Outback Steakhouse

For our anniversary, recently, my husband and I went out to the Outback Steakhouse.

The food was phenominal. I love their brown bread that they bring out, fresh, hot, and with plenty of butter. We had two loaves.

We also shared a bloomin' onion, which is always a good thing. It was a little spicier than I was used to with most onion blooms, but it was a good spicy. It was just enough to give it a nice kick.

I had a ceaser side salad, and Mike had the French onion soup. Both were fantastic.

Then came the main course. I chose the "No Rules chicken parmesan pasta." It was just the right amount of parmesan, and the chicken was so tender and so flavorful. Mike ordered the lamb, and he liked it quite well, but had a bad reaction to the red wine sauce due to his meds (a reaction he probably wouldn't have had if he hadn't had the sangria beforehand). As a result, he was unable to eat more than a couple of bites.

Our waitress, who had already been giving us fantastic service all evening, became concerned about my husband's medical reaction, and immediately fetched the manager, who was also worried. We assured them that they had done nothing wrong, that their staff had done everything right in the food prep, and that it was merely a bad choice on my husband's part to ingest so much alcohol when he knew what the side effects could be. Despite our reassurance, however, the manager still removed the lamb from our ticked, refusing to make us pay for something that we were unable to eat.

Now, normally, I don't feel the slightest twinge about not being able to leave a cash tip and just leaving the tip via the debit card that I pay with, since I almost never have any actual cash on me. But this time I felt really guilty that I had to leave the tip on the card. If I'd have been able to afford it, the tip would have been much bigger than it was. (I was able to afford a 20% tip, and she deserved at least twice that.)

Mike was unable to eat anything else, but I did order desert. They had gotten rid of the Sidney's Sinful Sundae for a while, and only recently brought it back, and am I ever glad! If you have not yet had this delightful desert, and you're not alergic to any of the ingredients, I strongly suggest it. It is a ball of vanilla ice cream, rolled in coconut, topped with hot fudge and whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. There is nothing better.

In all, despite Mike's medical reaction, it was a really great evening.

$$-$$$, depending on what you get, whether or not you get an appetizer or desert, and whether or not you get alcohol.