Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Florence

Heads up. Long post! HORRIBLE experience I’ve ever had in a restaurant. And no, I’m not one that says that without working in it. I’ve worked my fair share. First, we called ahead HOURS and got reservations in which we were told to get there a little early. We did. We waited an HOUR outside with 2 kids who were starving. Constantly being told that our table was being prepared. It takes an hour WITH reservations? Whatever we still went in giving it the benefit of the doubt. We come in and the first thing our mouthy waitress does is try to run us back out. Like literally just kept repeating that we probably wouldn’t get our food in the time we wanted and persistently drilled us. Again, we stayed. She takes our order being a little TOO loud if you ask me and then doesn’t return. Our food was brought by several different people and all at different times (they were ordered at the same time and we all had salads...) we FINALLY get our food and needless to say 2 of our steaks were RAW! My kids wanted ranch with their fries and they failed to let us know that it was spicy!!! Mind you I’m pregnant. Raw ANYTHING when ordered medium well is a NO NO! It was having a conversation with the other raw steak across the table 🙄 well I wanted mine redone. Needless to say they cooked it right the 2nd time but must have shaved his face while grilling it due to the hair in it. So she finally fixes me another plate to go.... thankfully the manager was very nice and made sure everything was taken care of. Our WAITRESS on the other hand was HORRIBLE! She did not refill drinks and walked past us multiple times! When we complained on her she quit coming back COMPLETELY and when a part of our group asked for the check she rolled her eyes and kept walking! She then proceeded to talk about our group to a whole other table saying how rude and how she couldn’t deal with us... like we didn’t even cause a scene? We were very polite until you start being childish. For what we paid to have a nice meal with friends and family we expect our service to be pretty decent. I will not EVER be back. My kids didn’t even wanna finish their food. My 4 year old was ready to tear into someone about her ranch 😂 yall it was just a bad experience...

We got there just before 12:00 it wasn't very crowded. Food was fantastic service was great. Had a minor issue with the blooming onion appetizer and the brown bread they bring when they first seat you. Very minor issues which the waitress handled with professionalism and Grace. Actually come to find out she was the front end manager but they were short-handed that day and as I said it wasn't quite 12:00 yet so some of the servers I guess hadn't come in yet. But even though it was only her and one other server, actually the bartender, working at that time she never missed a beat, I never waited for my drink to be filled and if we asked for anything she had it back in a flash. Overall I give it an A1 rating or five stars. I had the 8 oz sirloin and half rack of ribs combo with fries and a salad with thousand Island dressing.The steak was tender and juicy cooked perfectly (my thanks too the Chef/Grill master) the ribs I only took a bite of because I was so full from the appetizer, salad and steak. But the ribbs tasted very good and tender and I took them home with me and I will have them for supper tonight. LOL. My daughter had the blooming chicken (which is akin to the blooming onion in spice and flavor she enjoyed it very much) and Baked potato (plain, can't say much about that except she said it was good) and salad. My wife had the grilled chicken (with a sort of sweet dip or dressing, apparently made inhouse, which she said was very good) that she said was tender and very good and fries (seasoned with something, wish I knew what) and a salad with ranch dressing (I found out they make all their dressings in house) that she liked as well. I have to say I expected to have to wait for a seat and wait to order and then wait for my appetizers and drinks, but it was almost like they knew we were coming and what we were going to order. LOL. Service was that good and that fast and the food just as...

I am writing to express my profound disappointment with the service my family and I received during a recent visit to your establishment, intended to celebrate my wife's birthday. Despite making a reservation several days in advance, we experienced an inordinate wait time of over an hour and fifteen minutes before being seated. This delay was particularly disheartening, as it appeared that no preparations had been made to accommodate our large party, effectively placing us on the standard waitlist upon arrival. Once seated, the service did not improve; the duration between ordering and receiving our meals was excessively long. Remarkably, during this period, my sister-in-law was able to leave the restaurant to collect a grocery order, return home to unload it, and come back, only to find that her meal was served approximately five minutes after her return. Our total time spent at the restaurant extended from 6:15 PM to 9:30 PM, amounting to over three hours for a simple dinner. This experience has led us to conclude that we will not consider Outback Steakhouse for future gatherings. We have also advised our family and friends against purchasing Outback gift cards for us on any occasion. Given my 15 years of experience in the restaurant and public service industry, I recognize that effective management involves preparing for large parties well in advance. The lack of such preparation in this instance reflects poorly on the establishment's commitment to customer satisfaction. I intend to escalate this matter through the appropriate complaint channels, as this level of service is unacceptable and detrimental to the company's reputation. I strongly recommend a thorough review of the management practices at this location to prevent similar occurrences...