"Value" at Outback Steakhouse disappoints

I'm not a restaurant critic, but I do have my share of lunches and dinners in local restaurants.

I was pretty excited to go to the Outback Steakhouse last night since I just read last week about their attempt to redefine themselves during the tough economy. They were losing traction with their customer base and decided to offer 15 meals for under $15. Sounds interesting.

Plus, a little over a year ago, I was part of a PR team invited to present on an Outback RFP for a new PR firm. Without betraying any confidences and mentioning what any consumer today might note, I know that the Outback has tried to reinvent itself through new slogans and an updated decor in the last 12 months. I think, based on last night's dinner, that maybe they should have just focused on good food and good service instead.

The menu I received was crisp and new, and I did find some great prices for dinner entrees. But, instead of going with one of the super-new deals, I opted to split a porterhouse steak dinner with my husband. At $24.99 (or something quite close to that), it was only $12 a person, right? Sounds great.

We also padded our bill with a kids' cheeseburger meal, an extra salad, two huge draft beers and two margaritas. Sounds about right.

First margarita -- very good. Decided to order another even though I really went there thinking "water = zero calories." But, a friend was feeling down and having a beer, so I was joining in. I should have stuck with the first drink, but only because the second became one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced in a restaurant.

So, here they are ... down economy, trying to woo and retain customers with value prices -- you'd think the people who DO come through the door would get treated well, right? I mean, considering tough times and all, customers are really pretty important.

So, back to the drink. It is full, and I mean FULL, of ice. Like, I cannot even get my straw to the bottom of the glass. So, my husband politely points this out and asks the waitress if she can do something about that. I had taken one drink from the glass, but we sort of expected either a brand new drink, or one with less ice and more liquid -- like the first one I had. Sounds reasonable.

Instead -- you just won't believe this!!! She brings back my glass. It definitely has less ice in it now. BUT, it is also showing far less liquid in the glass. WHAT? We all take one look at the glass, look at each other, and start laughing out loud. Like, what exactly just happened here? I mean, if I wanted to just take out some ice, I obviously could have done that myself. The point was not about the overage of ice. HELLO! It was about the lack of the expensive drink that was supposed to be filling the glass.

The perception of this transaction was terrible. I felt like I was on Candid Camera. And, then, what did my drink end up tasting like? Total water. Sounds bad -- and looks bad too.

So, then, I was tainted. The salad and bread came. Salad good. Bread good. Then the steak came. Looked good at first, but one cut into it revealed it was undercooked and the filet side was a terrible piece of steak -- stringy and sinewy and just raw. It was supposed to be medium rare, which I love, but the outside of the entire steak even looked a little pink.

Along w/ the steak was a baked potato -- "fully loaded" with one lick of butter, 1/2 a lick of sour cream, one bite of cheese and a handful of green onions. Love the onions, but where was the rest of my stuff? Dry, dry, dry. I asked for more sour cream and butter. Got nothing. Asked again, and finally received a small dish of sour cream topped with a scoop of butter.

So, again, to sum up ... bad customer service, bad food, bad experience. Sorry, Outback, but your attempt to bring better "value" to your customers has backfired into what appears to be a cheap attempt to stuff bellies with cheap food -- customer be damned, and satisfaction be gone.