Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Alpharetta

Sign of the times I guess... We should've turned around once we noticed how empty the restaurant was on a Sunday afternoon in Alpharetta but.... Decided to stay and dine with my Mom, daughter and granddaughter, specifically because my daughter had ordered a ribeye to go a few months ago and the in home dining experience was great. The steak was tender and had so much flavor it had been resting on my heart to go back there whenever we wanted to eat out again. We've been so disappointed by restaurants lately so we've been trying to change up the experience. This was a bad idea. When we first entered the hostess was blah, didn't seem like she really wanted to work. No big deal... its Outback so we overlooked it. As she went to seat us, the first bench was dirty and it just got worse from there. She finally decided to wipe something down for us before we sat. I just asked by daughter if she had a clorox wipe so we could do it ourselves. The lady tried. We waited a while for our server who finally came to take our order about 10 minutes after we were seated. Mind you there were only 2 full tables at the time. By the time he arrived we were ready to order the full meal. The meal came and we ordered a porterhouse steak, wedge salad, Arnold Palmer, sweet potato, baked potato, regular salad. My daughter ordered the ribeye medium well. The porterhouse didn't taste like steak. The meat tastes odd, no flavor but just not like a steak. The grilled onions tastes like skins of onions not actual onions. My daughter steak was well done and flavorless. The bread was actually pretty lackluster... not really fresh and the salads were watery. Just overall not a good meal experience. We mentioned this to our waiter who took our concerns to heart and immediately actioned for change that was taking far too long to come. The manager honestly didn't seem like he was the permanent decision maker and this proved to be the outcome when we later got tired of waiting for our food. We asked. to see him because we couldn't wait any longer. He said he would go check on things and return. He returned with a bill for $18 so that I could pay for the drinks, watery salad, the sweet potato and wedge salad. Fair enough those weren't included in the meals that never came. When I asked if something was wrong with the meal prep today, he told me they had been slammed from a large party so the kitchen was trying to recover :/... I thought a restaurant was in the business of making food. So we won't be back. I tried to educate the manager on the best method of customer recovery because he wasn't going about the right way... no call me personally if you choose to return, no the drinks are on me, no let me take care of this for you... he handled it like a food truck order not a billion dollar franchise business. So it's a permanent NO for me and my family. Hope your experience is better... I'm pissed about the $18 only to be...

My boyfriend and I came in for dinner with a call-ahead reservation for Saturday night, which was easy to make. We were immediately seated by the friendly hostesses upon our arrival. I’m writing this review as someone who has been in the service industry for quite a long time.

As soon as we were seated, we noticed some large parties, which is to be expected for a Saturday night at a steakhouse. However, despite the apparent number of staff members, we were not greeted until 10 minutes after sitting down. We were hungry, so my partner and I decided to plan ahead and order everything at once.

When the server finally greeted us, he explained that there was a party of 50, which I sympathized with because I understand how easily one can get overwhelmed in such situations. However, I hope he wasn’t the only one attending to that large party, as it compromised the service in his section. Each time I looked around at his other tables, they were being treated in a similar manner to us.

We immediately ordered what we needed, and the food arrived at a reasonable pace. However, the fried shrimp appetizer left much to be desired; it tasted as if it was frozen and the accompanying sauce was overly salted. I didn't complain to the server since he was already overwhelmed.

When we ordered, I specifically asked the server to make sure the mashed potatoes were hot, as they had been lukewarm on my previous visit. Unfortunately, this time was no different. The mashed potatoes arrived at room temperature, as did my sirloin.

All while this was going on, our server never once asked how the food was. Despite my initial sympathy for his handling of the large party, he kept checking in with his tables sporadically. Whenever someone asked him for something, he would immediately turn around to attend to another task. As a server, I understand the demands of busy shifts, but there needs to be a balance of multitasking and checking in with all of your tables as you pass by.

Not once did he inquire about how we were doing as a whole. He refilled my partner’s drink but didn’t offer to refill mine. Once we finished our food, we had to wait an additional 15 minutes to get a box, and even then, we had to flag him down to get his attention. When he finally brought the box, I thanked him, but he didn't respond and it felt like a brush-off.

As a server, I don’t expect perfection, but there were many basic standards he missed, even considering how busy he was. Unfortunately, we won't be returning due to the lack of teamwork in this establishment. Additionally, when we walked out, the large party he was attending mentioned to us how lacking the service was...

Me and my coworkers came for lunch today. There was only one table we saw occupied when we arrived, so we assumed that the service would be quick. I ordered the Tasmanian Chili and salad. One coworker ordered a burger, another the chicken Barbie, and the other the coconut shrimp, with sweet potato. We arrived at 1:13 and completed our orders by 1:20. We mentioned to the waiter that we were on a time crunch, due to being on a work lunch, so that the waiter would know. First off, I mentioned to the waiter to ring us up all individually and he confirmed, yet he combined mines and my coworker with the burger together. I was mad, but we just switched money among ourselves. Next, extra tomato dressing for the salad was requested and he brought the wrong one. Then, it took 40 minutes for most of the main courses to come out, yet there was only 3 tables in total in the establishment. My coworker’s burger was over charred and wasn’t juicy. My chili came out last after 10 minutes of everyone else’s and it was ice cold. I had to send it back and when it did come back, it was hot, but it wasn’t naturally hot, it was more like rushed in a microwave and wasn’t really appetizing, but I was hungry though. I asked for our tickets at 1:45pm and we didn’t receive them until 2:20pm. Then, when we finally received our tickets, the machines to pay on wasn’t accepting their cards and my machine was the only one working. Another thing to add is that there was a table that came in after us, they ate, paid, and left before us, which was the service we should have had. JB was our waiter in this establishment with only 3 tables total. JB had only 2 and the other table was seated on the opposite side of the establishment, with them being waited on by a female. I frequent Outback in general, but this was my time at this location and my last. I definitely expected better service than this. I’m not sure if JB is new or not, but he needs more training and shadowing. As for the kitchen, I’m highly disappointed they would send out food that is not ready to go and is not...