Restaurant Review - Outback Steakhouse in Harrisonburg, VA

I've been eating at Outback Steakhouse for about twelve years now. The staff is always friendly and the food is always cooked to perfection at their locations that I've went to for dinner. Rarely, do I ever have any complaints about Outback.

I decided to eat at Outback in Harrisonburg, Virginia while visiting a friend on February 22, 2007. Having eaten previously at four of their other locations, I expected to have the same experience there. However, this time, there were a few bumps along the way.

My friend and I didn't have to wait to be seated. We were even able to have one of the bigger booths. And when our waiter came over, he told us that he was training a new female waitress and introduced her. Basically, he was overseeing her work while she took our order.

Some Outback locations have root beer as a fountain drink and some only have it in a bottle. I prefer fountain drinks because they have free refills. I asked them which they had. The waitress dragged the answer on and on, so much so, that she confused me and I had to ask again which they had. Finally it was figured out that their location did have root beer as a fountain drink.

After they brought us our drinks, we ordered our entrees. The waiter and the waitress talked to us so much that I found it annoying. I do not go to a restaurant to be chatted up by the staff. It should be said that I do not usually have this problem at other Outback locations.

They brought the salads pretty fast. Upon realizing that they had forgotten the bread, I asked for some. There was no apology for this oversight on their part. And they still didn't bring any bread. If you have ever eaten at Outback, you know that they have the best bread of almost any restaurant. Well, excluding Red Lobster's cheese biscuits.

When the entrees came, my friend took one look at his Alice Springs Chicken and then turned to me. "It has mushrooms in it," he said with a pitiful expression. I had heard him tell her that he didn't want mushrooms, but I wasn't surprised that they had forgotten. They had been so busy being sociable with us that they had forgotten to write that down. Instead of complaining and sending it back, he picked out the mushrooms himself. My friend highly recommends this dish, it is his favorite.

I always order the same thing at Outback, the 16 ounce prime rib, cooked medium well, and seasoned and seared. I can't ever eat all of it, but that's what I get in case it's mostly fat. I like the fat on steak and prime rib, but I can only eat so much of it. I highly recommend Outback's prime rib being cooked this way, it is the best prime rib that I've ever had. In fact, I don't eat prime rib anywhere else but at Outback.

Over the last year, I tend to order the mixed vegetables as a side dish at Outback. However, this time the mixed vegetables weren't good. The broccoli tasted old. I told the trainee waitress and I asked for a baked potato instead. She actually had the gall to argue with me about the vegetables. It was completely rude on her part. She did bring the baked potato, but she wasn't friendly about it.

It took me asking both the waiter and the trainee waitress multiple times for us to ever get bread. My friend who was with me, asked, "Do you still even want bread or is it just the principle?" I honestly replied that it was both. We finally got some bread with dessert. If I order dessert, I always order the cheesecake with both raspberry sauce and chocolate on the side. It was great, as usual. Outback's cheesecake is so good, that it's the only cheesecake that I eat. What I ordered came to about thirty dollars. To see their entire menu and the prices, please view their website.

What baffles me is, even though the waitress was being trained, that between two people waiting on us that neither of them could get it right. I didn't complain to the manager though since my friend doesn't like to complain. I highly suspect that this experience isn't typical of this Outback location. It probably happened because we had two people helping us, who may have assumed that the other person was taking care of us. My friend has eaten there other times and didn't have any problems.