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| - First, let me say that I do love Outback and think that it's one of the best places in Surprise to enjoy a good steak but.... I guess that even the good places can have a bad day; a very bad day especially if you get stuck with the worse waiter in restaurant history.
Yesterday, April 19th was a bad day for Outback. Our party of 7 called ahead for seating (I have Outback listed in my contacts because I go there pretty often) and were seated in a reasonable amount of time and then we sat and sat and sat till finally our waiter finally showed up. We ordered appetizers and drinks and after another LONG wait, our drinks and snacks arrived and then, he disappeared again! Honestly, he seemed confused & not familiar with the menu (he took the menu from my wife to see if what she was ordering was actually on the menu). Eventually he did come back, spilled some water on the table and took our order - as I said, he didn't seem to be the least bit familiar with the menu and later, my suspicions were confirmed when my cold overcooked tough steak showed up - it wasn't the cut that I ordered. I mean, how hard is it to order a Filet Mignon?
Anyway, after we ordered and eventually finished the appetizers and drinks we keep waiting and waiting and waiting for our food or at least maybe a refill of our drinks but that wasn't going to happen. Some in our party got their dinner salads they ordered, some didn't but we couldn't ask about the undelivered food because again, there was NO followup service and when he disappeared, he really disappeared! After another long wait, a really long wait with empty drink glasses all around, our food was delivered - cold. Really, I guess the long wait was because someone forgot to bring the food to the table because it was obvious that the plates were just left sitting somewhere, God knows where. Again, no followup service to see if anyone needed steak sauce or condiments which would have been nice to have had some horseradish and A-1. Still no dinner salad for one person in our party and one didn't even get their order till we were able to grab the attention of a busboy to see if he could possibly find our disappearing waiter. Poor Olivia (our guest of honor) finally got her food after most of us were about 1/2 way though with our cold steaks when her food arrived and John (Olivia's dad) finally asked about his dinner salad which finally came at the end of his meal. I guess it was a desert salad?
Another long wait (we have now been at Outback for about 1 1/2 hours by now) and our waiter comes to start clearing dishes and to ask if our food was OK and would I like another beer! Really? Now you ask?!!? From the time our food was delivered till the time he is taking dishes away, this is the first time he has asked about our food and if everything was OK. Nothing like a meal with nothing to drink - no beer, not even water!
Another long wait - and now it's time for our checks to come - wait, wait, wait. At this point I just want out of there and to go home. Please bring me my check! At last the check comes and my bill is $38 bucks. I give him my credit card and when the receipt comes it's now $51 - WTF! He tells me that he made a mistake on my bill and had to add the additional charge - but didn't tell me what the mistake was so I don't know why all a sudden I was paying an additional $13. I just sign the damn thing because by now, all I want to do is to get out of there and go home!
OK, here comes the finishing touch to this disastrous evening. Ready for this? As he is handing me the credit card receipt for me to sign (with the additional $13 added) he asked, "would anyone care for desert"? Really? The tab has been paid, the table cleared and our party is preparing to say our goodbyes to each other and he wanted to take our desert orders. Did he forget that we had already paid our bill?
I did call the manager when I got home (Susan Thompson) and she asked that I come back so she can make this awful experience right. I'll do a followup review when that happens.
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