Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Charlottesville

This Outback has been hit or miss for several years now (way before COVID) but the last several time I've been here the service has been great and the food has been tasty.

Some servers are better than others in that some will take better care of you. Two of these are Elliot and Derek. There is also a bald African American gentleman who I've only had once but he's good too.

On my most recent visit my girlfriend and I sat in the bar lounge instead of waiting for a table. We enjoyed where we sat and if the exact spot is available whenever we come here my girlfriend wants to sit there again.

Our server was Derek and to say he was on top of his game is an understatement. It was busy but he still managed to keep checking on us regularly. Two things that impressed me about him was 1) my girlfriend and I both ordered soup and when he brought our drinks (and maybe bread too I don't remember) he had the soups with him!! 2) he brought us our first refill without asking!! This wins me over almost every time because I drink a lot of soda at least my first glass). One time when I did ask for a refill my girlfriend did not ask for one but he still brought her her drink just in case!

The food was great and my girlfriend enjoyed the strawberry salad. Thank you Derek for taking such good care of us and thanks to Elliot for the time he had my mother, sister and I for his awesome service.

This Outback has really improved in the last few years in my opinion and it's one of the few places my whole...

I wish I could give this place more stars as it used to be one of my favorite places to eat, but the service is horrible at this location. I quit going a couple of years ago due to the poor service and I see things still haven't changed. Right before Christmas we decided to give it another try as we also needed to pick up a gift card. We were seated and waited a very long time without anyone coming to take our drink order. Eventually a manager saw us and came over to see what was going on. He apologized and got someone over to help us immediately. This waiter had also been ignoring the table next to ours who had been served, but most of whom needed refills. After some correction by the management, the experience turned into a positive one.

Having a mostly positive experience after getting started, we decided to try it again a couple of weeks ago. Again it took forever for someone to take our drink order, then forever to get them to come take our actual order. We sat there most of the time with empty glasses. Someone else brought our food out and we didn't see our waitress for most of the meal. Once we did finish, we sat there for quite a while waiting for her to come back to bring the check. This trip took about 2x as long as it should have due to the amount of time we spent waiting on the waitress and eating without water to drink isn't very enjoyable. I haven't experienced these issues at other Outback restaurants in the area, but it seems to be a trend...

Food was EXCELLENT but service and attention to detail are sub par at this location. We are frequent diners at Outback and this was the worst experience we ever had.

My husband felt like treatment was not equal for us as an interracial couple as we watched many "all white" groups who arrived after we did be seated promptly. We watched 2 other african american women finally give up on waiting and they went to the bar. The Latino family who arrived a couple groups after us were also not seated before others for a period of time, but they were finally seated before us too. I inquired at the hostess stand why we had not been seated and were told it was either an oversight or all the many others were perhaps call aheads. Sorry, but I am not buying that story. I might have had I not personally witnessed the same treatment given to 2 other groups. They did miraculously locate a table for us after I pointed out this issue. 🙄

Once seated, Austin took our order. He was a nice server but was either having an off night or was not the best server. He forgot to bring our drinks, brought our food to the table but did not bring our salads, forgot the steak sauce we requested (twice), and when we reminded him to bring our salads, he brought my salad I ordered without dressing positively drenched in dressing. He did correct the issue, but there were too many problems with the service at this location.

We will never visit this...