Outback Lubbock

My family was in Lubbock, TX on vacation and a family member surprised us with 2 Outback gift cards so my husband and I could go to dinner alone Thursday, 02/12/09. It was busy and our wait time was roughly 45 minutes. We waited patiently and finally got seated. We each ordered an appetizer because I love the Blooming Onion but my husband does not. We had plenty of both appetizers left over to take home. We ordered our dinner; my husband ordered prime rib, 16 oz. It was very bland and basically cooked without any seasoning at all. He ate about 1/4th of it and asked the waitress about the way it was cooked. She told us how it is normally cooked and that we needed to order it ""Outback Style"" if we wanted it seared and seasoned. We were unaware it had to be ordered special but we decided to not make a big deal out of the evening. The waitress cleared our plates, over half the prime rib still there without questioning why or asking if there was a problem. We paid and left for the evening. Roughly 4 hours later I felt very sick suddenly and retired to our room. Two hours later I woke up, nauseous, sweating and threwi up. I threw up until I physically had nothing left to threw up. What was already processed caused me tremendous stomach cramps throughout the entire day Friday and I could feel the contents moving through my intestines. I did not eat again until Saturday afternoon after a very uneasy flight home. I talked to my mother-in-law Saturday night who had eaten the Blooming onion from the left over we carried home. She was sick to her stomach just as I was the entire day after eating it Friday night. We feel that the blooming onion was the culprit and want to avoid others being sick if there is an issue with the onions or how they were/are prepared at the restaurant. This was not the first bad experience with Outback Restaurants. We will not be returning to Outback (in any state) in the future. Pros: Atmosphere was good. Cons: Bad Food, Bad Service more

If you want a perfect steak, cooked just the way you like it. This is not the place to go. Maybe it was the cook that night, but out of 5 steaks, he only cooked one steak the way it was suppose to be cooked. One was completely rare (suppose to be medium, it was still mooing), and well done was burned so badly that it could not be eaten. The Mahi Mahi is excellent though. Pros: decent service, fair parking Cons: watch your steak, crowded, loud more