Caution: This Steak Is How You Ordered It

Either the world is getting more ridiculous, or diners are getting more stupid.

While researching steakhouses, we’ve started to encounter a new restaurant trend. Servers are being forced to question -- in the nicest way possible -- whether diners know what they’re ordering. Here’s a sample of the typical conversation, which we’ve endured at least three times.

Eater: I’ll take that rib-eye.
Server: Great! And how would you like that cooked?
Eater: Medium rare, please.
Server: Great! And just so you know, our medium rare rib-eye is cooked brown on the outside and pink and warm inside. Is that all right?

Call us oversensitive, but that last bit is kind of insulting. After all, aren’t steakhouses where people know their meat? Before haute barnyard restaurants listed the provenance of every pulse or protein, steakhouses were where we could flaunt our foodie trivia. It was an endless geekfests of highly specific information: wet versus dry aging, Angus versus Hereford, corn versus grass fed, Kobe versus Wagyu, Porterhouse versus rib-eye. In carnivore-heaven steakhouses, it seems that anyone taking up real estate should know the basic difference between rare and well done.

But in these days of coffee cup warnings and restaurant menu advisories (like the seductive one at upscale Palomino that whispers “thoroughly cooking meat, poultry, seafood, shellfish or eggs reduces the risk of foodborne illness”), there is no such thing as common knowledge. In a litigious society full of customers who send dishes back, restaurants have to assume you’re an idiot.

We really can’t blame the steakhouses, where basic food costs are high. Misunderstandings -- resolved by a diner sending back an unservable meal -- will definitely eat the restaurant’s profits. Worse, if a temporarily insane diner orders a well done, $92 Wagyu rib-eye at BLT Steak, only to come to his senses when gray slab arrives, then that restaurant might record a loss. Given rising overhead, and the growing pressure to offer elite, branded meats like Kobe and Wagyu (which are pricy even wholesale), restaurants are wise to be explicit about diner expectations. Double-checking at the table also re-affirms the pact between kitchen and diner, which ventures that when you order a dish, you’ll pay for it.

But while tiny subscripts on coffee cups or menus are chagrin-ing, they’re not at all personal. A waiter looking in your eye and suggesting (in a butch, trivia-centric steakhouse, no less) that that you might not know what you’re talking about is another thing entirely -- it’s emasculating. It bugs me, and (last I checked) I’m a girl.

Plus, challenging the customer’s order inspires one of those niggling, “What if” temptations. What if (in the interest of testing a service challenge) I nodded my way through the Q and A and then ordered my steak well-done, anyway? Then when it arrives, I refuse it. I’m imagining suits, lawyers, affidavits, security cam footage. It’s so tempting … if only I could choke down that well-done steak at the end of the night.

Reader Comments:

Old to new | New to old

Jan 12, 2009 02:08 pm

Posted by ericdisimone

I was a waiter at a restaurant that used to do this. We had such a hard time getting temperatures right. Not only this, but some of our staff couldn't even identify the type of steak ordered by our customers.

One of our customers even bashed us on a food blog:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/426496

Our manager saw a "print out" of the blog and shrugged it off saying "most people don't even know what they're eating".

I think most people don't even care if their steaks are a bit overcooked in Westchester anymore. The level of expectation is so low around here that they just make a face and say "what ya' gonna do...".

I'm back downtown and love that our customers really know beef. I've had customers say to me "tell the chef to pull the steak at 125 degrees and plate it!".

Jan 13, 2009 11:04 am

Posted by brians

When I am asked the question, "And just so you know, our medium rare rib-eye is cooked brown on the outside and pink and warm inside. Is that all right?" my answer has become, "We can only hope." I have found that even though the waiters have been drilled on this speech, the cooks haven't all mastered how to deliver on it. Many times I've ordered medium rare only to receive medium well or worse, well done.

Jan 15, 2009 07:25 pm

Posted by jcj

I worked as a server and later a manager for one of the leading steakhouses which required all servers to repeat back steak temperatures to the guests but apparently someone forget to tell the kitchen in some circumstances.. While restaurants are expected to have experienced staff we find as diners it does not always hit the mark. On the flip side even as a well versed diner i do not get offended if the server explains their version of the temp.. the bottom line is everyone does have a different idea of what pink is and the amount of gray around the edges of a medium.. for the most part people expect kitchen staffs to know what they think medium is ..pink throughout or slightly pink but has gray around it..i personally think the guest should give the explanation of what they expect. the more involved you are as a diner the better your experience will turn out.

Feb 17, 2009 05:37 pm

Posted by Craig L

Eric:

I just checked out the blog and read the articles written by Billy Parsons. Very interesting stuff. Great info on Steak I never knew.

I have a feeling you worked in the recently changed restaurant by Lord & Taylor? That's a rough spot so I wouldn't blame them going under just because the manager didn't know the difference between cuts of beef (LOL).

Great post though. Enjoying reading the blog link info.

Feb 22, 2009 04:11 pm

Posted by Fotografia

Alot of times customers will ask for there steak med to medrare. Wow!!