Outback Steakhouse - Review

Intro
Outback Steakhouse - Recommended
539 River Rd, Edgewater, NJ 07020
Phone: 201-840-9600

After a rough week of work, Porthos and I needed to meet up but we were too lazy to travel into the city. So, as a joke we decided to "let's go outback tonight." Damn catchy song. Surprisingly, there's some tasty stuff there for the price. Overall, I give this restaurant experience a 77/100.

My Menu
1) Kookaburra Wings ***
2) Bloomin' Onion
3) French Onion Soup ---
4) Baby Back Ribs **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) A serious what the f moment. We were expecting nothing from this place and these wings kicked massive ars. By no means, am I saying these are the best wings I've ever had, but the what the f was for being completely shocked by how good these wings were after expecting average food. Not the traditional floured and fried chicken wings, but these were lightly breaded and almost baked. Very juicy and very flavorful - we could have eaten 5 orders of these.
2) Outback's signature app. Basically a whole onion, opened up like a flower, breaded, and deep fried. Kinda like onion rings I guess. This was way too salty for me and pretty greasy - definitely pass on these.
3) Outback allows you to swap out sides for your entree, so I decided to swap in the french onion soup. Bad idea. This was a what the f moment in a bad way. The soup was almost like a paste...thick and way too salty. Definitely a pass...the chips that come with the ribs are pretty f'n fun to eat so stick with those.
4) Again, these are not the best ribs I've ever had, but they were still great. Very tender and very flavorful. Now, if we were served this at a real bbq joint, my opinion probably would be different. Porthos and I both noted the smokey flavor, without any smoke rings around the meat...definitely some liquid smoke probably going on here.

Overall Restaurant Experience (77/100)

• Food 7.6/10 – Some hits and misses at this restaurant, but still pretty surprised that this place delivers. Porthos ordered the prime rib which was pretty flavorless, but very tender.
  
• Service 9.5/10 – Our particular waitress was insanely knowledgeable and friendly. Whatever questions we had about the menu, she was 100% right with her enthusiastic suggestions. Food came out quick. Now, I'm assuming you're not getting this at all Outback's, but it was a healthy change of pace to a lot of the a-holes you get at some restaurants in the city. I wish all fine dining restaurants could learn from her attitude.
  
• Atmosphere 7.0/10 – Standard chain restaurant design - it could have been Chili's, Applebee's, etc. Wooden booths and panels. We got there at 9pm on a Thursday and were seated in 15 minutes. Place consisted of all ages and groups - young and old couples, families, groups of guys, etc.
  
• Price 8.0/10 – For the food above plus beers, it was around $40 a head including a generous tip. Decent value for what we ate, but the service definitely made it worthwhile. What was surprising was the cost of the steaks - some were around $30-40 which would be equivalent to steaks from a NY steak joint. Obviously the portions would be bigger, but the quality would be way less.
  

Closing Comments
Although I used to love Chili's as a youngin', I really haven't visited a huge chain restaurant in a long time. Now, I could definitely see myself "Going Outback Tonight" again for some wings, ribs, and beers with the fellas whenever too lazy to venture in the city.