tommy

there's no need for that kind of talk.

in case it was me, i'm sorry and i take it back. as we sat, Men At Work was on the stereo. another bad sign. but i quickly realized that there's just not enough aussie music to make the soundtrack 100% aussie. what are we talkin here, Men At Work, Midnight Oil, Oliva-Newton John, AC/DC. did i miss 1 or 2? (although the phil collins that followed made me want to gouge my eardrums out with me steak knife). hokey for sure.

After wrestling with a nasty case of food poisoning over the weekend, and in the process having to cancel my first ever trip to Luger’s, I had a hankerin’ for steak last night. Given that my stomach was still a little iffy, I wanted to be relatively close to home, but didn’t want to spend River Palm kinda money for fear that the gain would be short-lived, if you know what I mean. So, given those parameters, and a sudden, burning curiosity, I suggested to mrs. tommy that we stop at the Outback on the way home. WTF? I couldn’t believe it myself. In fact, as I was on rt 495, trying to figure out if I should take the turnpike to 80 or just jump on 3 to 17, I uttered the words “where exactly is the Outback”. As those words flew out of my mouth, I heard just how absurd they sounded. But, I was a man on a mission. Hey, what the hell, it was a throw-away meal on a Monday, right? And clearly there wouldn’t be one of those famous Outback/Olive Garden type lines out the door on a Monday, right? Wrong. We pulled into the Outback on rt 17 behind 2 cars doing the same. Bad sign. There were people sitting outside, and the parking lot was jamming. Needless to say, there was a wait. So bizarre. So very bizarre. The pleasant hostesses informed us there’d be a 10 minute wait, and gave us one of those cool pagers. Even I can deal 10 minute wait, and had a chance to look over the menu. We skipped the apps, which seemed predictably disgusting, and went right for the steak. The Outback serves USDA Choice meats, as I assumed, but they also have a section with Prime meats. Now I’m not guessing these are in the top tier of prime meats, but I figured it didn’t make much sense to order choice when there was prime. My strip steak (16 oz) couldn’t have been cooked more perfectly. I was surprised at the dark sear the steak had. It was definitely a good piece of meat…tender, juicy, flavorful. Eh who knows, maybe they inject it with something. But it was still good. I dare say that given the same piece of meat at home I couldn’t get results as good as the Outback. However, I rarely buy anything but dry-aged these days, so that point is almost moot. Mrs. tommy’s filet mignon was pretty good as well, although a bit on the thin side for me (10 oz I think?). again, a nice sear. In addition to those two cuts, they offer a ribeye. The steaks come with salad or (soup?) and a choice of potato. The salad was pretty run of the mill, but pretty good at the same time. Crunchy lettuce, some onions, some decent looking tomatoes (which I don’t eat on salads so I don’t know if they were good), and some of that fake cheese. Mrs. tommy tells me she likes fake cheese on salad. What can I tell you. It should be noted that this was no Olive Garden salad, which approaches perfection with its mix of salt, pepper, oregano, zippy vinegar, and onions. But it was good enough. The French fries were a disgrace. They were skin-on, which is usually a bad sign (I can’t think of many places that make my favorite fries that are making the skin-on variety). They were soggy, limp, oil-logged, and disgusting. If that plate had decent fries on it, it would have been one helluva decent meal. Our server, Ken (he introduced himself. Smart management. Smart ken.), was pleasant, friendly, efficient, and generally a pleasure. The runner was also great, asking if we needed anything else as he set the plates down. The request of fresh ground pepper was filled in about 5 seconds with a small peppermill for the table. From what I saw, the staff seems to go out of their way to make sure you’re satisfied. I think there are more than a few restaurants that could learn from that, although they won’t. And kudos to Outback for not throwing a bottle of A1 on every table. All-in-all, I was pretty impressed with Outback. I have to say that the 29 dollar price-tag on my steak seemed a bit high, but it was executed very well. With a glass of wine (they have some palatable selections) and a “Big Bloke Beer” (22 oz…I’d just as soon they not point out that I’m a “big bloke” who needs the extra 6 oz of beer), the bill was about 67 dollars before tip. If I was stuck in a strange town, and wanted a steak, you can bet I’d stop at the Outback. However, I’m not sure I’ll go back to my local Outback, only because there are so many options. edit: Note: originally written about the rt 17 NJ Outback and moved here.

