Did you find it Hokey? Contrived? Embarrasing? Insulting?
None of the above?
I wondered as I had a perfectly serviceable steak there, what a native Australian would make of the place.
I’m not Australian and thus can’t actually answer your question, I’m just shocked and amazed to hear what you say about the steak. “Serviceable” isn’t exactly a glowing recommendation, but it’s far more complimentary than anything I could say about their food.
I’m not an Aussie, but the one we have in Bangkok is actually quite good. It’s the only one we’ve ever been to. I’ve heard so many horror stories about the ones in the US that it’s hard to believe it’s the same chain, but it is. A decent piece of meat at a reasonable price, and good service, too.
Yay! I’m it!
I’m Aussie, and I went to the Outback in Nassau in Sept 2005.
I found the place very very puzzling. There is no such dining experience in Australia, in fact, I found it almost scarily American. The food was no better than I would have expected; I think I had a salad or something, since I refuse to eat feedlot beef. The menu’s attempts at Aussie slang were pretty embarrassing - it was way overdone and about 50 years out of date.
The (Bahamian) servers seemed pretty taken aback when some of my friends outed me as an actual Aussie. I don’t think some of them had connected their theme with an actual culture or nationality.
If any Americans are drawing conclusions about me and my people from a silly themed restaurant… um… don’t.
The one in Bangkok has a few Aussie-themed items on the walls, boomerangs and such, but really not a lot. I have the impression they’re choc-a-bloc with them in the ones the US – a la, say, the Hard Rock Cafe.
I’ve been into one in Utah, and they are not Australian in the slightest apart from the stupid names they give their dishes. Things like onion flowers are almost unknown here, thankfully.
Steakhouses do exist here, but they are by no means as big a deal as they are in the US, and are not particularly Australian, more a sort of pan-Anglosphere “cruisine”. They are distinctly old-fashioned steak-and-three-veg places.
It’d be hard to characterise a peculiarly Australian restaurant; it would probably be a fusion between European and Asian influences as shown (at the top end of the market) by such places as Tetsuya’s and Rockpool.
ha! I got taken to one in Minnesota last year. I wanted to change the menu, mostly wanting them to add a dish called Map of Tassie Salmon, it’s not really Australian at all 
But I had fun
You know, I just had a discussion about this with my sister and her boyfriend.
He, her boyfriend, is an Australian from a little town south of Sydney but happens to be in the states studying for a year.
So we took him to Outback 
Anywho, we all had a good laugh about it for the reasons previously noted, but he was happy to see they had actual Australian beer on tap, which earned Outback an aok in his book. Well, they didn’t have Victoria Bitter, but they had a few.
I can’t imagine it being much different than American themed restaurants you’ll come across in various countries in western Europe. They are typically littered with photos of mobsters, cowboys and baseball players. The names are generic archetypes and the menu is only as American as it can be and still be accessible to the local population.
I went once. It was hilariously horrible. I brought back a menu and framed it and people would always do a double take and then spend half an hour reading it and laughing out loud at the gross mischaracterisations.
I’ve not eaten at an Outback Steakhouse but I have a few friends who have ventured into one while in the US. “Ludicrous” and “ridiculous” seem to be the words they resort to in describing them.
I put some thought into the adjective. Was it the best steak I’ve ever had? No. Was it a decent cut of aged Red Meat, cooked to order? Yes. Perfectly servicable.
The sides were yummy, bordering on delicious, esp. the blue cheese pecan salad, and the service was very good, indeed.
From the thread, it seems like Outback is a hit or miss experience, like so many chains.
Thanks for the answers, so far. I’m not forming my view of Australia on Outback, just wondered. I’m sure there’s some Euros think all American restaurants look like ‘Johnny Rockets’.
Dammit man, leave me with some illusions!
And Fosters is Australian for beer, right?
I was pretty surprised when I realized they’re supposed to be Aussie-themed. Must’a stared at that boomerang on the wall for at least five minutes, the waitress had to call me back down to Earth so she could give me my Pepsi. In Spain we lump them with the “American food” crowd. Comparing their menu with Hollywood’s or HRC shows that they’re pretty much interchangeable. In my experience, the ones that are owned by the chain are more consistant than those franchised to locals, but still: you know what the menu will be, you don’t know how good it will be.
Ewwwwwwww
I’ve been to one in Columbus, Ohio, a few times, mainly becaue my youngest son (then aged 14 or 15) actually liked the place
My overall impression was that, if you changed the names on the menu, you could easily market the place in Australia as a Texas steak house. If you did, the only complaints you would get would be the lack of Australian beer and wine on the menu: otherwise, it would go down as extremely authentic American cuisine.
The one thing that did annoy me was that the wait staff did not notice that we were Australian. Usually our accents give away our foreignness, but they didn’t seem to care. I think that does give away the fact hat it’s Australian in name only.
YAY! Someone got it. And I grossed them out. Win! Win!
I mean, its not as if Australia had any identifiable national cuisine-maybe they decided that a canadian-themed restaurant would not be a good idea (of course, we have “Bugaboo Creek”). What’s next-a new Zealand-theme chain? (I wonder what that would be called-Kiwi-something?).
The funniest incarnation of these faux-thnic places is the vaguely-chinese restaurant chain-P.F. Changs-anybody know how they hit on that one?
Been to one in the US a couple of times, and found it funny, more than anything else. About as “Aussie” as igloos, but funny. I spent half an hour going through the menu with a red pen, correcting it
Steak was good, though - I’ll probably go again the next time I’m in the States.
My husband’s Australian and he likes it well enough. When his friend was here visiting from Australia, we went there because my husband likes the steak and thought it would be funny. He said he doesn’t get offended or anything by it - it’s no different than most Chinese restaurants he’s ever been to (meaning, just about as authentic). Although I’d really wonder what exactly authentic Australian cuisine is. A friend of mine told me that there was an Australian pub close to were we live (apparently owned by an Australian). I’m thinking they must serve Thai food there.
When we were living in Australia, we never did make it to the Lone Star Steakhouse…the Texas themed restaurant that was at our local mall (they got the idea from the one in the U.S., but it’s Australian owned & operated, according to their website). They seemed to serve all the same stuff that Outback has, except with names like “Bubba Burger” and “Rattlesnake Salad.”
Giles, I’m surprised that you were annoyed that the waitstaff didn’t pick up on your accent. Usually, my husband is annoyed when he starts getting a thousand questions about it. The first time we went to Outback, I had to do most of the talking and he basically spat out a couple monosyllabic answers.