Friday night, after a trip to Stoughton to look at a house, Maryanne and I returned to Madison and went to Outback for dinner. Neither one of us had ever been to one before, so we decided to give it a try. When we arrived there was over an hour wait to be seated, but we decided to wait. We were glad that we did. The food was excellent and the service spectacular. Our waiter, Jimmy, was friendly and checked on us frequently. Our dinners came with soup, and sometime after Jimmy had cleared the bowls, he said our food would be out in a minute and a half. It was probably ten minutes more before Jimmy returned, this time to apologize for our food taking so long, and asking if the manager had been by to talk to us. We answered no, and he returned to the kitchen. Our food arrived shortly after that.
The manager arrived sometime after we had begun eating, and made sure everything was satisfactory. We both said the food was excellent. The manager then said that she, as well as Outback in general, had very high standards, and that the amount of time that it took for our food wasn't up to those standards. She asked us to save room for dessert. Maryanne responded, "I'm not sure I'm going to finish this!" Dessert to go was offered, and the manager departed.
Jimmy returned shortly after to take our dessert orders. We had settled on cheesecake, thinking we'd be able to stick it in the freezer. Jimmy informed us they were out of cheesecake. Maryanne being visibly disappointed, he offered gift cards for dessert instead, and he left.
The manager returned next, and explained the cheesecake situation. Apparently they still had some, but it was all frozen, and she offered that. We accepted, and she went to the kitchen to get it. When she returned, she had a large to-go container with the cheesecake, and small styrofoam cups with toppings. She had given us half a cheesecake! On top of that, she gave us a gift card for a free "Bloomin' Onion."
Not once through the entire evening had we thought there was a problem, much less complained of one. Yet the staff at Outback bent over backwards to rectify a situation they thought needed remedying. While the prices were a little on the pricey side, the service we received guaranteed we'll return sometime.
