Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

My experience: poor food and unprofessional interactions I had with my first time ever at Outback Steak House. Ordering out at Outback Steak House was unacceptable and a horrible experience. I first spoke to Sammy (Manager) on Sunday 2/16/25, at 2:19pm and 2:31pm, at the Wolf Road Albany NY location. I was reading right from the online menu. It says, order for a family of four or family of six. I was asking Sammy (manager) what the price was, I was told it’s only for 5 people. I said, I am on your site and it says large is family of six. Sammy said, only for family of five. He said, the food for 5 people, that includes sirloin steak, with tax is $60.85. I said, can you have that ready for 3:30pm. When I arrived, A staff started to talk to me when I went in. She said, I am sorry the Manager Sammy told you the wrong thing and we put in a small, dinner for four people. She said, he told you the wrong thing, and we tried to contact you back, we only put in enough dinner for four others, and said sorry. She said, the correct thing Sammy should have told you the large is for a family of six, and she tried to tell Sammy that. She said, she had to put in two more orders to complete the order I said okay, for same price the manager said, right? She said no, for additional dollars I said, why can’t I talk to Sammy and why didn’t he apologize for his mistake. She says, he stressed her out, because of him and sorry for this. I said, I still feel frustrated and what’s being done it’s unacceptable. Now Sammy was on the other side of door and didn’t come to talk. Then another employee called the employee out, while she was trying to help us. She comes back in and said, Sammy is mad at her for finding his mistake. She was definitely stressed out. I then requested to speak to Sammy (manager). He comes out shakes my hand, then says how are you, smiling, I said, I am aggravated with my first time here and the experience, and the way this is being handled. He says yea, he was looking at another Menu and looked at wrong thing?? I said, well you should honor the price for me and this is not good management. He said, I know. I said, I paid 35 dollars extra, on top of my two gift cards I used. He said, I will put 30 back on your card. He asked, you have your receipt, I gave it to him, he said, you already paid. I said, yes you asked for the receipt. He said, he could not put the 30 dollars back on my card. He gave me a few 10 dollar gift cards. He was not sincerely apologizing at all for his mess up and just kept on failing me as a customer. I truly felt he was just trying to find a quick way to smooth it out and thought it was unacceptable. The other staff that was helping us said, they are making us free dessert’s. Well I have a family of 6, I am feeding and they came out with one small dessert! I felt that was a slap in a face. I ordered a family meal and I get one little dessert for one person, that’s them saying sorry? I am very aggravated at this point. About time I left now it’s 4:45pm. 45 minutes later I get the food. When I got home and put everything on the table, the sirloin steak was overcooked on top and all burnt. This definitely make me feel discouraged and disgusted with outback steak house, first time experience. I had to cut a good amount off all the steaks, and ate what I could. This was not enough to feed my family, because of the amount that was over cooked was trash. I cooked my family burgers instead. The potatoes and house salad was the only good thing in the order I got from outback steak house. This is beyond unacceptable for any customer to receive such an experience. I don’t think it was handle with satisfaction at all and is very poor management. My family are disgusted with this situation. This does not make me think to return to such a restaurant, with how this situation was handled and the poor experience that happened to me. This matter needs to be handled immediately and investigated. I request the CEO Mike Spanos to also see the horrible and uncalled experience my...

Well, you usually are never impressed with a chain, that is until they go above and beyond your initial expectations... Here's my run down of the night.

We don't typically go to a lot of chain steak houses but last Sunday the wife had a hankering for a Bloomin Onion and some (hopefully) tasty beef. Managed to do an online 'call ahead' reservation around 5:10 for a 5:45 seating for 3 adults - pretty surprising for a busy Father's Day holiday. Arrived at exactly 5:45 and were told there would still be about a 15-20min wait - not a major problem, wife and sister-in-law took some seats and I went off to the bar where shockingly there were quite a few open spots. Ordered a 22oz of Coors Light and was pleasantly surprised at the $4.83 cost as too often I've ordered cheap domestic swill at excessively elevated price points higher than this. Got into a conversation with one of the two bartenders and he was cordial and accommodating and this included meal recommendations based on our conversation.

Eventually we were seated at a booth right next to the bar and it was actually the other bartender who would double as our server. Ordered the obligatory Bloomin Onion and snacked on the complementary bread while our drink orders were taken and delivered to us in a flash - always nice. Our orders were promptly taken and I went with the recommendation from the bar and my wife and sister-in-law ordered the same meals however with a different preparation, one 'char-grilled' the other 'seasoned and seared'. Sister-in-law's meal was prepared as expected but my wife's sirloin was somewhat lack luster but she did carve off a few chunks and consumed them. At one of the many check up our bartender/server made, the ladies asked if possibly the plates had been switched since there appeared to be no seasoning and searing. He looked at the steak and immediately said, "oh man, I can already see they didn't prepare your meal correctly, I'm going to get you the correct order to take home, I'll also provide you with your sides again as well". We told him it was unnecessary but he insisted. 10+ minutes later he comes back with a to-go and says we also removed your dinner order from the bill, I'm so sorry.

Somewhat shocked but very appreciative, we thanked him thoroughly as his (and the original bartenders) actions the entire visit is what you would expect and hope for when dining out. After paying the reduced bill with a very generous tip I asked to speak with a manager. A young lady soon arrived and we gave the bar team they praise they deserved during that visit. Steak chains aren't really my thing but this specific visit would easily have me seek out another meal there, hopefully to be assisted by these same two professionals. When servers do things right let them know it's appreciated as it isn't...

There were 5 of us all together. My GF, daughter, grandson, and granddaughter. We were seated right away and almost immediately our server was there asking for drink orders and brought us a small warm loaf of bread and butter. That didnt last long and we asked for another. It was fresh, soft and delicious. The drink orders were varied and a little crazy, but our server got it all down and returned with them rather quickly. My granddaughter and I both had the Kingsland pasta alfredo which had shrimp and steak on top of a bed of linguine with alfredo sauce. My grandson had a cheeseburger and fries. My girlfriend had a ribeye steak with a loaded baked potatoes and seasonal vegetables. My daughter had the chicken Alice with a loaded baked potato. And we started off with the Blooming onion. If you have ever gotten a blooming onion from a fair....these blow them away. First off they are cooked completely through. No raw onion on the bottom and they are sliced all the way as well so you can put out individual blooms. They are the best and the sauce can not be duplicated. The girlfriends steak, and our daughters chicken were cooked to perfection. They were moist juicy and very flavorful. The baked potatoes were as they put it "To die for". The seasonal vegetables needed to be cooked longer in their opinion. They were cold and hard, like they were blanched and not really cooked. I would recommend saying how you want them(hard or soft) and then specifying that you want them hot. I have to do this at many chain restaurants as the veggies always seem to be cold and hard. My grandson ate all of his burger and fries which is unusual. He even commented on how good the fries were. Then we come to the Kingsland alfredo dishes. We had ordered the steak medium which it was more like medium well to well done. It was like chewing on raw hide and no pink in it at all. The shrimp were coated in a cajun spice that was so hot it was worse than eating buffalo chicken wings, and the alfredo noodles were so dry they could have definitely used some more sauce and or maybe some shredded cheese to give it more flavor. I ended up bringing it home and doctoring it up for my granddaughter and I. It wasn't a complete flop great service by the server and over half the meal was 150% as well as the ladies enjoyed their drinks very much. If the Kingsland meals had been a little better(meat pink and tender and shrimp not as spicy) it would have been a 100/100 meal. We will be back. Thank you for a good enjoyable...