The Outback Steakhouse: Restaurant Review

First of all, The Outback Steakhouse did not pay me to review their restaurant. Several days ago I went there of my own free will and curiosity.

I knew from looking it up online that The Outback has a gluten-free menu. If you want you can take a look at it here. At the restaurant, I requested and received the gluten-free menu without any hiccups. The menu has most of the items that are on the regular menu, with details about what is and is not gluten-free. Next to the salads, it advises, "ask for no croutons." The Outback does not offer gluten-free bread or buns, so if you want a burger, ask for no bun. The main dish I ordered was also on the regular menu, and by default came with Aussie fries. The gluten-free menu alerted me that Aussie fries are not gluten free. I am not sure if the fries themselves have gluten, or if the fries are fried in the same oil as battered-and-fried foods. Either way, I opted for a different side. When I ordered, the waitress asked, "Are you the gluten-free one?" I said yes, and she made some note on her paper. I suspect that cook took some precautions with my food. See if you can guess what I ordered from the picture:

I usually end up getting grilled chicken in some form (as a main dish or in a salad) when I eat out because it is the only "naturally" gluten free food on the menu. Bread would be a food which is not "naturally" gluten-free. Anyways, I get bored of grilled chicken, so I was thinking of trying something else when I went to The Outback Steakhouse. My options included seafood, pork, and steak. What did I end up choosing? Grilled chicken! But this was not ordinary chicken! In case you can not tell, here is the picture again with everything labeled:

It was the juiciest chicken I've had in a while. Officially, it is known as "Alice Springs Chicken." The chicken was covered in cheese, sautéed mushrooms, and a strip of bacon. It came with honey mustard sauce, but it didn't need anything to moisten it. And then there is the lovely side I picked to "replace" the fries. The sweet potato, with melty honey butter and lumps of brown sugar, surpassed any fries. Are you salivating yet?

To top it all off, my Nana told the waitress that we were celebrating my birthday, so I received a free dessert. Ordinarily, it would have had come with an Oreo cookie, but the server asked me if Oreos are gluten free, (they are not) and omitted them for me. She also explained that the ice cream comes with hot fudge, house-made whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry. I asked her to hold the cherry because I personally don't like maraschino flavor. I might get some comments on that, because a maraschino cherry is like country music: people either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground.

How to get rid of red-eye in one easy step: crop the photo!

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