Critic's Review
They built a fancy new-fangled Outback up in Davie and I hadn't tried it yet. Today I didn't hit a freight train and a draw bridge, so I made it up here in short order.
They have a huge parking lot that was largely empty at 2p. I walked in and was greeted by a pleasant hostess.
She walked me through the empty restaurant with empty booths and tried to seat me at a bench seating table "Can I get a booth, please". It seemed to irk her a bit; learn your job, babe, you don't have to play Tetris at lunch time after 2p.
One of the good things about Outback is the big, comfortable booths.
My binary server (who also has an androgynous name) brought out bread right away as well an an iced tea with extra lemon as ordered. I promptly ordered the Steakhouse Philly, because I'd decided what I was having long before I got to the restaurant.
I'd ordered the add-on salad to make this more of a meal, plus I didn't expect to do more than taste the fries. The salad came out immediately also, mainly because they're pre-made from the refrigerator.
Too cold, cheese not freshly grated. The caesar here used to be a real treat. The dressing is still good but this was more like something you get at the airport wrapped in cellophane.
Music here isn't bad; Kid Rock and 10,000 maniacs mixed in with "Get Lucky". Tolerable.
The sandwich came out 8 minutes later.
From the Menu:
Add a cup of our fresh made soup or one of our Signature Side Salads. 2.99
It doesn't say "substitute a salad" for $2.99, it says Add. So to me, that means I should get the fries also. Apparently not. I didn't get any fries.
Opening up the sandwich, the reason that it was wrapped in paper is that it's a greasy mess. At first glance, this didn't look like the advertised product.
I looked at the ad several times before coming here, and this is not the product described on the menu:
Ribeye steak sliced thin with our steakhouse cheese sauce, grilled onions and red peppers then smothered with melted White Cheddar cheese on a sub roll.
Notice is says "Ribeye Steak sliced thin". This was not sliced, this was chopped. It also says "And THEN smothered with melted White Chedder", the THEN implying that the cheese is melted on the sandwich after it's made.
Notice the picture in the ad:
Now we all know that food in restaurants doesn't usually look like the ads, but the ad has sliced meat and the cheese is melted onto the sandwich. It's also not a greasy mess.
My server came over and asked if everything was OK and I questioned if they forgot the cheese. It came back and said that no, they fold the cheese into the meat.
Later, after looking at the picture more closely, I saw where the "white cheddar" was on the sandwich.
It brought out some cheese, but it wasn't really cheese. They call this "Steakhouse Cheese Sauce" but it's more like diluted cheese wiz.
Not as tasty as cheese wiz.
A manager came over while I was taking a picture, which seemed to make her a bit nervous. (I'd already eaten the first half). She insisted that the sandwich was made properly, and offered me something else. It tasted OK and I'd already eaten half of it, so I wasn't going to send it back. What irks me is when restaurant managers think you're stupid, like you can't read the menu and see that the product is something different.
The Cheese sauce just made the sandwich more difficult to manage, as it was greasy enough as it.
Not a bad tasting sandwich, but not the product advertised.
When I got the check, they didn't charge me for the salad. Usually they'll mention if they took something off, so maybe it was just a mistake. I guess I can't complain about the fries. It was surprising that they charge $2.99 for an iced tea with no refill offered.
Conclusion
Outback used to be cheap; the place you went for a prime rib and 2 glasses of wine for $30. The prices are no longer that good; $3 for a soft drink is robbery at a casual eatery. And while the Cheesesteak sandwich I got today was tasty, it's not a $12.99 sandwich. This was a $7 sandwich that was no better than what I could have gotten at Mr Nick's. Additionally, instead of making the sandwich as advertised, they modified it so that it's easier for a restaurant to mass produce. Melting the cheese onto the bread and piling on precooked food on top is NOT the same as melting the cheese on the sandwich afterwards.