Outback Steakhouse

What, exactly, is the deal with Outback Steakhouse? Every time we have gone to one in the last 10 years, there's been a wait of at least an hour, usually two hours.

The last couple of years, we've gotten Outback gift cards for Christmas. So, last night we try to go to an Outback close by to use up the gift card. We arrived at 5:30 PM. Clipboard girl tells me "60-70 minutes." I see empty tables, and nobody else waiting. OK, we have 5 people, maybe they don't want to stick us at a small booth. Fine. We'll wait.

Half an hour later I go back to see where we are on the list. Clipboard girl tells me "I have you down for 6:50." So you won't seat us early no matter what's available? "I have you down for 6:50." Well, then here's your little buzzer back. We're going somewhere else.

And we did. We were seated and eating well before 6:50.

I give up. I'm tired of waiting in long lines for mediocre food. Outback is OK, I guess, but it ain't Ruth's Chris. And it certainly isn't worth all that time in line.

So here's what I think, based on the fact that every Outback I've eaten at for the last ten years has done this: I think they do this on purpose. I think Outback artificially increases the wait times to generate long lines to make it seem like they are more popular than they really are. Even if every Outback doesn't do this, most of them appear to be grossly mis-managed, or at a minimum configured to reach capacity much sooner than other restaurants.

So, I'm done with them. Their food isn't good enough for me to wait that long to eat, every time. It would be one thing if this were an isolated event, but it happens every time.