Is Outback Steakhouse Australian? Here's What's Actually Behind The Campy Theme

Outback Steakhouse is named after Australia's wild and rugged interior and carries out its campy Australian theme in everything from imagery and decor, to the names of its dishes, to the voiceover accent in its commercials ("Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!"). But is this casual dining chain best known for its signature Bloomin' Onion really Australian?

Outback Steakhouse was actually founded by four American friends who'd all worked in the hospitality industry and wanted to open a casual steak restaurant. None of them had ever visited far-away Australia, but the 1986 film "Crocodile Dundee" had recently come out and been a huge hit in the U.S. while they were considering a theme for their restaurant. The popularity of the fish-out-of-water comedy about an Australian crocodile hunter who goes to New York City helped inspire them to go with an Aussie theme, believing it would match the fun and laid-back atmosphere they wanted, and offer something attention-grabbing and different from the competition.

After landing on their concept, they chose the "Outback" name for a Western feeling, viewing the Outback as being like the Wild West of Australia, and came up with their "No Rules, Just Right" slogan. They opened their first location in 1988 in Tampa, the Florida city where the iconic Cuban sandwich became a staple. Outback Steakhouse has expanded in the decades since to more than 675 U.S. locations and is in 20 countries, including Australia.

Outback Steakhouse's founders may have chosen an Australian theme, but when it came to the food, they stayed planted firmly in America. In fact, they purposely didn't go to Australia while they were developing the restaurant because they didn't want to be inspired to put real Australian food on the menu, which they didn't think Americans would like. So while Outback opened with kitschy Australian trappings featuring boomerangs, koalas, and kangaroos, the food was all-American, starting with steak. Outback now serves seven types of steak, but it didn't fare very well in our ranking of the best and worst steakhouse chains in the U.S.

While they didn't want Australian food, Outback's creators gave lots of the menu offerings names inspired by Australia and its locales. So they have dishes like Aussie Cheese Fries, Melbourne Porterhouse Steak, Alice Springs Chicken, Toowoomba Salmon, Tasmania Chili, Kookaburra Wings, and Chocolate Thunder from Down Under. However, one item does have an Aussie connection: the Tim Tam Brownie Cake is made with Arnott's Tim Tam cookies from Australia. Another, Grilled Shrimp on the Barbie, is a nod to a famous 1980s Australian tourism ad campaign that featured "Crocodile Dundee" star Paul Hogan.

The iconic Bloomin' Onion, which Outback Steakhouse has served since its beginning, also has no connection to Australia, but instead has its roots in Louisiana, home to regional fare like shrimp étouffée. One of the founders brought the deep-fried onion appetizer to Outback from an eatery that was part of a Louisiana restaurant group where he was the director of development.