I’ve been to Outback Steakhouses twice. Pretty good food, I thought, but I was under no illusions that it was an “authentic” Aussie dining experience (whatever that would be - it’s a big country, after all).
ralph124c, I suspect some buttoned-down restaurant-industry subcommittee in an anonymous office tower somewhere was casting about for a theme. They probably just decided that since Americans love Australia (at least in theory, even if they’ve never been there), what with ‘Crocodile’ Dundee, the Sydney Olympics, the University of Wollamaloo Philosophy Department, etc., that “Outback Steakhouse” was as good an idea as any. Given the chain’s proliferation across the U.S., I guess they were right.
Exactly so. I’ve had some really good steaks at Outback, and I’ve had some really bad steaks at Outback. Most were somewhere in between. In other words, serviceable.
Love the “bloomin’ onion,” though. Deep-fried Vidalia onion! How authentically Australian can you get?
Many years ago I stumbled upon a little resturant in Dublin called (IIRC) 57th Precinct. It’s theme was a New York police precinct. The owner was all over us when he found out we were Americans. We had a great time and the burgers were fantastic. A very odd experience, we were not expecting something like that in the middle of Dublin.
A friend was visiting from Australia and so my husband and I (husband is from US, I am from Oz) decided to take him to Outback. First, the server asked the friend and I if we were English, because of our accents. Then I couldn’t get a standard pub girly drink (lemon, lime and bitters) no matter how much I explained it. (Not difficult, at a pinch take a sprite and add some angostura bitters. Extra rose’s lime would be nice.)
The friend liked it though. Country bloke, he appreciated the steak and potatoes fare. We all found the menus pretty hilariously silly. I don’t eat there unless all other options are worse (I’ll take it over a chillis or applebees… bleh) which has only happened on such occasions as being snowed in in an airport for a couple of days. At that point, they had booze, they had meat, it was certainly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
I don’t think they’re really trying to pass themselves off as “Authentic Australian Cuisine”.
It’s just your basic American steak chain restaurant with an Australian stereotype theme gimmic.
I don’t really think people go there expecting to eat “Australian” style food and I don’t think they present themselves that way.
No way. It would have burgers with beets and a fried egg, lamb’s brains, Nasi Goreng, chili sauce and tomato sauce on the tables, and sticky date pudding for dessert.
And don’t forget the kebabs and satay sticks on the barbie.
For a more traditional Australian meal, prawns and oysters washed down with beer for starters, then roast lamb, potatoes and pumpkin with a nice Hunter Valley red for the main meal, then a pavlova with peaches, strawberries, passionfruit and kiwifruiit – the kiwifruit being the one concession here to more modern cuisine.
Funny, the two Outbacks in Japan I’ve been to (Grandberry Mall in Machida and Shinagawa InterCity) were both very good. Neither of them seemed to play up any Australia-ness (the choices of beer were Japanese and American), instead looking like more low-key versions of TGI Friday’s (similar menus, but very quiet and none of the nostalgia or flair crap). The only part of the Shinagawa restaurant that even hinted at Australia was that the TV over the bar was showing rugby.
No cheese, and eggs are optional. The essential ingredients in an Australian hamburger are bread, ground beef patty, onion, lettuce, tomato and beetroot.
(I don’t like beetroot, so if I ever have a hamburger, I ask them to leave the beetroot out. My preferred dish of this kind in Australia is a lamb doner kebab.)
I’ve been meaning to ask, and this seems as good a time as any: is beetroot the same thing as the root vegetable we call beet (or beets)? Is it raw, cooked or pickled on a burger? How thinly is it sliced? Do they use one big slice from a big beet, or little slices like we use pickles? Beets are pretty hard, aren’t they? I have to work to cut them, but I’ve never tried to eat them raw. Don’t they stain if they fall out of the burger onto your shirt?
It’s the same as you’d get in any U.S. grocery store…cooked, pickled slices, about the same size as a pickle slice. Burgers with beets and fried eggs are best eaten outdoors…otherwise, the juiciness of the egg causes the beet juice to leak all over you and your lovely decor.
I notice that everyone’s shocked at the beets and eggs, but no one batted an eye at the lamb’s brains (which were on the menu at our local pub, along with the other items in my little list).
