Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Baltimore

My fiancé and I went to Outback on Valentine’s Day. I put our name on the “waitlist” via Outback’s online forum, for 9:00 pm. We arrived at the restaurant at 8:30 the hostess did not for whatever reason have our name on the “waitlist” so we put our name on the waitlist again , in person and was told it would be a 30 minute wait. There were already about 4 different parties waiting when we arrived and several more came in after us. Every single party was seated before us, so after waiting for more than 30 minutes I inquired with the host how much longer it would be and pointed out that we were here before several customers that had been seated before us. The hostess then informs us that they were on the call ahead list so they received priority seating. I asked her how much longer would the wait be as it’s now exceeded the 30 minutes to which she replied “you’ve been waiting exactly 37 minutes, it won’t be much longer.” It was now 9:30, we were still waiting an entire hour to be seated. The hostess makes an announcement that it is open seating at the bar, tired of sitting in wait we decide to sit at the bar. We sat down at the bar where there were already a few people seated, there was one bartender. We sat down for 20 minutes without any acknowledgment from the bartender. We didn’t receive menus or anything. The bartender after hearing several of the other people loudly complaining turned around to say she’s the only person behind the bar and she’d get to everyone in a minute. This bartender was visibly overwhelmed, however 20 minutes without any acknowledgment or menu or a simple glass of water is very poor customer service. A guy in a red shirt comes over to the bar and he begins making a few drinks and waits on a few of the people that are sitting at the bar. I call for his attention and am ignored. Another patron yells for him and he finally turns around. I explain to him that we’ve been sitting here over 20 minutes and he’s taking everyone’s order who came in after us. Of course he apologized and took our order, which was wrong when we finally did get the food. We didn’t even receive bread until sitting there for an hour and having to ask for it. We normally go to this outback in the day and have never had a bad experience but this evening we went was the worst experience I’ve ever had in all my years of dining out and I never want to go back. The food though incorrect was hot and it was good but the experience was horrible from...

I love Outback. I’m a frequent diners club member and go 2x/month to locations all over the country during my travels. They’re generally very consistent.

This location should not wear the Outback branding.

My buddy and I arrived at about 4:30 PM on a Monday. There was not many people inside but the hostess told us it was about 15 to 25 minute wait for two people to sit. We offered to sit in the bar area and she told us that if we sat in the bar area that was fine but we had to sit at the actual bar because there were no servers for the bar table tops. I am definitely sensitive to staffing issues right now so I’m totally understanding.

We picked two seats at the bar and there were dirty drinks in front of us that we had to push out of our way. No one ever wiped the bar for us between seatings (or after we arrived for that matter) so it was pretty disgusting. In fact, everything about the restaurant’s cleanliness absolutely sucked. It felt and looked dirty. On top of that, the air conditioner didn’t work so it was blazing hot in there. And that’s saying a lot coming from me because I typically like it on the warmer side.

The poor bartender was dripping sweat behind the bar which was another layer of unsatisfactory cleanliness. He couldn’t help it for the most part (could have used a cloth towel) but he was taking napkins to wipe his dripping sweat face and then preparing drinks. If it were a cloth towel or something like that I might have even overlooked this but that was actually nasty.

However, our bartender/server did the best he could service wise- he was definitely overworked. He was also very kind, unlike the bartender who he took over for who had a headphone in and was listening to music/singing lyrics while serving us and tending bar. That was annoying.

Oddly enough, it was the best outback sirloin steak I’ve ever had. It was perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned and was just really good (the only reason for 2 stars). The baked potato was very dry and not very good but the broccoli was fine and the bread was standard.

We were looking for another place to eat on Tuesday night and drove about 25 minutes out of the way to get to a Texas Roadhouse just to avoid going back to this place that we ordinarily would have went back to again on our second night of travel.

I would say do yourself a favor and don’t go here until they can get their...

Let me just say this place was horrible! I'm not a fan of Outback, but I have eaten at a few and the food was always ok. This outback needs to shutdown and start over. I am completely appalled at how this place functions being where it is located. This outback is in a prime location with heavy traffic especially on a weeknights and weekends. Its located directly near the inner harbor. I went here with a few friends for a get together. First the service was horrible!! I don't know if our server was new or what but if she was in training management should've made sure to have an expert waitress/waiter with her to train. Our server didn't give us silverware, we had to ask for napkins repeatedly before we actually got them. I ordered a chicken ceaser salad with extra extra cheese and 2 dressings my salad barely had cheese but she got the dressings right. While my friend got all the extra cheese that she never asked for. To top her service off she screwed up our checks charged 1 of my friends for 1 of my items and my check was wrong, apparently she made the same mistake with two other tables as well prior to us. Now let's talk drinks, the drinks were salty and horrible, they refused to remove the drinks off the table and remove it from our check apparently OUTBACK has a policy that they cannot remove drinks from the table or off of a check and they can't replace a drink with another one the check, so essentially if your drink is horrible they won't compensate you or replace it you end up paying for both drinks even if 1 is so horrible it can't be consumed. Bear in mind drinks are 1 of the expensive items on a menu. We talked to a manager who told us that there are only 2 drinks on the menu that she would even recommend! The food was good. Not great but good. That was all. I wouldn't recommend going here there are plenty of better places along the harbor and downtown area...