Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in North Charleston

EDITED Yesterday i received a call from Josh the manager who more than apologized for my experience and did anything and all he could to remedy the situation. His response to my review was prompt and effective as now i will be more than happy to try Outback Steakhouse again. Thank you Josh, they are lucky to have you!

Original post* Worst experience I've had in years going out to dinner. My girlfriend and I dont get to go out much these days between juggling work and family. In fact, usually we are struggling to stay awake by the time we are home to cook dinner for ourselves. Occasionally on a Friday before heading home we can squeeze meeting up for a quick dinner and tonight chose Outback Steakhouse rivers avenue north charleston. When we walked in it was obvious there was a little bit of a wait so we checked in and sat down both starving and excited to not have to cook. After about 35 to 45 minutes our name was called and we sat at our table. Our waitress (who was very nice and polite) came over and took our drink order and due to waiting we went ahead and put an order in for an appetizer. It was easily 30 mins before we got anything to drink, no huge deal, place was crazy busy. When she brought our drinks out we ordered dinner and eagerly awaited. We got the staple loaf of bread followed by 2 more and still no appetizer. At this point an hour and some change had gone by and our main entrees finally showed up. Nothing was mentioned about the appetizer, drinks had not been refilled but alas the food was here. We began cutting into our steaks and to our delight they were both medium rare just as we ordered HOWEVER, the meat was incredibly chewy. So much so that I'd be chewing one piece for what seemed like 10 mins and for more than half of it couldn't swallow it, spitting it back out into a honey mustard sauce cup. At this point we found ourselves disappointed to say the least. I had a vegetable mix of carrots and zucchini which unfortunately were not cooked very much both extremely crunchy and cold. Now realizing I'm about to spend money I work extremely hard for and don't get to spend on going out much, I found myself beginning to feel very aggravated. My gf and I are both extremely polite people who NEVER EVER EVER EVVVVVVER complain but I felt like this was beginning to seem absurd. At no point did our waitress come by and ask how anything was, never checked to make sure if we needed more to drink or anything and again our appetizer just seemed to be forgotten about. Because of how hungry I was I ate everything I possibly could but ended up taking more than half of the steak to go. When our waitress brought the check over to me the appetizer was clearly listed on there and although I didn't want to pay for ANY OF WHAT I JUST HAD and felt everything inside of me saying "complain, you have the right to" I simply let her know we never received the appetizer and she politely said she'd take it off. I asked for a drink to go and off she went. I sat there for atleast another 20 mins just waiting for a change to my check and a drink to go and watched as a table next to me complained about issues they had with their food to their waitress. Atleast I wasn't alone???? When our waitress came back she laid the check down, said thank you and took off. No drink to go. As I stated before I never complain, I'm always leave a good tip even for not so great service because I understand bad days or rushes that cause chaos. As my check stared at me I couldn't help but think that this establishment does not deserve my money. I've rarely experienced such a lackluster and complete failure to service a paying customer. Being the nice guy that I am and not wanting to spend another minute sitting and waiting to speak to a manager who probably wouldn't care anyways I simply paid the bill, left a tip that was not deserved and wrote on the receipt "worst experience I've...

So me and my friend walk in and get told there's a wait but the bar is open. Fair enough. We grab bar seats. Bartender takes our orders. First red flag, the bartender, dark hair, Square jaw, low voice, sounds extremely unhappy to be there. Order process feels rushed. I work in F&B. I get it. Maybe he's busy. Maybe he's had a long shift. But at least give us a smile or make conversation about it. Make us feel like guests/people, not obstacles. We eat some bread and start waiting. Evenryally a soup and salad is dropped off at the end of the bar. We had a soup and salad. The people it got dropped off next to look really confused. I don't approach the food cuz I don't know their system and it's not my job. I keep looking at it for the next 10-15 mins as I watch the bar tender walk past it FOUR TIMES at least. Doesn't even glance at it. Eventually a young lady in a light blue shirt and straight black hair in a ponytail checks out the food and asks us if it's ours, which it was. I'm convinced she is the only reason we even got our soup and salad. She is the only reason this review isn't 1 star. I've worked in food and bev for ten years. There was no ticket with that food and clearly no communication between the bartender and the food runner as to where it went. And then the bartender had ZERO followup as to why there was food at the end of his bar that nobody had claimed. We ate. Eventually I ask for them to check on our entrees. Bartender comes back and says "should be out in two minutes." For anyone that doesn't know, that's usually food & bev talk for "something happened and it's just now getting made on the fly." I'll give them the benefit of the doubt because I have no way of knowing if that was the case or not but it would make sense considering we waited longer than 30 minutes. I would have understood if they were busy but the last 15-20 of that there were only 3 tables in the building. Once we get our entrees the bartender finally starts caring and starts bussing our plates and asking us about our experience so far. If I had to guess he either got talked to or heard me openly complain and realized he needed to get it together if he wanted a tip. Up until then all he did was refill our drinks. Definitely one of my most lack-luster food and bev experiences. Staff needs to work on communication and acting like they...

Arrived for lunch at approximately 11:15 - 11:20 AM, on July 16th, 2024 at Outback Steakhouse in North Charleston, SC, upon arrival there were only two other tables occupied in the restaurant, which made our table number three. The server was quick to get us our drinks, and take our order, and since I only had my lunch break I was thinking this would be a good lunch. Initially, when some food was brought out from the kitchen, I was wrong when I thought it was ours, but instead it was the table next to ours. As I was taking to my friend I stated I hope our food gets here quick since we didn’t have much time to spare, the server overheard our conversation and said our food was coming right out next, which was approximately 11:33 AM. As time went on by, and the servers were walking around at approximately 11:43, I asked for an update on when our food was going to be ready, and she said she would check, at approximately 11:52, she (our server) said the chefs were still getting our order together. At this time I'm certainly confused as to why on earth does it take over 30 minutes to make one Alice Springs Chicken, and a Prime Rib Sandwich, and got extremely frustrated when the server comes to me to explain that they only have two servers working, and a lot of to go orders, and a 20 top that was just seated at approximately 11:35ish, which hasn't even ordered anything. Now at this point I’ve given the Staff more than enough time to prepare, and serve our lunch, and after speaking with the server again, the server asked if I would like to speak to the Manager, which I said yes, I would like to speak to someone about this, since I find service like this unacceptable. After explaining everything with the Shift Manager, and tired of listening to weak excuses from the server, I explained to the Manager how in good faith can I return to this establishment, and be willing to accept horrible service like this. At this point, the Manager offered to cover the cost of our lunch, and even with the Manager covering the cost of the lunch, it will be a long time before I consider visiting this place again because, I feel I just can't trust them enough to stay on top of my order enough, to receive my food in a timely manner, especially when there are many other places to go that are more than willing to serve their patrons in a...