15 Dishes You Should Never Order At Outback Steakhouse

We all love a trip to Outback Steakhouse for that Aussie-themed dining experience, but not everything on the menu deserves your hard-earned dollars.

As someone who worked at Outback for three summers during college, I’ve seen what happens behind those swinging kitchen doors.

Here’s my insider take on the items you might want to skip next time you’re craving that down-under flavor.

1. The Notorious Bloomin’ Onion

Holy calories, Batman! One Bloomin’ Onion packs a whopping 1,950 calories and 155 grams of fat. That’s basically your entire day’s worth of calories in one appetizer.

During my time slinging steaks at Outback, I watched countless customers demolish these golden grease bombs before their main courses even arrived. The aftermath? Customers too stuffed to enjoy their expensive steaks, taking home half-eaten entrées in doggie bags.

Fun fact: The original Bloomin’ Onion recipe used actual buttermilk, but most locations now use a powdered mix that sits in massive plastic tubs for weeks. Your arteries and wallet will thank you for choosing a side salad instead.

2. Sugar-Loaded Aussie Cheese Fries

Surprise! Those addictive Aussie Cheese Fries aren’t just loaded with cheese and bacon—they’re secretly sweetened. The cheese sauce contains added sugar to keep you craving more, a trick I discovered while prepping ingredients during morning shifts.

At 2,130 calories per serving, these fries contain more calories than most people should consume in an entire day. The worst part? Most tables order them to share, but after a few beers, portion control goes out the window.

During my server days, I watched a solo diner polish off an entire plate then wonder why he couldn’t finish his 6oz sirloin. Your taste buds might thank you momentarily, but your waistline will hold a grudge for weeks.

3. Ribs That Aren’t Worth The Mess

Remember that scene in Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey has sauce all over his face? That’ll be you after ordering Outback’s ribs. These babies arrive at the restaurant pre-cooked and frozen, then get microwaved before being finished on the grill.

My manager once joked that we should provide ponchos instead of those flimsy paper napkins. The sauce is basically corn syrup with food coloring—nothing like authentic BBQ sauce you’d get at a proper smokehouse.

For $19.99, you deserve meat that’s been smoked with care, not factory-processed protein painted with sugar goop. I once had a customer return these three times in one night. Save your rib cravings for a real BBQ joint where they actually own a smoker.

4. Alice Springs Chicken’s Hidden Salt Bomb

The Alice Springs Chicken might sound like a healthier option, but don’t be fooled by the presence of poultry. This seemingly innocent dish contains more sodium than three large orders of McDonald’s fries!

During kitchen training, I watched cooks slather pre-marinated chicken breasts with honey mustard sauce that comes in giant plastic jugs labeled with ingredients I couldn’t pronounce. Then comes the mushrooms (canned, not fresh), bacon (pre-cooked days ago), and a mountain of cheese.

One regular customer who ordered this weekly complained of swollen ankles every Tuesday morning. When she switched to a grilled chicken salad, her swelling disappeared. Coincidence? My nutrition professor would strongly disagree. Your blood pressure deserves better treatment.

5. Queensland Chicken & Shrimp Pasta Disappointment

Pasta at a steakhouse? That’s like ordering sushi at a pancake house. The Queensland Chicken & Shrimp Pasta arrives swimming in alfredo sauce thick enough to patch drywall—I’m not even exaggerating.

The kitchen staff nicknamed this dish “The Paste” because of how the sauce congeals if it sits under the heat lamp for more than five minutes. The shrimp are tiny frozen specimens that barely qualify as seafood, and they’re cooked to the texture of pencil erasers.

My coworker Bryce once accidentally dropped the entire container of parmesan for this dish on the floor. The manager just told him to scoop it back up and keep going. For $17.99, you deserve pasta made by people who can pronounce “spaghetti” correctly, not microwaved by a teenager making minimum wage.

