Outback Steakhouse just served a customer something so bizarre they thought it was a ‘strip of leather’, but the truth is even worse

If you’re heading out for a nice steak and shrimp dinner, you expect a satisfying, juicy meal, but one customer at Outback Steakhouse recently shared a picture of a dish so badly prepared, they thought they were served a dried-out strip of leather instead of food.

TikTok user Tony (@tony_501313) posted the disappointing image that quickly racked up over 95,000 views, as reported by BroBible. The picture shows a plate with what looks like dry, shriveled shrimp and a long, dark strip of food hanging off both sides of the plate. Tony’s reaction was spot-on. He captioned the image, “Ain’t no way they gave me a strip of leather,” and used on-screen text to declare, “Count your days Outback.”

Initial assumptions were that the leathery item was the customer’s steak, perhaps an extremely thin cut that was cooked well-done. The presumed steak definitely had a stiff, dark brown crust and looked completely devoid of moisture.

You’d hope the kitchen staff would notice something this obviously wrong before sending it out to a paying customer

If you check the Outback Steakhouse website, you’ll see what the sirloin and shrimp meal is actually supposed to look like. It features a thick, juicy cut of steak seared to a beautiful medium doneness, along with four shrimp, all resting on a slice of bread. While customers absolutely have the right to order their steak cooked to their preference, a thin cut is guaranteed to dry out if it’s cooked to well-done.

However, many professional cooks who saw the picture weighed in on the issue, arguing that even a well-done steak shouldn’t look this destroyed. One restaurant worker explained that while well-done isn’t the most desirable result, it doesn’t automatically lose all moisture and flavor. They felt that to achieve this level of dryness, the steak would have to be “spitefully overcook[ed].”

But here’s the wild twist: the bizarre strip wasn’t steak at all, just like Arby’s steak nugget wasn’t. The truth is actually worse, because it means someone actively prepared the bread this way. It turns out the “strip of leather” was actually the piece of brown bread roll that the restaurant serves alongside the meal, except this one had been completely smashed, burned, and grease-soaked. Several people chimed in on the original post to confirm this horrifying realization.

“That’s a grilled piece of bread they put the shrimp on,” one commenter noted, adding that it had surprised them just two days prior. Another person was clearly frustrated, asking, “That’s the bread ain’t it?!? I’d be pisssssssssssy why they grill that bread like that.”

Although not the first time in Outback Steakhouse’s history, it’s truly baffling that someone would flatten and burn the bread roll to such an extreme degree that it became indistinguishable from a piece of old luggage. While the shrimp also looked dry, the mystery item stole the show, and I can’t imagine being served something that looks like it belongs in a shoe repair shop instead of on a dinner plate.