If you love Outback Steakhouse’s menu exactly as it is, I have bad news:
It’s about to shrink in a big way.
In fact, I’m predicting that management will get rid of 16 or more menu items, and here’s why…
More specifically, it saw same-store sales decline 1.8% last quarter, plus
82 foods
15 alcoholic drinks
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Outback Steakhouse’s parent company Bloomin’ Brands reported earnings on Wednesday, and they were rough.
Outback’s same-store sales declined by 1.8%.
That my not sound so bad, until you consider that it’s the sixth straight quarter in a row of declining sales at Outback.
Yikes.
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Management’s response is to get back to basics.
More specifically, they’ve announced plans to reduce Outback Steakhouse’s menu by “nearly 20%” with the goal of streamlining operations and ensuring that, with fewer items to juggle, each restaurant can do a better job of consistently delivering a quality experience with each.
Think about it this way:
Instead of doing, say, an “ok” job with 80 menu items, what if you could do a much better job with 65?
That’s 15 fewer recipes to memorize, less inventory to keep on hand, just fewer opportunities for mistakes, end-to-end.
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Outback’s management said it plans to shrink the menu by nearly 20%.
(The actual quote is “Outback will be a higher number. That will push towards that 20% number” from CEO Michael Spanos)
To get a sense of how many items might disappear, I went through the menu and counted all the food options – entrees, sides, appetizers, and desserts.
There are 82 of them.
Now, in all fairness, there are also drinks, and Outback’s management didn’t specify “just” food items – but I’m trying to be conservative here.
Also, let’s face it, most of Outback’s drinks are very simple, like soda, lemonade, and beer, and even the cocktails and mocktails are pretty basic.
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20% of 82 is 16.4, so since they said nearly 20% – I figured we could be conservative and say 15 or more menu items.
Ok – what else do we know?
Well, Outback’s CEO highlighted that the team is specifically looking to preserve the “steak/seafood core” of Outback’s menu.
And that more complex dishes would probably be the first to go.
With that in mind, there are quite a few items that could go the way of the dinosaur.
Let’s dive right in…
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Some things on the Outback menu have been there an exceptionally long time – I assume because they’re really, really popular.
In addition to their steak and seafood (and especially the Gold Coast coconut shrimp, which I’ve enjoyed for more than 25 years at my local Outback)…
I think we can safely assume that the Bloomin’ Onion is safe.
Same with grilled chicken on the barbie, which has been around forever.
Among their sides, I’d assume the baked potato, the Aussie fries, and the steamed veggies are all safe, too.
Same with most of the kids meals.
So what does that leave?
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I’m betting they get rid of both of their entree pastas:
– Kingsland pasta
– Queensland chicken & shrimp pasta
Pasta’s a little more complex of a meal than most – you’ve got to grill the proteins, make the sauce, and of course boil the pasta too.
Unless it’s way more popular than I’ve observed, I think we can count those two as goners.
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Like I said earlier, I bet the grilled chicken on the barbie is safe because it’s a simple dish that’s worked for a long time.
But I would bet they get rid of:
– Outback ribs
– Pork chops
– Alice Springs chicken
– Chicken tender platter (these are simple, but really – who goes to Outback for chicken tenders?)
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These are all non-core items, so I’m betting they take a hacksaw to them and cut out:
– Bloomin’ chicken sandwich
– The Outbacker burger
– The Bloomin’ burger
– Prime rib sandwich
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IF I had to guess, they get rid of:
– Garlic parm chicken bites
– Sydney shrooms
– Aussie cheese fries
That still leaves them with five appetizer choices, but it really reduces a lot of the complexity and inventory for them.
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Usually desserts are pretty straightforward to make, as they’re somewhat pre-packaged (I don’t have insight into Outback’s specific rules, I just used to work as a restaurant manager in another chain), so I doubt any of them will fall under the heading of “too complex.”
But both the butter cake and the carrot cake are just not all that popular from what I’ve observed and heard from others, so I’d expect them both to go.
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So those are the 15 items I expect to disappear:
– 3 appetizers
– 4 sandwiches
– 2 pastas
– 4 entrees
– 2 desserts
Of course, these are just educated guesses based on the best available information.
But here’s the big question:
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What do YOU think?
Anything you’d hate to see go from the menu?
Anything you expect them to absolutely keep?
Let us know in the comments!
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