Outback Steakhouse — Restaurant in West Springfield

Recieved a $50 gift card for Ourback. Decided to use it. 1st Outback was closed permanently. play ominous music here So we settled for West Springfield. Long story short... selling $50 gift card... Will take $5. J/k.

I will start by saying we were rabidly hungry when we started our journey.

We were told that wait was 1 hr for seating. However, got our seats at 30 minutes. A pleasant surprise. That was the last. Started immediately by ordering a bloomin onion for the table of 4. A member of our party had to get glasses for the menu, so about 10 minutes before we were ready to order. Ok. Fine. We order a 6 oz Rare filet, 2 bloomin burgers, rare and medium rare, and a prime rib sandwich.

15 minutes after ordering the appetizer we received a tiny, dark brown (burnt), barely coated bloomin onion. Haven't been to an Outback in a while. Maybe they always are like that? NO! Sent it away. The burnt flavor and seasoning put me off of bloomin anything for a while. It was cooked in too low temp (grease soaked in) for way too long. The flavor was stuck in my mouth for 1 hr.

Now to the waitress avoidance dance. The onion was brought by a different employee. Ok. Normal. The waitress managed to avoid even looking at us until we waved our hands around, in her main section of the bar booths, to ask her why EVERYONE around us had eaten their food at 1 hr 15 minutes of being seated. She gave us a sad story of the kitchen tickets being up to an hour. We were past an hour and people whom arrived after us have finished and left. She said she would check with the manager. 5 minutes later tells us our ticket is next.

2 minutes later our food arrived.

Insert expletives here!

Both burgers were COLD! Cold all around and inside. Yes, the rare should be, but the outside is still cooked.

Filet? Medium to well. Way overcooked.

Prime rib sandwich? COLD, OVERCOOKED, with something that was nothing like any au jus I have ever had. I like au jus.

All of the fries were greasy soggy flavorless clumps. It was suggested by one of our guests that our plates were made from leftovers. It was a joke, but sadly, I was seriously wondering if they were correct.

Finally got the waitresses attention again. "This food is inedible!" Sent everything back. Waitress brings back a receipt and says the manager comped everything. Really? We didn't get anything edible. I would think the manager would take the time to talk with us. Guess we know why the service is so horrible.

2 hours wasted. Nothing edible hit our table except the free bread. Ravenously hungry and refused to eat the "food" they served.

On the plus side, we did go to another restaurant nearby and were pleasantly...

We dined here on Sunday September 29th, 2024 - we were visting from Montreal, Canada and had never tried this chain before. Comparable experiences would be Texas Roadhouse or Longhorn, we found Outback to be similar but with more of a "cajun" flair. The food is seasoned bit differently compared to other steakhouse chains. I opted for small sirloin and "bloomin" chicken which is a chicken breast that's been battered the same way as their famous blooming onion appetizier. I paid a bit extra to get the mac and cheese and had a side of mashed potatoes. The food was all delicious, very generous portions, but everything was seasoned with a hint of spice, best way to describe it is "cajun" or tex mex or something with a very light spice.

My partner had the surf and turf, ribeye steak and some grilled shrimp.

The complimentary bread and butter were delicious - in all it was a satisfying meal, with prompt and friendly service. Everything was cooked well and there were no issues.

The only thing that could make this place better would be the location, it seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere. There's a small budget motel next to it but the area isn't within a strip mall or close to other businesses so it seemed kind of sketchy. The general ambiance and decor was a bit dated, simple. There was nothing that stood out. The floor looked it used to be tiled or carpet that was just ripped apart and it was exposed concrete. Not sure if it is meant to stay this way or under renovations but it just looked like this place could benefit...

Lousy.

First let me say that the waitress was terrific. Took family here for a late dinner after a victorious youth football game. The place was dead, including the bar. Family ordered filet & prime rib, medium rare. When the food came out she had an extra lobster tail because the one served with the dish had looked over cooked to her. All of the steaks were well done and the cuts weren't much thicker than the sole of my sandals and was just as tough. When the waitress asked us how everything was we were honest but, not mean. She said that she would speak with the manager. After a while she came back to refresh drinks. My husband asked her to take away the steak, it wasn't worth paying for. She gave us the check and told us they had all been taken off the bill. She was visibly upset and scurried off. My adult daughter went back to the kitchen to speak with her and let her know that we didn't blame her. We still paid her the full tip because we didn't want her to suffer from the poor quality from the kitchen staff. She offered the kids a brownie sundae and we took them to go. Once at home one of the kids discovered a chunk of something foreign in her ice cream that didn't belong there. We couldn't tell if it was a chunk of plastic or some food matter that had fallen in the ice cream bucket. That was the last straw for us. We will never, ever go back to ANY Outback Steak House and we urge everyone else to stay away too! Now we call it Outhouse Steakhouse because that's what you get for your money; a...