Outback Steakhouse: No Rules, Needs Help

Outback Steakhouse, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the trendy Riverside Drive strip opened an hour earlier for Mother's Day. Their regular Sunday business hours are 12:00pm to 9:00pm, this helped most of the men who wanted to beat the rush of taking "mom" out to lunch before the usual stampede flooded the restaurant.

Mother's Day is reserved for that special time when moms all across the U.S.A. and other countries are celebrated for their love and caring attitudes when it comes to family. Most men scramble to find a new idea because unlike a birthday celebration or Christmas, a new gift is usually needed. Flowers, candy, lunch or dinner is always a nice gesture and since the Outback Steakhouse opened an hour earlier than usual I took advantage via a phone call the night before to check availability.

Outback Steakhouse has recently introduced call-ahead seating, this allows you to be put on the waiting list and wait the allotted time without having to actually wait at the restaurant. This is extremely helpful if the place is packed or you have kids or movie reservations. It's a new concept that has a few kinks and if they included a cell phone confirmation that a table would be ready at least ten minutes before your seating time I think this idea would replace waiting at Outback Steakhouse. I'm sure those who arrive and request a table and don't mind sliding up to the bar would disagree with me partially.

This particular trip was three fold. My wife's birthday is in May, we celebrate Nurses Week the first part of May and Mother's Day on the 13^th. The choice to eat at Outback Steakhouse was my idea, I had another suggestion and I probably would have chosen that one had I known how this visit eventually turned out.

This restaurant allowed call-ahead but needed at least an hour wait to become an active perk and since we live close and the wait time was under an hour we jumped in the car and headed to Outback Steakhouse. To my surprise there was a half hour wait, no problem, we were handed our electronic beeper and encouraged that it wouldn't be long. Well, it was about forty-five minutes and my other choice was a distant memory because the long drive to choice number two would ensure a failed attempt at taking "supermom" out to lunch.

Our waiter was a young man, so young that he could work in the bar area but could not serve alcohol. I didn't plan on drinking at 11:45am but I think some people around me were getting anxious. He wasn't very respectful when he took our orders because he asked me what I wanted first and when I pointed to my wife and noted that she should go first he completely missed the cue. He visited our table at least fifteen times and promised our food would be ready. During the time he kept coming back to our table he brought nothing with him and when we asked for more bread, because we hadn't even received our food yet, he went back and brought more. He didn't anticipate what was going to happen next and neither did we.

Since it took so long to get our food we devoured five loaves of their delicious bread, normally I will be able to eat one loaf and the arrival of the entrée makes less room and sometimes a half eaten rye goes to the trash. Our food finally arrived but my wife's steak was undercooked and it had to be taken back. When the waiter returned he proceeded to tell us that a cook had just quit and before the cook left he sabotaged several children's macaroni and cheese dishes with Grey Poupon mustard. Well since my kids had ordered that very dish I asked him if our food was okay to eat. He assured us that it was and then proceeded to tell us and everyone in the bar area what had happened. This caused a few people to leave because it was taking forever to get their food. When new people would arrive this waiter would tell new members of his dinning audience about how a chef quit and ruined a bunch of kid's dishes. I wanted to say something to the manager but I'm sure he had enough on his plate at the time.

We were at Outback Steakhouse for two hours and I apologized to my wife for the actions of another, usually I'm doing that for myself. Although I will probably not eat at this particular restaurant again, since I'm moving, it has become a stark reminder that good help is hard to find and even harder to keep.