Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Hattiesburg

Accepting a large group knowing you're getting ready to wind down, still taking the business, and not giving it your all disappoint me. We were not provided the courtesy of being informed that you would close shortly and asked if we still wanted to stay.

Everyone is left to feel rushed; staff, guests, food quality, and relationships are damaged. As your waitstaff hurries to clean and close out, they, in turn, have less time to serve the remaining tables. It also took quite some time before our entrees were served, slowing the entire process down, making us the ugly table, with staff watching us, hoping we would hurry.

You had to pick my wife in making a mistake; anyone else in the party would have faired better. I know this wasn't deliberate, but I took the brunt of the error, which didn't make for a happy dining experience. Her appetizer should never arrive cold after the entree was already out. Removing the entree instead of packing it as a takeout makes the difference between a happy customer and one who's dissatisfied, and often it's a small gesture. Packaging it to go makes a leftover should have been the customer's option; It's the little things.

Our waitress was friendly and helpful and tried to make our visit timely. Still, due to her closing, duties could have been more available.

Our blooming onion was greasy, often caused by having sat too long in oil, cooling down at the end of the day.

Chicken wings, a couple of different kinds, were dried out. We waited as we needed extra dipping sauce as one per plate would not make a full table satisfied. I ordered a medium steak, a hot pink center, which was much more on the Rare, almost raw side. It would have taken forever to wait for my waitress, send it back, and have it returned from the grill; everyone else in my party would have been finished by then—scraps for my dog. I was disappointed with visiting this location with my family; you could have done better.

Edit: I received a call from the store manager. We spoke at length about my visit and I was very pleased with our discussion and what she intended to do improving overall...

12-12-21: tonight was horribly disappointing. Everything went wrong with this visit. Our food was either burnt or raw, everything came out at once or not at all. I got my soup and salad after my steak, and I had to ask for it.... and no manager in sight. The waiter acted like that was completely normal. This was just ridiculous and completely out of sorts for this outback. Our appetizer was burnt, my wife's steak was burnt. My steak was raw.....just a complete 180 from what we came to expect from this place.

I have to update. We have been going to this Outback for the past couple years and it has consistently provided us with our best meals from most restaurants we've been to. I think that is just amazing. It is very rare to find a restaurant that consistent with great meals over the time span of years.

The service has always been amazing as well. Our drinks and appetizers come quickly with our salads and meals being spaced appropriately after. It is always aggravating to me to have my apps, salads, and main course dumped on my table at once.

Anyway, thats thats the two year update.

Our food was fantastic, our waitress was outstanding! My girlfriend said it was the best steak she's had from an outback. Even though they were busy our waitress still took good care of us and our food came out hot...

*UPDATE TO REVIEW:

I don't know if the manager saw this or not or maybe they were worried I'd run off the people coming in behind us....but what was supposed to be almost an hour wait wound up being like 10 minutes because the staff decided to make it right. No sooner than I finished the review below than our little buzzer thingy went off. We were taking my dad to dinner for his 70th birthday, so we called ahead to avoid the wait. I'm leaving my review standing because when we got to the restaurant, the matre d told us our call ahead time started when we arrived....that was bull...because she had other pagers in her hands for other tables that had already called in. It was an inconvenience caused by poorly trained staff, but in the end, I think the managers made it right, because he kept hovering at our table. We do appreciate that, but if the staff had not messed it all up in the first place on the phone it wouldn't have been necessary....end of update. Original review follows:*

What's the point of call ahead seating....w called TWICE to confirm so we WOULDN'T have to wait as long and whoever the dumb girls at the counter are still messed it up and didn't put it in so now we have to wait twice as long....Thanks...