Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

A special family member's birthday brought us to Outback Steakhouse this evening (Because that is where she wanted to go) and I feel the need to share the experience while it is still fresh on my mind.

We arrived in 10-15 minute intervals because we were all coming from different towns. Two tables were put together for the size of our party .. comfortably.

The birthday girl already had her iced tea, and was looking for her 'rare' Filet Mignon on the menu when I arrived. She was already well-situated with some of her birthday gifts around her. We sat down, and was greeted almost immediately by ALIEAH, our food server.

You must know, I was an 'old school waitress' at one time, and so was the birthday girl. There were four generations at the dinner table. The youngest, 10 years old, (My granddaughter) and the oldest 80 years old today. (My mother) Both my mother and I have worked in diners, as well as fine dining restaurants. So we are both pretty critical when it comes to food service.

The first thing you notice is appearance. (A+) The second, attentiveness. (A+) The third, knowledge about the food (A+) Fourth, is a bonus...personality. (A+) We hit the 'Quadfecta' with ALIEAH. She was just lovely.

Okay, the food... Prime Rib, Filet Mignon, Lobster tails, Salmon, etc... We had a nice variety. (Of course, we started with a Bloomin' Onion) Not a single complaint here. We all had our food done differently. Rare WAS rare, and med. rare...etc. Perfect. We never ran out of bread, and sodas, water, etc. was refilled in a timely fashion. The food was delicious. Dessert orders were put in, and when they delivered them, the whole staff came to sing "Happy Birthday" (Mom was smiling ear-to-ear)

I am so happy we went there. The manager was also extremely nice. I had a gift card I wanted to use before I paid the bill, and he took care of it for me, in spite of being very busy. (And with a smile)

Maybe this is the service you expect to have every single time you dine out somewhere, but I assure you, it is not always 'the rule'...

I...

Ok guys i’m sorry i really didn’t wanna write this but my experience really was that bad and i’m still unhappy about it . Arrived Sunday evening around 7:15 starving after coming in from Brookyln wanted to stop and grab a quick bite . I remember this Outback from years ago being quite good . Pulled in the parking lot no spaces and drove into a giant pothole . Not a good start . Very odd way to get in the front door . Finally walked in and greeted by a nice hostess who said hello she offered to seat me by the door which was too cold and offered me the bar table. Bar was trashed ! Papers, receipts all over the floor along with filthy dirty plates scattered all everywhere . Sticky filthy mess all around service bar and a bartender that looked completely overwhelmed who didn’t even notice i was standing there . I then asked for a manager who came over promptly, professionally got me a table in the dining room immediately , took my order and had bread delivered to me all within 10 min .. Impressive . He was engaging , helpful and kind but it ended there . The food was the worst i’ve ever had at an Outback .Ordered the Filet and Lobster tail was told he was out of the lobster but offered the coconut shrimp on the house instead . ( nice touch brought a whole order) Coconut shrimp arrived early and we’re small and almost inedible they were so hard . Certainly not the tender and delicious ones i remember .The coating was like glue and i could barely cut it with a knife Costco has better . Now out comes the steak ( asked for medium) looking grey with a pink line down the middle , no seasoning whatsoever on it and an UNSALTED potato that was hard and gummy as if microwaved . They brought me another potato but it fared no better . Waitress Brie was lovely and new and manager did everything correct and only charged me &13 for everything unfortunately i left pretty grossed out and most likely wouldn’t return to this location which is...

If I could give them a zero I would. We ordered our anniversary dinner from them. I ordered the prime rib with salad and sweet potato. My wife ordered the petite filet mignon with salad and seasonal vegetable medium rare. Our son ordered the sirloin, medium well with fries. My sweet potato was ordered with all of the toppings. I also entered the names for each order which is optional on their website. The order arrived on time and the driver assured me that they had double-checked it. He said that if there were any problems, we could call and he would return. BTW - the dinners were NOT labelled. The salads were fine. Our son took the container with the fries in it to eat in his room and my wife took the one with the broccoli (the season vegetable(s)). We were about halfway through eating our salads when he comes downstairs and says that the steak is not medium well, it is medium rare. We check the other one (which my wife hadn't started eating yet) and found out that it was medium well. FWIW - My sweet potato had ZERO toppings included. The bread (which was kind of small for 3) had no butter. I called the restaurant and the woman who answered the phone asked me for the order number from the check stapled to the bag. Unfortunately, there was NO check stapled to the bag, only a coupon for a free Bloomin' Onion which expired 3 weeks earlier on 12/01/21. She eventually connected me to Quentin, one of their managers. After I explained the situation, he asked me if I could come in and pick it up. I paid almost $18.00 to get the three dinners delivered. He said that due to the pandemic, he had no one to send. That's NOT what the delivery person told me. He ultimately refunded the cost of the filet mignon. That was small consolation considering that our anniversary dinner was ruined. We will NOT be...