They're making a movie and causing traffic havoc. Near my house no less. Don't be on 101 near Mill Valley after 5 p.m. and expect to exit for the next 10 days. But nonetheless, I was able to get home and pick my Dad up for a Valentine's dinner. Querying Dad on what he'd like to eat, he preferred simple, like meat and potatoes. Now where could that be that wasn't already overbooked??? And would leave me able to run into Sausalito to finish up a quick bit of work at my client's? So that's how we ended up at Outback Steakhouse in Marin City for Valentine's Day. I could see that the line wasn't out the door, and in fact it was relatively quick to procure a seat.

We started with a House Salad with Ranch Dressing. First thing we noticed was it should have been called the Incredible Shrinking Salad. It's been a while since I've been to Outback, and the one thing I remembered well was the size of the salad that was part of the overall cost of the meal. It's now probably a third of the size, much poorer variety of vegetables included, and the same amount of dressing on top which really finished off the poor showing. And the dressing lacked any Ranchiness... think mayo with a hint of sour cream and no seasoning.

Dad had the Chicken on the Barbie. He gave up the idea of potatoes when he saw the possibility of healthy steamed fresh vegetables. He liked his plate, and finished it off.

I splurged on Alaskan King Crab legs. Hard to cook these wrong. They were delicious and the misstep on my veggie side order was quickly corrected. The staff were all quite pleasant.

Dad said "What's for Valentine's dessert?", a moment after he announced he was quite full. So we shared a Chocolate Chocolate Tower. Truly a frightening sight, steak knife sticking straight up in the middle! As it should have been since it was enough to feed a family of six. We took a few bites drizzled with raspberry sauce and called it good.

Verdict is yes, this is a corporate cookie cutter type place I usually neither go to or write about, but it's where we ended up for various reasons for Valentine's Day. I don't think it's a good value for the money, as it wasn't cheap, and mostly mediocre. But Dad and I had a good time anyway.