Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Matthews

So last week we were really craving steak. I realized that it was 530 so of course all the steak places on independence near Stallings, were going to be packed.

Sure enough Longhorn and, as always with Texas Roadhouse, there was a line.

We saw that Outlook didn’t have anybody outside even though there were cars in the parking lot.

Decided to give it a try after not having been there for probably about six years or so.

Holy cow! Really really good food, and we highly recommend our server Eddie. First and foremost the guy was just really positive, professional, great sense of humor, experienced and he made some great recommendations for us.

He was honest, saying ‘hey you know the asparagus is a little stringy tonight, you may want to go with the creamed spinach.”

Best advice ever! Now to get to the food.

We had prime rib, decided to just go for it having not had that at a restaurant in many years. It was cooked really well. The flavor was great. Texture was good. Definitely worth the purchase. He brought us horseradish sauce and that was excellent. Really enjoyed the salad believe it or not, with blue cheese I think it was vinaigrette. Excellent dressing very mild but flavorful. Probably our least favorite was a blooming onion, not because it tasted bad or was cooked incorrectly. It’s just that the flavors of the other dishes were so much better that for me the blooming onion was a little overwhelming. However, everybody else loved it and we brought it home to finish it off the next day.

We tried another appetizer, the grilled shrimp special over crusty baked brown bread was fabulous.

It was good to dip the bread in the next appetizer I’m going to mention, the cheesy steak dip. It might’ve gone by another name but that’s what I’m calling it lol! We really loved the chips that they served with the steak dip as well.

The pièce de résistance was the steak cheese dip! Oh my God we wanted to get the recipe to make it at home it was that fantastic.

The cream spinach? Without a doubt, hands-down really really good. I’m not a fan of cream spinach but this, I would absolutely order again. Let’s hope they don’t take it off the menu!

Almost forgot, we ordered the mushrooms I believe they might’ve been cooked in Port, on the side and they were excellent.

We didn’t do desserts, normally we don’t do chain restaurants but it had been an exhausting week and we just wanted somebody else to cook and clean up.

Overall we were very happy with the entire meal and as you can tell, really impressed by our server. He made the experience perfect and we called the manager over to complement his employee as well.

We were a little nervous because there were a lot of people in the restaurant, and the other two places were packed as I said. However within an hour the place filled up. I personally, having had meals at both other restaurants in the past five months - Outback was hands-down head and shoulders above the other two.

The other two places didn’t do a good job with their steaks, over salted - we paid a lot, plus we waited a long time to get a table. Not worth it so outback is our new favorite.

Whatever they did to improve from 6 or 7 years ago - hope that they keep it up and that...

The first thing that was most glaringly obvious, was this restaurants staffing shortage. And the subsequent lack of training that these staff members had not received. I worked in the restaurant industry for a number of years, training both waitstaff and bartenders. As well as being the head waiter and assistant manager for quite a number of years in white linen, blacktie and candlelight dining with table side service. The hostess was doing all that she could do. Including, but not limited to; seating customers, sanitizing areas and taking short term reservations amongst other things. Three people were seated at the bar, 5 2-tops were seated in the bar area and one other table was in the larger dining area. And it still took approximately 15 minutes for my party of 2, to be seated. There seemed to be 4 or 5 waitstaff, although I'm sure that at least one of those staff were backups. I'm pretty sure that there was at least one additional staff member that was designated as the bartender. I finally received my drink order somewhere around the time that my table was ready and I was notified via text. The head cook/chef even came out to the bar and took our drink order and passed it along. When our food arrived, it was absolutely outstanding. Shout out to the kitchen staff. The "new" prime rib sandwiches were fantastic. By the activity on the floor, you would have thought that the restaurant was slammed. Nothing of the sort though. One strong waitstaff member could have taken care of the tables that were seated. There was absolutely no earthly reason why these staff members should have been acting like they were completely overwhelmed. Except for lack of competent training, or any training at all. Period. The restaurant was immaculate, as were the restrooms. Everything was handicap accessible with available parking as well. Lack of training, pay, competency in your staff and apathy will be the death knell for the majority of restaurants across the U.S. If you have lemons, train them to make the very best lemonade possible and quit blaming staffing shortages whenever you put profit margins ahead of the staff members in your restaurants. If you took the time to read this review, please take a 1/2 second and click...

The service was poor and the food was just ok. The waitress wasn't very knowledgeable in regards to menu selections. Additionally she was not friendly. We spent quite a bit of time there because every time that we requested something it took a long time to come. I didn't ask to leave because it was what my daughter wanted. She was grieving after having just lost her dad hours before. My daughter and I both ordered wings. We were not asked if we wanted Ranch or Blue Cheese Dressing. We were given Blue Cheese which neither of us like. It took a very long time for her to bring the Ranch out. After trying the Ranch my daughter asked her if it was Spicy Ranch. The waitress said that it wasn't. My daughter told her that it was Spicy, her response was that it was made in house so it may be. My daughter then asked if there was some kind of Chili Pepper in it. The waitress replied that there wasn't and then stated that it wasn't spicy. To her benefit she did offer to bring some other dressing. Five minutes later the waitress came back and stated that she asked the Kitchen Staff and was told that it has Cayenne Pepper in it. Her revelation came too late. Due to taste bud issues stemming from testing positive for Covid in July 2020; I was unable to taste the spiciness but congesting it has caused me to have an upset stomach all day today. Not good at all! To add insult to injury, the Hostess)Manager was extremely loud and obnoxious. She sat at the bar and talked loudly about creating a menu solely for on-line orders. She stated that even if the customer was in house they would have to go on-line to order those exclusive items. You could hear this woman above anyone else. To top it off she catered to one table in particular by going to the table multiple times, bringing their food out and even trying to enroll them in the rewards program. After seating us she never stopped at out table once or any other table either. I felt like an unwanted and uninvited guest in her home instead of a valued customer at a restaurant. Sadly, a friend had taken me to Outback three days prior; the food and service was like night and day. I don't plan to ever return to...