Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Jonesboro

This was our return trip after a negative experience with call ahead seating several weeks ago. A redemption opportunity if you will. Spoiler alert, didn't go well. We did not mention our previous experience to the staff. I'll preface this with the food was warm and most of it arrived promptly and correct. My father in law sent his steak back because it was bleeding still. That was the worst of the issue with the food. Now. Once again we utilized call ahead seating. We were informed over the phone that our party of six would wait about 15 minutes once we arrived. Obviously this could vary. We waited 40 minutes and watched as several groups were seated in front of us. One of which was a party of 2 seated in one of the XL booths that would have easily held our party and then some. Three 4 seat tables in a row sat empty most of the time we were waiting. After 40 minutes I asked the receptionist how much longer we should expect to wait to which she responded just a few minutes. True. She seated us toward the back where the PA music was ear piercingly loud. (Not a problem for me but any one with a hearing aid would have been in misery) The temperature outside was around 25 degrees today, and apparently the heater in that section of the restaurant was not working. The shift lead insisted that it was on and working fine despite our waitress telling us they just had someone out to work on the heat and they must not have done it right. We did not desire outdoor seating but nevertheless, we wait. All understandable things if they were presented with honesty. "Sorry it's taking so long but the heat is out in half the restaurant.. it will be a bit longer than we thought" might have done the trick here. Instead we were met with an indifferent staff who took a space heater from the pickup window girl to solve the heating issue for a 5000+ square foot space. facepalm The service all things considered was mediocre but professional and kind. These things were not the fault of the waitress so no foul on her part. Once the food arrived it was wonderful to have something to warm us up, the aforementioned steak problem was discovered. It was sent back and brought back out still undercooked. By this time we were done. We got to go boxes for our meals, paid our bill, and left before frost bite set in just in time to see them pushing those tables together in the heat section for a group of about 7. Just not the same place it once was. Lesson learned and we wont be giving them a third chance. Froze my goolies (Australian slang) off for a good...

TL;DR: Good service and Bloomin Onions.

I'm not a huge fan of the outback chain in general, but service here was good.

We had the Mozzarella Bloomerangs (cheese sticks) for an appetizer. I can't recommend them. But they were ok. The marinara looks a bit unusual but has a fairly typical marinara flavor. I'm mildly disappointed the dish didn't have more of a bloomin onion flavor.

I ordered the seared Ahi Tuna. I'm not a big steak eater and the Bloomin onion chicken tastes a bit too much like horseradish for my taste. It ended up being very mid tier for seared tuna, but it was still good. Cool deep red center and a pepper encrusted (not much added flavor) and seared exterior. A small cup of creamy ginger sauce pairs excellently with each bite although due to he thin slicing, it's easy to over apply. A small salad comes with it, but it's not worth eating. It comes with two sides and I ordered fries. They are apparently fried in the same oil as the blooming onion though so they had some extra flavor.

My wife had the Bloomin Onion Chicken and she enjoyed it even though I did not care for it.

We visited on Mother's Day as they opened. This may give a great benchmark for what it's like to eat there when they are extremely busy. In the initial rush to seat people, our drinks were forgotten temporarily. We eventually got them, but every refill was a surprise. I started with Pepsi and ended up with sweet tea, my wife started with sweet tea and ended up unsweetened. Throughout this, the server was actively trying to be attentive and was just a little overwhelmed. I can't fault them for that considering how busy it was. Additionally the manager came by and gave out $10 vouchers for a future visit which more than made up for the minor issues that the sheer volume of tables they sat simultaneously was causing.

I look forward to a future visit to...

The food was excellent but the wait time from placing our order to receiving it is horrible. We waited over an hour and a half from when we put our order in till we got it. Our server Joe (female) was okay at first but we had to get her attention if we needed refills, had asked her twice for to go boxes and our bill. After 30 minutes of waiting I had to go to the hostess stand to ask. We asked her for the bread, just one, it came about 45 minutes later. The soup that I ordered never came with our meals it actually finally came out after we boxed our left over food up so had to ask for it to go. By the bathrooms there are these long metal brackets where they hang the pieces to hold the serving trays up while handing it out at the table. It was dark back there and could not see them as I was moving around another person and have a deep gash on my arm. Told her about it and all she said was oh. I used to love outback but this time the services where poor at best. I will give them another chance but if she is my waitress I will not be staying.

I forgot to add we called ahead and put our name on the wait list (I believe it was a Hillary or Hannah the name of the host I spoke with started with an H) she took my number and even read it back to me right but put it in wrong. We lost our table after waiting 45 minutes for it and had to wait another 45 just to get it. So in all we waited an hour and a half for a table an hour for our food even a soup and salad. And 30 plus minutes for our to go boxes. Honestly that was over a 3 hour experience not worth the 90 plus dollars we spent. Will highly likely not be back unless they fix this issue that seems a...