Outback Steakhouse Banks on Free Kids Meals This Halloween

Outback Steakhouse will hand every adult who buys an entrée on October 31 a free kids meal, a single-day promotion built to fill tables on a night when casual dining usually empties out.

The deal runs on both sides of the counter. Dine-in guests get it automatically; online orders need promo code SPOOKYFREE at checkout. That dual-channel structure matters, because it lets the chain capture Halloween traffic whether families want a night out or a carryout bag.

What does this change for operators?

The mechanics are straightforward discounting. Outback is trading the food cost of a kids meal — typically the cheapest plate on the menu — for a full-price adult entrée and, likely, a larger party size per table. Kids-eat-free structures are a familiar lever in family-dining and casual steak, and Halloween is exactly the kind of occasion that competes with restaurants: trick-or-treating, school events and neighborhood parties all pull families away from a 6 p.m. dinner reservation.

By attaching the freebie to any adult entrée rather than a minimum spend, Outback keeps the offer simple, but it also leaves money on the table for two-top parties. The upside is traffic volume and party size; the trade-off is margin per check on the lowest-cost item in the building.

Running the promo through the online channel with a code also gives Outback clean redemption data. Every SPOOKYFREE order is trackable, which tells the company how much Halloween demand shifted to carryout versus dining rooms.

The second lever: a $15.99 three-course bundle

Outback isn't stopping at the one-night giveaway. The chain is extending its Aussie 3-Course Meal for a limited time, anchored by a 6-ounce Center-Cut Sirloin starting at $15.99.

The bundle stacks three courses on one price:

• A choice of soup or salad to open
• The 6-ounce Center-Cut Sirloin as the center of the plate
• New York-style cheesecake to close

Pricing starts at $15.99 and varies by location, so franchise-level and market-level pricing is in play. The 3-course deal is dine-in only, which reads as deliberate: it's the lever that puts bodies in booths, where add-on drinks, appetizers and tips follow. The kids meal promo covers both channels; the bundle pushes the dine-in side of the business specifically.

Why bundle pricing works here

Three-course bundling is classic menu engineering. A fixed price flattens the guest's perception of cost, moves a mid-tier cut like the 6-ounce sirloin, and steers dessert attachment — often the most skipped course — into the base check rather than leaving it to an upsell. For a steakhouse defending traffic against fast-casual price points, a sub-$16 entry that still reads as a steak dinner is a defensible position.

Participation and pricing vary by location, so operators and guests should check their local Outback before assuming the deal.

Look for the free kids meal as a one-day traffic play on October 31, with the Aussie 3-Course Meal carrying the value message into the weeks beyond Halloween while the limited-time window lasts.