Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Metairie

I have been coming to this place since my early 20’s. Let’s just say it has been a long time. I decided to go for a steak or Prime Rib as this is the only place that is not a fancy steak house that carries it and it use to be decent. I sat at the bar and Julia T took my drink and order. I mentioned to her I have a gluten allergy (not ideal) and she was nice enough to write in every item of the order that I had Gluten Allergy. Caesar salad came first but hidden in the middle of the salad, i found croutons, the romaine lettuce was burnt and frozen. Did I get a pre made salad from the cooler, perhaps. I showed Julia the croutons and black/slimy pieces of romaine. She took the plate away and got me new silverware (highly appreciated). Outback style Prime Rib with loaded bake potato was brought by someone that seemed to be a manager. Later on I found out he was the manager (John - big guy w a beard). He just gave me the plate and started to walk away. i asked him for horseradish and he said regular horseradish or creamy? creamy was my preference. The meal was subpar and not good at all (cold, poor presentation, overcooked to where the fat look like a piece of plastic, etc).The servers there seemed miserable and they were all conglomerated by the kitchen exit. All were just cussing and being on their phones as in “i can’t wait to get out of here”. I can understand that as the place was depressing. At the bar you had other guests complaining about the steak being overcooked. Long story short, i asked for my bill and left with a bad experience. Shoutout to Julia for the refill of come zero and giving me new silverware. At least her basic customer service skills were there. Excuse the photos as i did not want to make it evident that I was taking pictures of the bad meal. I was starving so I did eat the entire plate. The leftover salas is from the second plate which still had bad romaine lettuce. I would say, spend your money somewhere else as this seems to be the norm in customer service and mediocre food. There are plenty of options...

So disappointed in our visit!! We visited New Year’s evening (1/1/25). Restaurant was not busy at all at 7:30 in the evening, we wanted to sit around the bar and the hostess was accommodating and took us to a table, however, when we got there it was filthy, hadn’t been wiped down. She took care of that. Server was there quick, took our cocktail & appetizer order. We ordered fried crawfish tails and were so disappointed when they arrived, they had been fried in old grease…greasy and darker than they should’ve been. We ate about a third of them because we were hungry, the server (Shania) asked if they were ok and my husband told her not really. She apologized but didn’t offer a replacement, we let it go because we weren’t there for crawfish tails anyway. My husband ordered Queensland Chicken & Shrimp and I ordered the ribeye w/mash potatoes & Brussels sprouts. My ribeye was undercooked and SO SALTY ! As hungry as I was I just couldn’t eat it, Brussels sprouts were ice cold, mash potatoes were really good. Hubby’s pasta was really good. I was a little disgusted at this point and Shania offered a recook but I declined. I ate some of my husbands pasta. I ordered 2 carrot cakes to take home. I fully expected a visit from a manager after the greasy appetizer and the undercooked and over seasoned steak but that didn’t happen because he was too busy hanging out at the bar talking to a young lady. I wouldn’t have believed he was a manager due to way he was dressed, very poor appearance! There was a time when Outback was the standard of what a restaurant should be (cleanliness, uniforms, food quality) based on this visit I guess the standards have gone to hell in a hand basket I’m sorry to say. We paid $80 for our drinks, pasta, appetizer and carrot cake and tipped $20, I won’t ever spend another dollar at this...

Updated Review 10/25/23 After our unfortunate experience about a month ago we received a response from Ms. Monica reaching out asking about our experience and we were offered a credit from the previous experience which was super nice. When returning to this establishment we were checked on at a steady rate the server Chris was very attentive getting refills and just checking in on us. the food was AMAZING. This was definitely a much improved experience and will definitely be coming back. I appreciate Ms. Monica for allowing us another opportunity to try again and appreciate Mr. John for checking in on us and was personable and helpful.

When entering the Outback Steakhouse establishment I was welcomed from hostess. When getting to our table our server Shaun E asked what we would like to drink and he said it would be out soon in just a couple minutes. Furthermore, after about 15 minutes we were told the drinks would be out in a couple minutes we then asked if we could at least get some bread in the meantime and was told it was put in with the drinks. After an additional 10 minutes we received a appetizer before our drinks. The service was really slow and all the server had to say was it will be out soon. Can the server not get the drinks and or the bread. They are a “server” and I paid 22.00 in tips for what service? I feel like I was robbed with this “service”. Once the food came out we also didn’t receive a side that was ordered and of course our service was no where to be found until about 10-12 minutes later. I hope there will be service improvements to help with the great food that was served when we did received it. However I feel like Mr.Shawn could have done more to help with the experience himself by grabbing the drinks or bread after 30-35 minutes of nothing...