Restaurant Review: Outback Steakhouse in Bellevue, Nebraska

On Mother's Day I am usually taken out to eat; sometimes for breakfast, sometimes brunch, or sometimes lunch. This year I chose to go to "Outback Steakhouse" for dinner. This is one of my favorite restaurants and usually my number one pick. Since we've not lived in Nebraska that long we've never eaten at this particular location but I figured since "Outback" is a chain of restaurants we didn't have to be concerned about the food or the service.

The location we decided to visit is at 10408 South 15^th Street in Bellevue which is on the corner of Cornhusker Road and 15^th Street. When we arrived we noticed how crowded it was but because it was a holiday we knew that we were going to have to wait a while so the crowd and the wait didn't bother me. As with many restaurants we were told the wait would be 15 to 20 minutes which we already figured would be the time. So we sat back and waited our turn. After waiting only about 5 minutes they called our name and took us to our seat. I was quite surprised at how quickly we were seated because of it being "Mother's Day."

Within a few minutes our waitress came and took our drink and food order and we settled back for a nice conversation. It wasn't too long before our food was brought to us which made us happy because we were pretty hungry. My son had a grilled cheese sandwich with mashed potatoes, my husband a sirloin steak, and I ordered the prime rib; it all looked delicious and we were ready to dig in. My son and husband loved their food but once I started to cut into my prime rib I noticed it was pretty tough to cut. Prime rib usually cuts easily and is softer than any other type of meat I've ever tasted. Unfortunately mine was not good at all. Not only was it difficult to cut it was extremely dry. Not wanting to have the waitress take it back I just figured I'd eat it because I was (as I said) really hungry. It wasn't until my husband shared a bite that he talked me in to calling the waitress to explain my dilemma. She immediately apologized for the quality of the dish and took it back to the kitchen. While waiting for a new order to be delivered the restaurant manager came to our table and apologized for the inconvenience and told me they were making me another one and he was confident that it would taste better than the first. When our waitress brought the new dish back she again apologized for the first order and placed the dish in front of me; appreciative that they prepared and brought me another I again rolled up my sleeves and started to cut away. Well unfortunately there wasn't much of a difference from the first one so when she came back to the table I again told her how this one also tasted bad. She again offered to have them make a new one but this time I explained to her that I would rather not have them go through the trouble and didn't want her to bring me another one or anything else for that matter. Apologies were made and again the manager came over; this time with a new dish but again I told him that I would not eat it. The manager apologized and gave me a complimentary gift certificate for a free appetizer to use on our next visit; we took it graciously but knew that we would not be returning for another meal. On our way out of the restaurant we decided to give the certificate to another customer that was waiting to be seated.

In the end our total came up to over $45.00 which I didn't feel was worth it. But I am glad that my family enjoyed their meals so I just walked away unhappy and hungry.

Business hours for this location are Monday through Thursday 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm, Fridays 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm, Saturdays 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm, and Sundays from 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

For more information about "Outback Steakhouse" or to find a location near you log on to www.outback.com or call 402-991-9275.