Outback Steakhouse

I’ve been to good Outbacks before, that had me coming back for more, but this is not one of them.
I’d rank this dining experience about 1 star above cooking my own steak on a George Foreman grill at home. We checked in online, thinking it would expedite our service. We arrived just a couple minutes before our scheduled dinner reservation and were told it was still a 15 minute wait, that turned into 25. Why did I bother checking in online? People were getting seated before is who arrived at the same time.
Then it took forever for the waitress, forever for our drinks, forever for some bread, and FOREVER for our food.
All of our food was cold. My sons chicken strips, cold. My wife’s burger and fries, cold. My steak and asparagus, cold AND overcooked. I ordered it medium, it was not medium. I ordered asparagus as a side, and they gave me 5. 5 asparagus makes a side now evidently. A potato the size of a professional wrestlers fist, or 5 asparagus.
I will never go back to this Outback location. It was an awful dining experience.

This makes me so sad to write this post because I generally LOVE Outback. I used to work for an Outback Steakhouse and have consistently great experiences at the O’Fallon, MO location, but not so much this one. My fiancée and I went out for a steak dinner this past weekend. We saw this location had a below-​average review on Unilocal,but didn’t want to believe it was true.
The problems started on our way to our table. The restaurant was not busy (by the standards I was used to when I worked at Outback). There were lots of open tables, no wait… but the place was trashed. We passed multiple booths that hadn’t been bussed — macaroni noodles on the seats and floor, plates everywhere, napkins on the floor. It was just dirty.
We both ordered sirloins cooked medium. When our food came out, both steaks were beyond well-​done. Mistakes happen, but this wasn’t the worst part. We wanted to send them back, but went almost 15 minutes without anyone coming by to check on us. We saw tons of servers and bussers chatting and hanging out on the other side of the restaurant, but there was no one we could grab near us. Our server was nowhere to be found.
Eventually she came over and we explained that we’d like new steaks. I’ve never sent food back, but $ 17 is a lot to spend on a dinner that’s way overcooked. The manager did come out with our new steaks and apologized (as is standard procedure at Outback), but we still felt like they should have comped a portion of our meal considering how long we sat there without service.
The caesar salads seemed normal, and we enjoyed them. The correct steak itself was bland. The seasoning seemed to be lackluster or missing. I ordered the steamed veggies which were the worst I’ve ever had at an Outback — mushy broccoli, 1 pitiful slice of mushy squash, and carrots so hard they were almost raw.
My fiancée wanted to take his portion of steak and potatoes home, so our server took it to the back to pack it up for him. He was given a ToGo container with half the lid ripped to the point it wouldn’t close. At that point, I just told him I’d hold onto it and that we should just hit the road.
On our way out, we passed more filthy tables, and passed 3 – 5 hostesses/​bussers none of which said «Have a good night» or held the door open for us (which is usually an Outback standard). To cap it off, both of us experienced torn-​up stomachs the next day.
I’ll be back to the O’Fallon location because I do think the company overall has great food and high standards for its staff, but not at this St. Charles location. It needs either be shut down, or be bought be a new owner. So disappointed.

Never really liked this place until recently. I had a sirloin with garlic butter on it, Garlic potatoes, and the broccoli and cheese. First time I actually liked this place. Everything was perfect, for once.

Love the Fish Tacos! The aioli is incredible for the tacos. Wife had the steak and after first tough one, Manager cheerfully returned with a perfect one. The food and management is always first class!

ITS OUTBACK. I was going to just leave it at that because, let’s be honest, it’s outback. I decided to write more only because this was pretty bad. I mean… my expectations going in were low but it was worse than I expected. My ‘wood smoked ribeye’ was lacking the wood and smoke flavor. It was very thin too. Almost looked like a Waffle House steak you would get with eggs. My brother had the sirloin which was better but extremely salty. That much salt would have made a flip-​flop edible. I could keep going but it wouldn’t be anything surprising– blooming onion was good, blah blah. I will end with a note about the service. It was good.

PHENOMENAL. Gordon Ramsay would 5 star this beeyatch. Onion thing was on fleek. Steaks was scrumptious. Abigail H. was a dream server. 5 star service. 5 star food. 5 star onion thing. WOULD RECOMMEND.

We won’t be back. The past several years we have gotten all the kids gift certs for Christmas from here. We usually eat here once /​twice a year. We sit at the bar. Well never again. There were 2 girls working the bar. It was crazy. They worked hard but no time to really give good service. One gal cleaned our area off with her bare hands then grabbed a clean mug to fill for beer. When she wanted to leave the bar area she ducked under, put hand on floor and back up. Filthy floor. Ran back with to go boxes for a couple. Gross! They said they no longer have busboys for the bar. My prime rib was as thin as a quarter. The potato was not cooked all the way and was cold. My salad was served with dressing when I asked for it on the side. They took it back but not happily. Because of that I was not going to have them take my steak/​potato back. When men asked for the large mug of beer they were told they didn’t have any clean ones could they settle for a small one or 2 small ones. Something is wrong with this place. It didn’t used to be like this. There is more but why bother. This is first time I have written a review like this! Next year’s gift certs won’t be from here!

We are rarely disappointed here and tonight was no exception. I ordered the mixed veggies with my sirloin and there was no squash. I mentioned that and said don’t worry but within a few minutes the manager brought me another side of veggies with her apologies. And my husband loves the wedge salad! And Kayla was a terrific server!

