going all the way home. I ended up camping at my friend's house while my stomach did what all good stomachs will do. I am glad this is a friend that I have known for eons and that she lived much closer to town than I did.
After this “not so glorious” dinner at the new restaurant in town, the college kids decided to review the restaurant. I was helping with the research and discovered that the big owners had never even been to Australia, and I'm pretty sure a local owner would not be a big world traveler either. They just figured it would be a good hook as far as advertising, and it is. They place is decorated nice, and the food names are cute.
The next problem that came up was the rumor that someone got really sick at the restaurant. The college kids said that the cooks urinated on some steak, which is something that gets talked around now and then about places that feed folks. That sounded pretty “far out” to me, but the restaurant did close down for a couple of days, and the cooking staff did turn over. I can’t say if that was true or not about the problem mentioned, and I said they we could not do a story in the paper without having some ironclad “proof.” None of the kids could come up with that though they still talk about that.
Given the experience with my first visit and then the rumors in town (which may not even be true), I have not been back to the local Outback and don’t hit them when I’m traveling. They have a cute idea as far as marketing, and some of my students take the Outback class and waitress at Outback. One kid did a speech about Outback and showed us all the pins she had earned at classes at the restaurant. I’d rather go to a place that seems more in tune with the local population and a place where I don’t get the stomach pains after.
Recommended:
No
Kid Friendliness: Yes
Vegetarian Friendly: No
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Epinions.com ID:
CyndiA
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 in Home and Garden |
 - Top 50 |
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Member: Cyndi
Location: out in the yard grilling
Reviews written: 1158
Trusted by: 634 members
About Me:
Get some sleep and dream of rock 'n roll - Bread.
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