For being a steakhouse, Outback Steakhouse's steak sucks.
We got some complimentary bread and butter, blooming onion, and 12 oz. ribeye, with fresh seasonal veggies, and homestyle mashed potatoes. To start off the bread and butter was decent. I love how the butter was at the perfect spreadable temperature. Their bread is reminiscent of pumpernickel. I do wish it was a little sweeter. This would an interesting counter flavor to the fatty butter. The blooming onion was fairly good and is fairly impressive. This is an appetizer outback steakhouse is known for, and it was pretty good. The onion was fried perfectly. The batter was seasoned well and had a nice flavor to it. The onion was very crispy. The sauce paired well with the bloomin' onion. It was surprisingly not overly greasy. My one issue is they keep the outer, waxy layer of the onion. Taking one of those bites really sucks. It is chewy and your saliva does not break it down, so you're forced to spit it out. Get the inner layers of the onion, to have a good appetizer. Now on to the main dish. The veggies. or broccoli rather, were actually boiled perfectly. They were incredibly soft, but not mush. Though, they lacked an incredible amount of seasoning. I mean just hit it with some salt and pepper and we're good. The mashed potatoes are nearly the worst I've ever tasted. Completely inedible in my opinion. It tastes like Play-Doh. Seriously, once you put it in your mouth, you have a clay taste. The texture was just fine. Now for the star of the show, the steak. The sear was honestly alright. The steak was cooked nearly perfectly in the middle. I requested medium rare. Though, all of that doesn't matter when your steak is criminally underseasoned. It seems as if they didn't season the steak at all, which very much disappointed me. You have to adjust the seasoning to your taste, which I found annoying.
The quality of the food is alright. The mashed potatoes were terrible. I don't know what instant mashed potatoes brand they use, but it sucks. The steak was of mediocre quality. The marbling was not the best, and it was a little tough. For a ribeye, I expect a little more fat, but it tasted very lean. Therefore, that leads me to suspect they used a poorly graded ribeye. The other items were of good quality. The presentation was alright. I like the presentation of the bread and butter. The knife in the middle gives off steakhouse vibes. The blooming onion is really a nice presentation. When it comes to your terrible, it catches your eye. It is really eye appealing and makes you salivate. The steak was plated averagely. The portion to price is a scam. The bread and butter were free, so I'll take that. The blooming onion is honestly a really fair price since you share it with a lot of people. My issue is with the steak. The steak was $30. I would not pay anywhere near that price again for an outback steakhouse steak. Again the steak sucked, what gives them the authority to price the steak at that price point. I would pay $15 for the steak at most. Again the sides are whatever, so it does not help with the high price. Outback Steakhouse has to lower the price of its steaks. Again it was just a 12 oz steak, so it was not that big.
The customer service was good. Our server was very friendly and attentive. We came a bit before closing, and they were not upset with us. Ok, it was more like an hour and 30 before closing. The food came out at a relatively fast pace. There were a lot of us, so I am impressed with how fast the food came out. The ambiance is pretty nice. It has a nice decor to match the theme of the outback. The place was overall very clean. The parking is really good because they have a big parking lot.
Very disappointed with Outback Steakhouse's steak. read more