Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Independence Charter Township

TLDR: Arrived at 6:45pm sat by 6:50pm left at 8:45pm because of numerous delays and being ignored Servers solicit reviews while ignoring other tables (read just a few 5 star reviews and you will notice who the server is) Staff aren’t bad people just unsupervised employees doing what they want Ownership is quick to give money back but doesn’t accept responsibility to fix the issue Unfortunately will not be back (been a staple in our family for years)

Ate here two times in the last month and it was terrible both times but gave them a pass on the first one.

Starting with not even getting a drink order for 10 minutes after we were sat because our server was more interested in soliciting reviews from adjacent tables. From taking an older customers phone and scanning a QR code for them to leave a good review, to sitting in a booth with other customers while they were eating to give them his sales pitch on reviews, it was cringeworthy at best.

After ordering our drinks we were super hungry so we asked for a bloomin onion. We got our side soups and a second drink order (which would arrive 10 min later) before getting the half breaded onion with an apology and we were let known that we wouldn’t be paying for it. (This happened our first visit as well)

I got my toddlers joey steak meal we ordered as well done and the steak was rare. We waited patiently for our server (or anyone for that matter) to ask to have it cooked for longer and the only person we could flag down was a busser. His response was “your server will be back he had to run to the bathroom” We ended up just feeding our son fries while the waiting for another 5-10 minutes for our server. Again in this time we didn’t get any refills on pop or offered another beer.

At this point I’m simply trying to leave so I politely ask for boxes and my bill where our server lets me know he has to grab the card reader so he took off to grab it. After about 5 minutes I’m wondering where he is and I look around to see him taking selfies with a customer. With an uncomfortable pregnant wife and an ornery toddler I became so irritated at this point that I went to pay at another customers table where the card reader was set for my food order.

As if my experience wasn’t bad enough I accidentally forgot something at the restaurant and after 45 minutes of being gone I called back to see if they had it. I had reached the owner Joe who explained to me that it wasn’t their responsibility to keep anything of ours and I shouldn’t even expect that they would still have it. He did however offer me a $10 credit on return to the restaurant. I took the opportunity to tell Joe about the horrid experience making sure he knew I had no intention of taking to a written review. He responded by dismissing me and stating my server has the best reviews out of anyone thus accepting no responsibility. Blown away by this I left my first ever negative review.

This is a top down issue with no intention on making it better. Hoping that people don’t leave bad reviews and asking employees to go so far as to take customers phones to leave good reviews is a gamble I guess ownership is willing to take.

I won’t be back to take advantage of...

I went in with a couple friends for lunch around 11:30 AM on Friday. It wasn’t busy- there was only one other table as far as I could see. My friend ordered the blooming onion, which was very overdone. Between the four of us, we only ate half of it because it had a burnt taste to it. When our waitress (Raven), returned, we commented on why we were letting her take the remainder without being eaten. She apologized, and we didn’t think any more about it. For my meal, I had ordered a chopped salad and coconut shrimp. The salad was so so, but when the shrimp came it was such a disappointment! Again, severely overcooked and the shrimp was tough. One of my luncheon companions had also ordered the coconut shrimp, and agreed with me that it was ruined. When our waitress Raven returned to the table to check if we needed anything, I told her I really didn’t want the shrimp as it tasted burnt. Once again she apologized- and so did I, as I’m not a super picky eater and not known to send food back. So back into the kitchen with Raven went the 2 plates of shrimp. Fast forward to the manager coming to our table to see if we were happy with the replacement shrimp, which in his opinion had been cooked to perfection originally. He then assured us that this batch he specifically undercooked so that we would be satisfied. I thanked him for replacing it, but said that although it was an improvement, it still wasn’t what I expected coconut shrimp to be. In the end, they ended up taking the blooming onion off of my friend’s tab, but only after being asked. While I’m on it, the bathrooms were not in too great of shape either. It appeared they hadn’t been cleaned in several days. In these days of Covid, we’re understanding of staffing shortages, but this didn’t seem to be the problem here. The manager was rude and I guess never learned his lesson that the customer might just be right once in a while, and you could give them the benefit of the doubt. We certainly didn’t come here to argue with the manager, but just to enjoy a pleasant meal with friends. The only positive to this place was the very patient and...

In short- didn’t have a great experience with Jeff S as our waiter, didn’t listen to what I ordered and wasn’t able to enjoy the small meal I had In detail- we usually come here during busy hours on the weekend so figured Thursday @ 4pm would be fine since there was maybe 6 people there. Has Jeff S as a waiter, reeked of cigarettes, I ordered a baked potato with just butter & sour cream (don’t eat bacon, don’t like chives), and asked what was on “the wedge” because I assumed it being along with the Caesar it was a normal side salad. Verbatim asked “ are there any tomatoes, onions or anything else on it?” As I’m picky- he said “yeah tomatoes” so I asked to take those off under the impression that was the only thing on it since he didn’t clarify further. My boyfriend gets his wings, I wait another 5 for my baked potato that has everything on it (cheese, bacon, chives,etc) not what I ordered. Picked them off, whatever that’s fine. Salad comes out after 5 more minutes with onions, blue cheese, balsamic, & ranch. Asked a manager if I could possibly get JUST lettuce and ranch because I was not told all this extra would be on here and it was only tomatoes. Waiter comes back and says “well you did order the wedge” with a condescending tone. I never ask for food to be taken back but I couldn’t pick around all of that. Thankfully he brings back a salad with more onions & cucumbers and I once again pick those off, I just want the tiny salad so I can leave. He comes over and says (again, condescending tone) “wow you really didn’t want anything” yes Jeff, that’s what I said when I placed the order in the first place. Then! My baked potato that I originally ordered came out from a random waitress. Couldn’t tell you what was going on tonight with that but don’t think we’ll try on a weekday or this...