where are these "jokes" that everyone's referring to?

or making accusations about you.

i must have gotten pretty lucky at aozora. my meal, discussed here, was certainly decent by NJ sushi standards.

i'll give you that much.

i hope people don't start getting on their soapboxes suggesting that this guy ate mcdonalds every day. unless, of course, they know that to be fact. who was that famous runner who dropped dead of a heart attack while running? i forget his name. that death was most likely unrelated to mcdonalds. although i don't know that to be fact.

not only one's, but to everyone's. as if all people are the same.

i'll go as far as not wearing a seal or jellyfish shirt. and i'm not talking about the pop artists.

i'm all about grinding some meat and making a really good hamburger and fries. or a pizza (with pizza place bought dough). either way a bottle of red gets popped. at that moment, i realize that i'm the best cook and the company on the planet.

good point. in following this thread, i find myself a bit at a loss in understanding how people can take this comment universally offensive, as if no other factors are considered. i won't even start in about how people who are offended are often those who are looking for a reason to be offended. that discussion is probably best left for forums.armchairshrink.com.

oddly, i found myself enjoying India on the Hudson very often (given that i think that hoboken has shit restaurants for the most part). the aforementioned Mela is Ridgewood is pretty good, but i've had one too many run-ins with nasty waitstaff and probably won't go back based on that alone. that's a shame, and i'm losing out. but there are other options.

the tables are *really* close together. that's definitely an issue for some people. actually, i don't think there's a way to get into a table unless you ask someone else to move theirs out just about completely. but it's got such a mom-and-pop-friendly-neighborhood-vibe that it doesn't seem to be an issue yet. on my first visit, we were a party of 10, and they had to ask people to move between entree and dessert. in fact, i think they had to move to the tiny bar (although judging by the conversation, they were warned ahead of time and presumably decided to take the table regadless of the move). but the point is that everyone seemed chill about the whole idea.

just make sure they get my *good* side.

confirming 1 definite 2 maybe.

our work here is done.

Where you been for the last 3 months, boy? although i didn't follow the thread much after the first few pages, surely in 43 pages someone said something interesting about burgers. that might be as good a place as any to find out if they came to any conclusions about favorites. no?

Rheingold has some balls poking fun.

not to worry...i've got a box or two in the basement, and i think one in the freezer. i'll have you over in this summer and we'll get crazy and feel all rebellious.

indeed they are not cheap and can add up. being a fan (of the original, and *not* the west side outlet - and apologies to the DC folks reading this, but i've never been to that one), i'd say that i've only spent my own money there about 10% of my visits. i suppose when you couple that with the margaritas it becomes pretty clear why i'm a big proponent of the place.

i'm extremely interested in what people think about this. i get sucked into the angus thing for the most part. although i think there was some discussion recently on it.

i wonder if restaurants/servers sometimes have a shortage of small bills. as a server, i might forego the extra dollar that i might get, for convenience, and just give back the 5 and 2 singles. however, if i'm being told off when i do that, well that just doesn't sound very pleasant.

the arugment about using the markup in wines to fund the rest of the operation makes some sense to me...until i look at the countless restaurants in NJ without liquor that seem to be doing just fine without charging outrageous amounts for food. i suppose there are other factors that i just can't understand. personally, i like wine with food and rarely drink it unless i'm eating or just ate or getting ready to eat. i suppose the point of this thread was to get people's opinions on that.

oh no. it wasn't you in particular THW. i'm speaking to the thought that markups are reasonable given what goes into providing the service of wine service...but sometimes it's simply nonexistent. and sam, for real, you have waaaay too much confidence in my cooking ability. i don't think i'll be pulling off any babbo-type pastas at home without considerable effort (read: expense). even if i could, i'm paying for the convenience of *not* having to shop and cook (read: expense). that, to me, is worth the 18 dollar price tag on the bowl of 2 bucks of ingredients. time is money, kid.