Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Sappington

My family of 3 visited Outback early Friday evening, 2-17-23. We waited 45 minutes, which was expected, no problem. I received the text that our table was ready. I approached the hostess stand and waited in line. The hostess and a waitress were standing there chatting and giggling about what seemed unrelated to work. Finally, they spoke to the guest in front of me. The hostess nonchalantly greeted them and abruptly said there would be a wait. The poor couple still wanted to place their name on the list. Finally, the hostess acknowledged me and my family and took us to our table. We waited quite a while before anybody took our drink order. We also ordered an appetizer. I noticed that we did not have any silverware, but our waitress was nowhere to be found. I kindly went to the hostess stand and asked if I could have some silverware. Our cheese fries arrived but we did not have any plates. Once again, I looked around for our waitress, but she was nonexistent. I got up and walked to the back and asked a lady for some appetizer plates. My husband needed a refill and finally the waitress came by. She said she would get him a refill. About five minutes passed and he still hadn’t gotten his drink. We looked over and saw our waitress at another table. We were able to get her attention, and she came to our table and said that the drinks were not her responsibility that somebody should be bringing one soon. A few minutes later a drink runner did bring his drink. We finished our appetizer and by that time all three of us needed refills. The table was never pre-bussed and we were never offered additional bread. With the exception of that one time, we did not see our waitress at any of the surrounding tables to even get her attention. We waited quite some time until she finally reappeared, she said she would get somebody to bring us some refills. The food came and luckily it was good, but our waitress didn’t bother to ask. Finally, she brought the bill and disappeared. We waited about 10 minutes until my daughter needed to go to the restroom. I stood up by the booth the entire time my daughter was gone to the restroom in hopes that I would be noticed and we could pay our bill. My daughter finished at the restroom and then I went to the restroom. Still, no one came to pay our bill. After returning from the restroom and waiting a few more minutes, I’ll flag somebody down and ask them if they would please get our server so we could pay our check. She finally arrived back at our table and seemed appalled that I had sent somebody to get her. I explain to her that I had to get my own silverware we had to beg for refills. I had to get my own appetizer plates, our table was still a mess, we were never offered boxes or dessert and she was rarely ever around to check on us. Her response was, “getting the silverware was not my job and getting the drinks was not my job either!” (It certainly wasn’t my job!) I said ma’am please don’t stand here and argue with me. I would really just like to pay my bill so I can leave. She then picked my card and my check up and THREW it at me and told me I could wait longer for a manager to cash me out!! I was astonished! We then waited an additional 10 minutes before a manger ever came to our table. He did apologize and gave us a discount. However, I really believe the entire bill should have been taken care of and that the waitress be sent home on the spot, to never return! I have never in my life experienced such disrespect when paying...

Absolutely the worst visit I’ve ever had to this restaurant. One of the other reviews say they’re under new management and it couldn’t be more obvious.

We were on the wait list for 6pm. Showed up at 5:55 and checked in, hostess looked me up and down when we walked in and had an attitude right off the bat (probably because she was training). We were greeted by the other hostess and I told them we were on the wait list for 6:00pm. Hostess verified we were checked in she said “but it may be a 5-15 min wait, 35 at the most. You’ll get a text at the number you used on the wait list when your table is ready” I responded “cool thanks!” We walked back to the car and proceeded to wait 40 MINUTES. No text so we went in. People that pulled up and walked in before us got seated but First they tried to seat them in an already occupied booth then finally sat them on the other side of the restaurant (come on hostess, logging your seats is not rocket science. Pay attention!) . Along with the big group that had also showed up while the hostesses ignored us until I said “hey I was just wondering how much longer the wait will be since we’ve been waiting outside for 40 minutes”

Hostess proceeded to get white in the face and said “oh I’m so sorry I meant to page you I was going to.. I can seat you now” proceeds to seat us and 3 other groups without any silverware. Okay whatever new hostess in training no biggie.

Took us 10 minutes to get our drink order in. I ordered a peach wallaby darned and the waitress proceeds to tell me “oh we’re out of peach”. I asked which peach the peaches or the peach schnapps. She says the schnapps. I told her “well then can they make it without the schnapps” she goes “oh I don’t know I’ll ask” . Okay cool, waitress walks off and doesn’t come back until after our drinks are out. May I mention they gave us 3 waters at a 2 top table. It started to get very hot in the restaurant almost like they turned off the ac. (It was cooler outside at 92 degrees!!) ordered a blooming onion because we had a free reward. Had to ask multiple times for bread.

We were sat at 6:42. We ended up leaving at 8:00 without our entrees. Our waitress said “oh they’re coming next the kitchen wanted to get the big parties food done first” um THATS NOT HOW A KITCHEN WORKS. You prepare your tickets as you get them. You don’t pick and choose which ones to make first.

We told our waitress to just cancel our entrees and give us the check, because it was getting hotter inside and we were sweating and getting dizzy. We couldn’t wait any longer in the heat. I told the waitress we had a free blooming onion and she said “oh show me the reward” but DOESNT take it off. $10 more we spent because they can’t train their people to redeem rewards correctly.

We spent 2 hours total from the time we checked in to the time we left and we left without food and $27.99 spent on horrible service and mediocre drinks.

I will NOT be back to this location and I suggest to anyone thinking of dining here go to TGI Fridays or literally anywhere else. We used to be frequent flyers here at outback but not anymore.

To new management: invest in training your staff so they actually know what they’re doing. It was more...

As a family of 5, we do not get to go out to eat often. Tonight was my wife's birthday so we decided to go here. We were greeted very nicely upon arriving and seated right away. Unfortunately, that is where the good service ended. Our server, Linda, was very overwhelmed. She had too many tables and no help from the manager. She also seemed to really be struggling with using the IPad to take our order. Our appetizer came out at a decent amount of time and was okay. Drinks too way too long. When we asked for our drinks she said that "they're are working on your drinks".... ? The server doesn't bring the drinks anymore? The Loaded potato soup did not come "loaded" and was cold. When a employee was informed of this, another one was brought, it had the correct toppings but was just as cold. When Linda was informed of this, she said "they should have zapped it for you". If I go out to eat, I do not expect microwaved food. Put my soup in a pan and get it hot. I could have microwaved soup at home....quicker and hot than at this establishment. Entrees we're okay, again, someone else other than Linda brought that. Linda at the end apologized for her bad service, her words, and said it was her first night back after being gone for 2 months. She said she knew she had been over sat and had told the host stand to stop seating her. At NO POINT did a manager ever stop by our table the nearly 2 hours we were here. Also, my card was authorized 3 different times before she got the correct amount. This is also a problem when there is almost $300 in incorrect authorizations. We will not be back to this establishment for quite some time, if ever after this experience. Linda knew we were there to celebrate an occasion as she asked if we were at the beginning of the meal. There wasn't much celebrating when we can't eat our food due to the amount of dirty plates on our table as our entrees were dropped off and the previous courses were not cleared. Not a good experience at all. Could have stayed home, cooked a better meal and not had the hassle of all of this.

Update

I sent this review, as recommended by the owner of this location, to the corporate office. I was reached out to by someone from this tore who did apologize for the visit. I appreciated the time he took to have a real discussion about my visit. He insisted that he send me something and if or when I decided to use it, to please let him know when I am there so we could meet and build a relationship. I felt like this person truly cared about the visit we had not being up to the level it should have been. However, it has been weeks since our visit and conversation and I have not received anything. The small possibility this location had of is returning is more than likely gone. Not only have they dropped the ball taking care of us at the restaurant, now they have completely dropped the ball getting us back in. I truly hope you get your standards where they should be and that future customers have a better experience...