Heaps of American friends rave about the Outback Steakhouse so one night when the wife and I were driving around looking for dining options we decided to give it a try.\n\nSpeaking as someone who spent the first 34 years of his life growing up in Australia, I can categorically tell you that there is nothing even remotely \"Australian\" about the menu items at Outback. Yes, you can get \"Fosters\" beer, a beer sold almost exclusively for export and exceedingly unpopular in Australia, but if you ask an Australian what a \"Bloomin' Onion is you'll receive a blank stare - This is AMERICAN food.\n\nI ordered some baby back ribs and a bloomin onion and my wife some sort of pasta dish.\n\nThe food was absolutely disgusting - My ribs were very fatty and underdone and drenched in far too much of their sickly sweet sauce. fries were overcooked and dry.  \n\nThe famous \"Bloomin Onion\" was so greasy I felt like I'd eaten a few tablespoons of pure lard after eating only a small portion of the thing.\n\nI have no idea why people rave about this place - The Outback Steakhouse is a faux Australian restaurant that amounts to nothing but a generic US steakhouse that doesn't even get close in quality to similar places such as Chilis.