Flemings is the "Fine Dining" restaurant in the Outback chain group. They offer the usual steak house faire.
Once thing that always struck me about them is they do try.. They always have a rose for the lady, if you go for a special event they will print out a little card for you. They also take your picture with a circa 2005 Nikon Coolpix and print it out in a little paper border that says Flemings. It's all included gratis and while nice I can only imagine that Maitre'D at one of the other Fine Dining restaurants absolutely cringing at this theme park style gimmickry but hey the Wife does like it.
The service is usually OK. Although when we went last week while the server was nice and attentive enough at first he promptly sodded right on off after the starters when we asked to see the drink list so we could order another cocktail. He did not return until after we had received and finished our mains so we didn't bother ordering any more drinks. I think they had him overwhelmed with too many tables but still, this sort of thing would have been unacceptable at Applebees.
The food is also mostly OK. It's definitely a step above the slop they are now serving at Outback but I can't say that their steaks would beat out any other restaurant in this price point. It can also be hit or miss, like this last week everything was fine except the dessert, a cruise ship style chocolate lava cake. The actual cake was bitter AF, like let me get a mint to get this taste out afterwards bitter. A bad way to end the night.
So overall not sure how this place stays in business. An evening out here with drinks and appetizers is going to run you about $125 a person with tip. At that price point you have a multitude of other options including chains like
The Capital Grille which are usually in the same area geographically but are overall much, much better (sans the coolpix photo). I give them some credit for trying but I'm not sure that's good enough at this price level.
And you are probably wondering why the hell do we go there.. well every year (through no fault of our own) we end up with a handful of Outback giftcards -- Holiday cards, Gift Baskets.. parents don't know how to use gift cards, etc. Since the Outbacks in our area have become increasingly awful we just save the cards up until we have about $200 worth then hit up Flemings. For $50 it's a fine meal and it's better than 3 trips to Outback.