6. Chicken Tender Platter’s Frozen Secret

The Chicken Tender Platter might seem like a safe bet, but here’s the tea: those tenders arrive frozen in massive bags that look suspiciously similar to what you’d find at Costco. Nothing about them is house-made or special.

During inventory counts, I noticed the box they came in had an ingredient list longer than my college thesis. The breading contains over 30 ingredients, including three different types of modified food starch and artificial flavors.

My buddy who worked the fryer station would joke that we should just direct customers to the frozen food aisle at the grocery store and save them $15. The honey mustard sauce, however, is pretty tasty—I used to sneak little cups of it home. But you’re not paying $14.99 for dipping sauce, are you?

7. The Excessive 22oz Ribeye Steak

The 22oz Ribeye isn’t just a meal—it’s a challenge your digestive system isn’t equipped to handle. This mammoth slab of beef contains nearly three days’ worth of saturated fat. During my Outback days, we had a wall of fame for those who finished it, which should have been renamed “Customers Who Need Immediate Cardiac Attention.”

The dirty secret? These massive steaks often sit in the walk-in fridge far longer than the smaller cuts because they don’t sell as quickly. Our grill cooks had to work overtime to make these thick boys seem fresh.

One gentleman celebrated his promotion with this steak and ended up spending the night in the emergency room with meat sweats and chest pains. Save your arteries and your wallet—the 8oz sirloin delivers all the flavor without the ambulance ride.

8. Outback Burger’s Underwhelming Performance

The Outback Burger exists on the menu for people who somehow wandered into a steakhouse but don’t like steak. It’s the culinary equivalent of bringing a volleyball to a basketball game.

During my time there, the burger patties came pre-formed and frozen, with perfect grill marks already pressed into them. They were so processed that our grill cooks called them “hockey pucks.” The seasoning is the same as the steaks, which means it’s mostly salt with some token spices thrown in.

For $13.99, you could get a significantly better burger at any dedicated burger joint. My manager once confessed after a few shift drinks that he’d never actually eaten one himself. “Why would I?” he slurred. “I work at a steakhouse.” His honesty was refreshing, unlike that burger.

9. Chocolate Thunder From Down Under’s Sugar Overload

The Chocolate Thunder From Down Under should come with a warning label and a glucose monitor. This dessert contains a staggering 131 grams of sugar—that’s equivalent to drinking three cans of Coca-Cola in one sitting!

The ice cream isn’t even premium quality; it’s the same commercial brand they use in every chain restaurant. During slow shifts, I watched our dessert prep person assembling these in bulk, using chocolate sauce from plastic jugs labeled “chocolate-flavored topping” (not even real chocolate).

A family of four once ordered this to share, and their young son was literally bouncing off the booth walls twenty minutes later. The dad glared at me like I’d personally injected his kid with pure caffeine. Your pancreas deserves more respect than this sugar avalanche masquerading as Australian cuisine.

10. Loaded Mashed Potatoes’ Dairy Disaster

The Loaded Mashed Potatoes contain more butter than actual potato. I’m not being hyperbolic—I once helped prep these during a kitchen staff shortage, and the recipe called for equal parts potato flakes and butter. Yes, flakes, not fresh potatoes.

The cheese used isn’t even real cheese, but a “cheese product” that comes in massive blocks that never seem to expire. My coworker accidentally left one out overnight, and it didn’t even change consistency—that’s when I stopped ordering these myself.

One particularly memorable night, a customer with lactose intolerance unknowingly ordered these, insisting they couldn’t contain much dairy. The aftermath was so dramatic that our manager comped their entire meal and the meals of the two tables nearby. Learn from their mistake and spare your digestive system this butter-laden science experiment.

11. Kookaburra Wings’ Freezer-To-Fryer Journey

Those Kookaburra Wings you’re munching? They’ve spent more time in deep freeze than actual kookaburras spend in trees. These wings arrive at the restaurant pre-sauced and frozen in massive bags that kitchen staff simply dump into fryers.

