Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in Virginia

Ordered online for a 2:45 pm pickup; 1/12/2024, Order #30. The order went in (on-line) about an hour ahead. I received all kinds of text about my order being prepared and almost ready, which was good situational awareness. I arrived and notified the restaurant via text I was in parking spot 3 at 2:35. I waited, waited, and waited; no one came out, nor were there any other cars in the pickup. I saw absolutely no movement in the pickup window. After about 10 minutes, got tired of waiting for nothing to happen and walked into the pickup door only to see 2-3 employees chatting. The older lady asked, you here to pick up an order? I said yes; she grabbed my order, asked if I paid, and handed it to me. I told her I was in spot 3, waiting about 10 minutes after confirming my arrival, and no one came. Her response was, well, she is in the back busy. That is pretty poor for a restaurant with about three customers in the entire place. Once I grabbed my food and returned to my truck, I decided to sit there and review my experience. About 5 minutes into my review, a young lady came to my window and asked if I needed anything. I told her, no, I already grabbed my order when no one came out. She did not apologize but only wanted to know my name for some apparent reason. I should have stayed with my old faithful Outback in Colonial Heights, but decided to try this one since I was on this side of town. Colonial Heights Outback is worth every mile of the drive. Wow, I even gave a tip when paying. The hard part is getting everything together and prepared an order as requested on time. This Outback did all that but fumbled the easy part of the process, simply bringing the order to the car. You cannot make this up. v/, Dr. K. King.

P.S. See the managers comments, if they want to speak with me about my experience, they have my number. I see this as a boilerplate response....

update: Per the response I sent a message to corporate, last week and have yet to be contacted or even acknowledged by Outback Corporate!..... My family of five attempted to have lunch out this Outback on a Saturday afternoon. However, the restaurant which did not seem busy, I notices maybe 3-4 tables with people, advised we would have a 15 minute wait. No problem, we decided to wait. Maybe 2 minutes after, another party walked in, a party of 4 adults, and was seated immediately. Not until we asked how could they be seated before us, we had 2 adults and three kids, did the host advise they only had 2 servers, and at that point said they can seat us. So all of a sudden, in less than 10 minutes, they had seating available? The amount of servers was not the issue, I understand that restaurants do struggle with staffing shortages. When we asked for a manager, the staff acted as if we were wrong, and acted as if they didn't see a problem. I hate to bring race up, but it does seem bias to have to wait when another party with 1 less person is walked right over to be seated. There were plenty of seats open!! Even with 2 servers we could have sat in either servers section. I feel as if they gave priority, without a second thought, to the Caucasian party, while my African American family, was put to the side. Needless to say a horrible experience for my children. This was suppose to be family time together on a weekend. We choose to Outback to spend our money and spend time together, and it will not happen again. I will be sure to share my experience and how my family was treated. I am extremely disappointed in Outback and their staff. I was given a card to contact corporate, not an apology or empathy from the staff. Definitely not a good look for...

On two dates, I had visited the Chital Drive Outback. The initial encounter went perfectly, and my date was so pleased with the meal that she declared she would come back as much as she could. Before our second meeting, she placed three orders for takeout over her lunch break. She was a fan, but her feelings have since soured.

She received a call from a family member while we were eating. They continued to call, but she ignored them. She answered to check on things. She had it on speaker phone because she hears better that way. "You should probably take that somewhere else or take it off speaker because we got complaints," said a rather impolite waiter who walked by and touched her shoulder. "Who's complaining?" she asked. The waiter just kept walking without responding but gave her a look of disapproval. No one appeared to be objecting/ complaining or staring in our direction. We asked a table beside us if we’re annoying them, and they said absolutely not! He approached her after she had been on the phone for only five minutes. As a politeness she went outside. Her food got cold while she was outside, the staff didn’t seem to care or want to help her. They seemed indifferent toward her which kind of upset her. She told me that when she was outside, a waitress passed her and said, "Take that to the car." which is inappropriate given that she has already gone outside. No one was shouting or talking too loudly on the phone. The relative was crying but didn't make a lot of noise. Just rude. I am disappointed after my date and I had such a good first experience and she had 3 good takeout experiences that this had to happen! My date wrote Outback corporate about this experience almost 2 weeks ago and they’re yet to...