The Three Bears (sans Goldilocks) and Outback Steakhouse

I don't recall having ever eaten at Outback Steakhouse before, even though it has been around for more than a decade. My Dad who has pretty conventional taste usually shrugs off my suggestions to try it out, but he eventually relented in the form of availing an internet coupon for some Toowoomba Topped Fillet.

We went to the Libis branch on the recent long weekend's Tuesday night, where there were about 3 or 4 other tables occupied. It was a quiet dinner, and we noticed that some of the other customers were also having  the Toowoomba.

The bread came in a chopping board with some whipped butter. It looked like rye bread and was a little sweet. The same goes for the butter, which tastes like buttercream frosting. I prefer my bread and butter salty, so I usually administer a pinch or two from the salt shaker if the server gives me sweet or unsalted butter.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Bread and Whipped Butter"][/caption]

For starters, we went with the Combination Appetizer plate (P599). It's a sampler of Kookaburra Wings, Aussie Cheese Fries, and their Crispy Calamari with their respective sauces (bleu cheese, marinara, and I think it was some sort of ranch dip?). The bleu cheese was pleasantly creamy, but not too intense and there was a single chunk of cheese at the bottom. I once had a bleu cheese dip from a different restaurant that had so many thick globs of the cheese that it overpowered anything you could pair it with.

The calamari, though sliced thinly, was a bit on the rubbery side. It's not strictly squid rings. You get some tentacles too. The fries and wings were okay.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="Appetizer Sampler with Dad's finger poking at a celery stick."][/caption]

We called for some Soup of the Day (P129 for a Cup for 1; and P179 for a Bowl you can share), which happened to be Potato Soup at the time. It was tasty enough, but thick as hell. There were chunks of potato scattered around, and I ate my share of the soup with a fork. I'm not joking.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Soup of the Day"][/caption]

Then, the much-awaited Toowoomba Topped Fillet arrived. The steak was tender, and the sauce I liked. It's tomato cream with shrimp, so it'll work well with pasta noodles too. (Yes, I like to mix my red and white sauces. The cream really cuts the acids of the tomatoes.) There was a scoop of rustic mashed potato (potato bits and all), which I would have preferred with some gravy or sauce. I even got the remaining bleu cheese dip from the appetizer plate to eat with my potatoes. --That's me, Saucy McSauce.

Veggies were also on the plate, thought they were raw and sliced thickly that I had a tough time chewing. Ang kunat!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="Towoomba Topped Fillet"][/caption]

The serving sizes are satisfyingly big, but perhaps some tweaking is needed to make certain components of each dish better (calamari, raw veg, and the thickness of the soup). Negative points for each dish means that we didn't get a single perfect plate of food that night, which reminds me of Goldilocks trying to find the right bowl of porridge. I'm just saying...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Our Table"][/caption]

For This Branch:

Outback Steakhouse

E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue
Acropolis, Libis, Quezon City
Philippines