During a particularly busy Saturday night, I witnessed our fry cook drop an entire batch on the floor, scoop them back into the basket, and proceed to cook and serve them. When I raised concerns, he shrugged and said, “The fryer kills everything anyway.”

The medium sauce contains artificial smoke flavor rather than actual smoked peppers, and the hot sauce once made a tough-looking biker dude cry—not from spice but from disappointment. He actually said, “These taste like they were seasoned with broken dreams.” For authentic wings, hit up a dedicated wing joint where they actually know the chickens didn’t die in vain.

12. Coconut Shrimp’s Tiny Disappointments

The Coconut Shrimp arrive at Outback in boxes labeled “Product of Thailand,” having traveled farther than most people do on vacation. These tiny crustaceans are so small they make cocktail shrimp look like lobsters.

The “coconut” coating is mostly sweetened breadcrumbs with coconut flavoring rather than actual coconut flakes. I once saw a prep cook accidentally spill the entire container of marmalade dipping sauce, scoop it back into the serving dish using his hands, and continue service as if nothing happened.

A regular customer who ordered these weekly finally asked me, “Have the shrimp gotten smaller, or are my eyes getting better?” Neither, sir—your expectations have simply adjusted to disappointment. For $14.99, you deserve shrimp that haven’t been frozen longer than mammoth DNA specimens, and coating that contains ingredients found in nature.

13. Steakhouse Mac & Cheese’s Artificial Flavor Festival

The Steakhouse Mac & Cheese should be renamed “Chemical Laboratory & Pasta.” This side dish contains a cheese sauce made primarily from modified food starch, vegetable oil, and artificial flavors—actual cheese appears suspiciously far down the ingredient list.

During my Outback tenure, this dish was nicknamed “yellow submarine” by kitchen staff because it would sometimes arrive frozen in submarine-shaped blocks that needed to be thawed and mixed with cream. The breadcrumb topping comes pre-seasoned in bags with an expiration date measured in years, not months.

A child once asked her mother, “Why does this taste like the plastic cheese in my toy kitchen?” Out of the mouths of babes comes wisdom we should heed. If you’re craving mac and cheese, visit a restaurant where they grate actual cheese instead of opening packets labeled “cheese-flavored product.”

14. New York-Style Cheesecake’s Factory-Made Reality

That “homemade” New York-Style Cheesecake? It arrives at Outback in frozen slices, pre-cut and packaged by a mass-production facility three states away. I accidentally dropped a slice once, and it bounced—not the behavior you want from authentic cheesecake.

The strawberry topping comes in plastic jugs labeled “strawberry-flavored dessert topping” with high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient. Real strawberries are mentioned somewhere around ingredient number twelve, right after the red dye and preservatives.

My grandmother, a Brooklyn native, ordered this once when she visited me at work. Her disappointed face haunts me to this day. “This isn’t New York cheesecake,” she whispered, “this is New Jersey turnpike cheesecake.” For $8.99 per slice, you deserve dessert made by someone who can at least pronounce “graham cracker crust” correctly.

15. Salted Caramel Cookie Skillet’s Time-Saving Shortcuts

The Salted Caramel Cookie Skillet showcases Outback’s commitment to microwaving pre-made desserts. That “fresh-baked” cookie? It arrives frozen in perfect puck shapes, ready to be heated and served in cast iron to create the illusion of oven-baking.

During a particularly chaotic Saturday night, I watched our dessert person drop one on the floor, dust it off on her apron, and place it back in the skillet. “Five-second rule,” she announced to the horrified food runner. The caramel sauce comes in squeeze bottles labeled “caramel-flavored topping” with an ingredient list that would make a chemist blush.

A customer once asked if we made these in-house, and my manager’s stifled laugh nearly caused him to choke on his staff meal. For $8.49, you could buy an entire package of cookie dough, a pint of premium ice cream, and still have change left for actual caramel made from, you know, sugar.