We arrived, but we were kind of on a time crunch. It was delicious, but I have a few notes. First of all it was extremely noisy, and our waitress was great but they took a pretty long time on our food. This restaurant is right by my house so I guess the reason why we don’t go there that much is because there is so much competition. Better competition. I will return though just matey not for a while.

Been here several times and always come away disappointed. As far as Outbacks go, this is one of the poorer ones. Steaks are usually chewy and the sides don’t taste fresh.

This was the worst service I have ever received at a restaurant. The server was rude and had a condescending tone from beginning to end. It took more than a long time for drinks and someone else ended up bringing them over. After being given a dinner menu we were told we weren’t allowed to order from it until 3pm (this was at 2:50pm). 40 minutes of being here and my aunt hadn’t even been given her side salad so we asked for a second round of bread. 15 minutes later we asked about the bread which pissed her off. She told us it was burnt as if we should already know that. She was clearly upset about bringing a second round of bread to the table so when she finally did she slammed it down. I would tell if you the food was decent but we didn’t stick around to eat.

Dinner was great, but took a little while to come to the table. I didn’t mind or complain but they comped the meal for me anyway. A great steak and awesome customer service, combination can’t be beat! Thank you, Outback.

Our server Lauren was excellent and we were always well taken care of. Food great and reasonably priced. I sometimes get weary going to steak houses because of the price and often the food is not cooked well, but Outback was wonderful. Everything flavored great and it was a casual and fancy date night for my boyfriend and I. We will be back again

I give up on this restaurant. Last time we went, I left angry. However, a friend got me a gift card so we went for lunch today. I got my food after my boyfriend had already finished his and I only ordered a cheeseburger. I watched 4 different blooming onions sent back from other tables in the meantime. She didn’t bring or ask if I needed ketchup so I asked for a box and we left. I will never be back. Food is so bad. Go to longhorn!

Filet was done correctly, baked potato was loaded and properly baked, chopped blue cheese pecan salad was good, patron margaritas were best. All in all, for a chain restaurant it wasn’t bad.

Well now I know why this location only has 2 ½ stars. What’s bad is I gave it a good review on my first one now I can’t change it. I ordered a steak medium it came out completely rare. They then cooked it again and it came back over well done. Needless to say I didn’t eat anything and left hungry. The manager just made a joke out of it and took my steak off but that was it. If you can’t run a restaurant don’t be a manager! Pathetic outback!

Always a great steak. Bloom’n Onion came from Outback and still one of the best in town. Most Outback Steakhouses are about the same… great food and cold beer.

HELLZ NO. Never again Outback. You changed the delicious honey butter to PLAIN butter? Sacrilege, I say! The bread is nothing without the butter buddy.
Plus, my chicken SUCKED. That’s right. Over salted, boring, and tough. And before the carnivores attack, the BF ordered a steak and also reported it as being over salted, boring and tough. The most ugh meal ever.

Like Stacy G said, I was *freezing* in the restaurant. I put my coat on halfway through dinner.
Had a coupon for a free 6 ounce sirloin, which offered a side of wood grilled shrimp for $ 4. Sounded good, so I went for it. My «side» of shrimp consisted of 3 shrimp, about an inch across for each one. There was literally more sauce served with the shrimp than actual shrimp! The steak and sweet potato were awesome, as was the free bread.
The waitress was pretty good, she was definitely on the ball with the refills — even though I was too cold to drink my iced tea!

I make it a rule to keep my expectations low for chain restaurants. Even so, I found the St. Charles Outback to be below par. At first glance, this looked a lot like Chili’s with an Aussie flair. Substitute a different shade of sauce with the Bloomin’ Onion and it could pass for an Awesome Blossom; exchange the plastic boomerangs and crocodiles on the wall for quirky license plates and signs, and you’ve got Chili’s.
We ordered the Aweso– I mean, Bloomin’ Onion, to share because we were craving something deeply unhealthy and fried, but didn’t want to have a heart attack mid-​dinner. Even though I ate only a few pieces, it was oily enough to coat my hands and my stomach, so I felt obligated to order a salad.
I went with the Roasted Filet Wedge Salad, but replaced the blue cheese dressing with Italian because it already came with blue cheese crumbles. I was quite disappointed when it came; it looked like ¹⁄₆ a head of iceberg lettuce with 2 – 3 halved grape tomatoes on the side, a few crumbles of bacon, and chunks of blue cheese. I ordered my filet medium well; they must have a different interpretation of that term in St. Louis because half was well-​done, half was medium rare. And that’s just the meat that wasn’t completely fat — as hard as it tried to disguise itself underneath a black coat of char, the fat gave itself away with a wobble whenever I approached it with a knife. Definitely disappointing for a $ 13 entrée.
At Outback, what you see on the menu is what you get. Don’t order baby back ribs and expect a side; the ribs will just come out on a plate and stare brownly at you, unadorned with any veggies. When it says «served with crisps of bacon,» look forward to 2 pieces, the very minimum for a noun to become plural. You may be lucky if you get 3. I usually keep my expectations low when dining at chain restaurants; Outback may have brought my bar to a new low.
+1 star for the complimentary honey-​wheat bread and whipped butter