So, I just re-read my 2015 review and find that our experience tonight was amazingly similar. I overheard the manager, (name omitted because I don't think it's his fault), talking to another table and he mentioned that most of the staff came over from the old Grapevine location. I was listening to him tell another customer how corporate had completely re-trained the staff - old and new - for the relaunch in the new location and I was hopeful.
First of all, the food - better. Salads were appropriately sized to price. Steaks were not skinny minis like they were in 2015. Fried mushroom appetizer was tasty. Sadly, it all gets down to service and attention to detail. Apparently the retraining of the Grapevine staff didn't take...
Our server showed up and took our order and then we waited. And waited. And waited. Come to think of it - our server didn't, and we were waiters. Get it? Waiters!
Mushrooms came and were good - not delivered by our server. Our server did not check on us. Then we waited, and waited, and waited and then the soups and salads showed up. Not delivered by our server, and he did not check on us. My Diet Coke was empty. My son's water was empty. I caught our waiter passing by and asked for refills. Never came.
Dinners arrived delivered by the third person, not our server, who had been to our table. Server interrupted that person in the middle of figuring out who got what and he finished distribution. I reminded him that we still would like our empty glasses filled. Refills then arrived promptly - or rather finally.
Dinner was good. Our son had the steak and unlimited shrimp. His shrimp plate sat empty as our server went by twice - and didn't check on us. We finally and rather abruptly interrupted one of his fly-bys and asked for more shrimp. We continued with our (very good) dinners while our son finished his steak, and his mashed potatoes, and sat. And sat. And sat.
We again lassoed our waiter as he was flying by and we told him we were still waiting for our shrimp refill. "Oh, you never got your refill?" Well, no, (insert derogatory descriptor of your choice here). Shrimp arrived instantly. How long had it been in the pass and why didn't he wonder whose it was? We asked for our check.
Meanwhile, the manager stopped by to ask how everything was tastING (not tasted, appropriate to our empty plates and the check on the table). Without the interest to point out this staff's long-standing blind spots we just said "fine." His chirpy response was "Well, again, my name is (withheld to protect the guilty) if you need anything else." Well, OK, but the "again" was not appropriate because you never stopped by our table in the first place. And didn't know that based on your own fly by which is kind of indicative of why your staff doesn't pay attention to tables.
Check came, I have a courtesy tip of 11% (I am a 15% to 20% tipper normally) and left.
Kudos to Outback corporate for fixing the meat cuts and sprucing up the menu.
Decent interior but basically an updated clone of Grapevine right down to the go to heck booth at the kitchen door which - you guessed it - we scored two years after the last time we were dumped there. Who designs a "new" restaurant to look almost exactly like the old one?
Wish they had stayed in Grapevine on Failed Restaurant Corner and left room for a viable competitor to Lazy Dog. The good news is they will pick up business from people who don't want to wait for Lazy Dog. The bad news is they still don't know how to operate front of house.
We avoided them for two years in Grapevine because of a bad experience. We avoided them for another two years after the 2015 bad experience in my prior review. We absolutely will not be back until the "Under New Management" sign goes up because this franchisee just doesn't get it. If you want to find us here in the future, we will be "out back" at Lazy Dog. 2013 fail. 2015 fail. 2017 - three strikes, yer out! read more