Woman Sues Outback Steakhouse for $1.5 Million After Slipping on Mashed Potatoes
Tracy Renshaw was walking to the restroom at an Outback Steakhouse in Sterling, Virginia, in May 2023 when she stepped on what appeared to be mashed potatoes on the floor. She fell face-first onto the hard flooring. She's now suing for $1.5 million.
The lawsuit — originally filed in Loudoun County Circuit Court in May 2025 and moved to federal court last week — accuses the restaurant of negligence for failing to maintain safe conditions. Renshaw, 56, argues the chain had a duty to keep the floor clear of hazards, that no warning signs were posted about the spill, and that the mashed potatoes had been sitting there long enough that the restaurant should have noticed and cleaned them up.
She claims the fall caused serious and permanent injuries, reduced her ability to work, and left her with ongoing medical costs. The lawsuit doesn't describe her specific injuries in detail.
Outback is pushing back. The company says it had no notice of any hazardous condition and no obligation to post a warning about the alleged spill. It's also disputing the extent of Renshaw's claimed injuries.
This Isn't the First Time Outback Has Been Here
The mashed potato lawsuit joins a list of injury claims against the chain that ranges from unfortunate to genuinely alarming.
A Florida man sued after a toilet at an Outback location allegedly shattered while he was using it. A South Carolina woman was awarded $315,000 after she swallowed a metal bristle from a grill-cleaning wire brush that ended up embedded in a chicken dish — she required emergency surgery to remove it from her esophagus. Another South Carolina customer allegedly swallowed a shard of glass in a sweet potato dish. An Oregon diner claimed he cracked two molars after biting into broken pieces of a plate that had been mixed into his food.
Mashed potatoes on the floor is the least dramatic entry on that list by a significant margin.
Whether Renshaw's case reaches $1.5 million will depend on the medical evidence and what the restaurant's own records show about how long the spill existed before she fell. Premises liability cases like this typically hinge on whether the business knew or should have known about the hazard and how long it had been there. The longer a spill sits unaddressed, the harder it is for the restaurant to argue it had no notice.
The case is now in federal court. Outback hasn't offered a settlement publicly. The mashed potatoes were apparently very slippery.
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