My wife’s family insist on going to the Outback Steakhouse all the time. I’ve been there 3 times now, and each time the service has been very underwhelming. I’ll give you a typical example of a night at the Outback Steakhouse as a real Aussie, you know, the kind of people your restaurant chain is supposedly based on.After walking into the hideous faux decoration that noone but patronising apologists use in Australia, I’m surrounded by beer that no Aussie drinks – even though it is from Australia. Then the menu is loaded full of stuff that is sort of eaten, but not really, and given wierd names for what I can only suppose is shock value. OK, we can look passed that as the taste of the food is more important than decor. Here comes faux pas number two at this particular restaurant (I assume other franchise owners are better than this one). My wife and her family and I arrived at the Milpitas Great Mall Outback restaurant at 7pm and were all seated quickly.
Our server got us our drinks very quickly, complimentary bread came out quickly (which is very nice bread by the way). We placed our order at 7:10pm with no special requirements. A few steaks, a salad or two, even a pasta. At maybe 7:45pm we enquired as to where our appetiser meals were, as they had not been served yet. Shortly, we got our salads, soups et al. 20-30 minutes later our main course was brought out. This is a critical point. From ordering to recieving took literally over an hour. A minor point of concern – a well done steak arrived still bleeding and oozing blood. Great. It was sent back with good grace and a laugh, but no actual complaints or accusations.
We were concerned at the length of our wait as people arriving after us were eating their meals before us, so we asked for the first employee who identified himself as ‘the manager’ (Steve). We explained the situation and asked if there was an actual problem in the kitchen, and he disappeared. A minute later another employee came out also identifying himself as ‘the manager’ (Ian). Before we could tell him what had gone on, he immediately began to lecture us on ‘only waiting a total of 20 minutes’, although at this point it was now almost 9pm – a full 90 minutes after entering the establishment.
For a full minute he tried to tell us how we’d over reacted because the time on the order reported an entry time of 7:51pm. Yes, 7:51pm, a full 40 minutes after placing our order, as the server had entered it only after we asked where our appetisers were. We explained what happened in great detail, and after a couple of minutes this manager started accepting perhaps we were actually telling the truth and stopped accusing us of agrandising our tale. He offered to take a small chunk off the bill, which isn’t a bad thing to do, and then we waitied for someone to come and take our bill.
It was at this point we noticed our server had abandoned the part of the restaurant we were in, and other people were bringing out the various orders around us. She was still on duty as a server, just not in our area anymore. Eventually my wife went looking for someone to pay and tried to give it to the server, but she refused to even acknowledge my wife’s existance. Once someone was found, the manager brought the check back out. That doesn’t sit right with us.
We hadn’t done anything wrong, but here we have the server actively avoiding our section of the restaurant. We were not rude, loud, crude, arrogant, aggressive or mean. All through the meal we were friendly and polite. And with minor tweaks, this is exactly how each meal I have at your ‘Australian’ restaurant happens to me. An hour after we order, our order is lost or forgotten. And to make it worse, their crazy website doesn’t even allow for comments from Australians, it assumes everyone who eats there is American. Quite ironic really.