You may have seen headlines floating around about the “Aussie” Outback Steakhouse Toowoomba Pasta in recent months. If you’re anything like us – and everyone outside South Korea – you were probably left scratching your head too.

The creamy prawn fettuccini has become a surprise star in South Korean cuisine, to the point where copycat versions of the dish have been added to independent restaurants and shelf-stable instant versions are common in convenience stores.

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So what is Toowoomba pasta?

And how on earth did we get here?

Toowoomba Pasta is an invention of the Florida-based, Australian-themed restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse. Toowoomba Pasta – named for Queensland’s largest inland city – blends ingredients like fettuccini, ketchup, cream, prawns, garlic, onion, mushrooms, cayenne pepper (sometimes gochujang) and butter into a dish that would send the Italians into a coma. We’ll admit that it sounds pretty tasty, in a late-night post-pub kind of way. Kind of.

It’s not the only Outback Steakhouse dish that South Korea has fallen in love with, but it’s certainly a main squeeze.

Why is Toowoomba Pasta so popular?

If you think about it on a flavour level, each ingredient is an umami bomb. Ketchup. Spicy and sweet gochujang. Mushrooms. Garlic and onion powder. The intense tastiness of these, combined with the rich fattiness of heavy cream and butter, sends a message straight to your brain that this. Is. Good. And if the social media cooks who are racing to replicate it are anything to go by, it’s here to stay. Like this riff by everyone’s favourite, Andy Cooks.

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Is Outback Steakhouse even Australian?

The chain, which only opened in Australia in 2001 despite taking off in the US after its 1987 establishment, is wildly popular in South Korea. There are around 110 restaurants across the country. The themed menus highlight such Aussie icons as Darling Point (an inner-Sydney suburb that the world may or may not think is famous for its cattle stations) and the aforementioned Toowoomba, 90 minutes inland from Brisbane.

Are there any Outback Steakhouses in Australia?

If you really want to know… yes. There are seven.
NSW – Campbelltown, North Strathfield, Parklea, Penrith, Wentworthville, Wollongong
QLD – Pacific Fair, Aspley

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