Outback Vs. LongHorn Steakhouse: Which Restaurant Is Better?

Outback Steakhouse and LongHorn Steakhouse are both popular steakhouse chain restaurants.
I went to an Outback Steakhouse in Manhattan and a LongHorn Steakhouse in Queens to see how the dining experiences compared.
I ordered the same meal at each restaurant: a house salad, the chain's most popular appetizer, a house margarita, and a bone-in rib-eye steak with a loaded baked potato and a side of vegetables.
The quality of the food at LongHorn was better, and I was especially impressed by the house margarita and the signature appetizer. However, the fantastic service at Outback set a sky-high bar that LongHorn fell far short of.
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LongHorn Steakhouse tied for sixth place among America's favorite chain restaurants in a recent Market Force survey.

Outback Steakhouse trailed in a tie at No. 14, even though it has nearly 1,000 locations, almost twice as many as LongHorn.

Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I'd never been to a LongHorn Steakhouse. I'd eaten at an Outback at some point during my adolescence, but LongHorn had never been on my radar in quite the same way.

So what was the difference? A chain-restaurant steak by any other name would taste as savory — or so I thought.

I went to the Outback Steakhouse in Manhattan and the LongHorn Steakhouse in Queens. I ordered the same meal at each: a house margarita, a house salad, the most popular appetizer, and a bone-in rib-eye steak, medium-rare, with a side of loaded baked potato and steamed vegetables.

Here's how they compared:

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