Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Tulsa

This review is less about the whole place as just the food choice I made and the way my server handled the completion of the transaction.

The server was ok. She was nice and helped us just fine. The food I ordered was a steak and shrimp Alfredo. Something new on the menu and it looks good in picture.

The noodles were ok but the sauce was like a spicy and bland Alfredo sauce merged. It was off and butter with seasoning would have tasted better. The steak was very tiny and seems expensive for the bite size portions. The shrimp was a problem for me. The shrimp was cooked fine but they left the shell on and then drizzled the sauces on top of it. So to eat it you have to put your hands in the sauce and pick it up to separate the shell else you are flinging it around. I didn’t enjoy that experience or come there to play with my food. So for me that wasn’t something I would do again.

The manager came by to ask how was our meal and I shared what I didn’t like. She said Ok and walked off. Felt like it was more of a job task than actually wanting to know and the place on Sunday afternoon during lunch was dead so I can’t say her workload was enormous but that is total speculation.

Next thing I didn’t enjoy was when it was time to pay. The server brought me the check and I pulled out my card. Instead of her tendering it so I could sign and gave my own copy. She brought me the card terminal and said pay here.

The deal with it is this. I didn’t come to wait on myself. I came because it wasn’t busy and wanted to try something new. Not self checkout like it’s Walmart. And that seems petty but when she came back she said did you have trouble figuring it out. To which I said no. She said most people my age don’t know how to use a credit card terminal.

This made me cringe at her. I’m just 40 I’m not geriatric. I barely have random grey hair. I get that she was young and maybe to her I’m two days from the grave but why would I need to know about older people struggling to use a terminal that is the business responsibility to tender and complete the sale? No receipt of transaction was offered or given until I requested it a second time.

That’s it. Not horrible, definitely different in a negative way for me, the self check out with an actually CC terminal shouldn’t be in the hands of customers. By time she came back I could have dashed and she wouldn’t have known it. So I see an area of future problems. I won’t be coming back to get anything with shrimp now knowing they keep shells or tails on. I don’t want to end up having to put my fingers in sauce just to eat it.

Oh and the worst part. The bread. The bread that we all come to outback for was...

On Saturday July 2 my husband and I decided to eat out to celebrate the July 4th weekend. We had a gift card to Outback and decided it would be a great time to use it. We chose to go to the Outback on 71st St here in Tulsa and are so glad we did!! We arrived around 7:00 pm and were seated without a long wait which was really nice on a holiday weekend. Our waitress was Lauren and she did a fanatastic job being our server !! It is rare these days to have such great customer service and we noticed it from the moment we walked in the door. The host who greeted us was super friendly and I am sorry I didn’t get his name. He showed us to our table and brought us menus as well. Lauren came to our table right after we were seated and was so nice- she was friendly and knew the menu well. She suggested the new Lavender Lemonade drink that is on the menu and said she had tried it herself and loved it. I ordered one and was not disappointed - it was delicious and refreshing ! From there we decided to forego an appetizer to save room for our entree. She brought us some delicious bread to have while waiting and had suggested the strawberry pecan salad which we had chosen to go with our entrees. I ordered the 6 ounce sirloin and my husband ordered the Alice Springs chicken. The strawberry pecan salad was delicious and just the right size. Love the flavors! Our steaks and chicken arrived soon after and my 6 ounce sirloin was cooked perfectly! The chicken was as well and we both enjoyed two very delicious entrées. Lauren was attentive and helpful the whole time, made sure our waters were kept full, offered another drink for me, and make sure we had plenty of bread to go with our meal. We had a great time. She is friendly, knowledgeable about her menu, and very attentive. When it came time for dessert we decided to have some and she suggested several items, and we chose the carrot cake to have to finish off the evening . Carrot cake was outstanding! All in all we had a fantastic meal, really enjoyed ourselves, were able to have some conversation without the music drowning us out which so often happens at other restaurants, and had a fantastic server as well. We thought it very nice that the manager came around to check on us and everyone as well during the evening to make sure we were taken care of. Truly has a great experience here and we will...

So yesterday afternoon I called Outback and informed them I had a handicapped brother and asked if they could reserve us a table with plenty of room for a wheelchair for 6:30. I wanted to make sure he had a comfortable dining experience because sometimes it can be a tight fit if they aren't expecting us. Over the phone, they took my name and agreed to this and said they would get us taken care of.

When we arrived, they acted as if they had no prior knowledge of this. They said the wait was 45-50 minutes, but for us they would only make us wait 25-30.

After 30 minutes, we finally got a table (much later than our reserved time). After seated, our waitress took our drink order and appetizer order. About 10 minutes went by without us receiving bread or drinks. Finally I asked another server if we could get our drinks, and she brought them out swiftly. My grandmother asked our waitress if she could bring us some bread and take our order. The waitress was pretty rude and told my grandma "I can either go get you the bread and you can wait for me to take your order or I can take your order and you can wait on the bread"

The most ridiculous part of this is that this same waitress was taking good care of the other tables around us. I know you're thinking we must have been rude to her or something. That is what I would think too if I saw a waitress treating one table poorly but not the others. The thing is, we were kind and courteous the entire time. The only fuss I made was about the reservation, which I feel prompted us to receive poor service for the duration of our stay.

So we will not be back to Outback Steakhouse. They have terrible service and fail to keep reservations. They also reminded us multiple times that they are "short staffed". In this day and age, when a restaurant is short staffed it means one thing-- they don't pay employees right or have a good work culture. That's probably what led to us receiving such poor service. If I could leave negative stars on this review I would. I also leave mainly 5 star reviews for places. The service has to be pretty egregious for me to take the time to obliterate a...