Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Homestead

Just left from a very disappointing experience at outback. Waited a long time to just sit but it happens but not usually on Thursdays and the place was not full so I could tell they lacked staff. Took a while for the server to get around to us so we were fully ready to order. We ordered Blooming onion, kids chicken strips w veggies, two medium burgers one w fries the other w mashed potato.We asked for the chicken strips to be brought out as soon as they were done, my two year old was hungry. Blooming onion arrived first and was obviously overcooked but edible. Also not brought by our server. By the time we saw our server to get us a plate for the appetizer all of our food was brought by another server, our server just handed us the empty plate and bounced, we didn't see our server again for a long time. My wife wanted the new blueberry lavender lemonade and I wanted an Aussie mule but our server was out and our food had arrived. The fries looked real good but I wanted some ketchup so I started eating my burger. My burger was definitely rare but I reluctantly ate it anyway because I was hungry. My wife then tells me her burger is raw. We had a whole conversation on whether the burger was safe to eat that included squeezing/pulling apart the meat to see if it was cooked or not. Pretty much at that point I could tell my wife was done. I told my wife I was going to bring up the problems with the server but she just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Server finally arrived and my wife instantly asked for the check. I'm a good husband and I know that if my wife asks for a check she is ready to go. In the end I paid right under 50 dollars for a bad experience that makes me wish I had...

This was my first time eating at any Outback. For health reasons I don't eat beef or pork or anything spicey. There were still items I could still have. The dish was a little spicy but tolerable. The shrimp was good. However the chicken was overcooked making it tough. The pasta was undercooked & stuck together. The mac & cheese was by far some of the worst i ever tasted. My husband ordered it as an extra side & only ate about 3 bites of it. It tasted like white sauce with no cheese in it. I would describe it as pasty. Another person in our party also ordered it & only ate 2 bites before saying yuck. Another member in our party added a carmalized onion to her steak. She left it on her plate uneaten because it was not good. The bread was very good but we were given only 2 small portions for 5 people & not an adequate amount of butter. We all wanted some bread but we didn't want to deny others in our party. The server (Cookie) was extremely nice. But overworked. Her section seemed to be all over the entire restaurant. She was constantly moving trying to keep up with demand. We had to wait to order, get refills & items that we needed. It was a staffing issue - not her fault. Perhaps it was because it was a long weekend. I did have issues with the lighting. It was almost too dim which resulted in a headache from squinting to see. Would I return - maybe if others I dining with wanted to go. It definitely didn't impress me enough to make it one of my 'lets go here'...

I usually don’t review chain restaurants, but today is an exception for the EXCEPTIONal service and food we experienced at our neighborhood Outback. I asked for no spice on my pasta, but it inadvertently came out with the usual pepper. When I told our server she said she’d have them remake it, and the second time, it was brought out by the kitchen manager, D’Angelo (who also goes by Brock). He told us he had made the alfredo sauce from scratch because the sauce they use already comes with lots of pepper, and he made sure to lightly season the shrimp and chicken, which had amazing flavor still and were suuuuper tender. He later personally delivered our dessert to the table as well, apologizing again and telling us it was on the house. He then sent a personalized free appetizer card out with our check, too. Brock really went above and beyond to make sure everything was to our liking. I have to also give major kuddos to Ty, one of the most pleasant servers we’ve had ANYWHERE. Talk about service with a smile and a willingness to please and make her customers happy…a beautiful person. Last, but not least is Liz, the manager, who was obviously the wizard behind the curtain tonight.

By the way, the new sundae with the caramel popcorn and Australian biscuits is delicious. I never imagined how well caramel popcorn and ice cream would go together.

Thanks again to D’Angelo and Ty for making an ordinary dinner at Outback stand out...