You Had Me At "Deep Fried"

I was recently sent a gift card by Outback Steakhouse and invited in to help celebrate their 20th Birthday by trying their signature dish, the Bloomin' Onion, or any of their other menu items. As you can imagine, this didn't take too much coaxing. Free steak? I'll be right down.

While my family isn't big on onion rings, I insisted we order the Bloomin' Onion as an appetizer, if only to compare it to this awesome diagram they sent me in the press kit:



I say any appetizer that has it's own blueprint deserves to be tried at least once. Besides, I'm a sucker for anything deep fried; you could roll a toilet plunger in batter, drop it in some hot oil and I'd probably eat it.

The Bloomin' Onion didn't disappoint. Seriously, the thing is huge and looks like the original onion must have been the size of a basketball. It could easily serve six to eight as an appetizer - the four of us, even though we were starving and tore into it like a pack of wild dogs on a spare rib, hardly made a dent in it. And it really was pretty good - much lighter and less soggy than an onion ring, and way easier to eat. I would have liked to have the option of a different sauce though - the one they served it with reminded me too much of warm thousand island dressing. I would suggest a nice ponzu sauce, but that would be so snooty.

For my entree I had one of their special 'birthday menu items' that is available for a limited time - their Charbroiled Tuscan Ribeye Steak. It was quite nice - tender, juicy and cooked rare just how I like it. And if I hadn't just eaten a ten-pound onion I might have even finished the whole thing.

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tags: outback steakhouse | bloomin' onion

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