I prefer rice with something over it.
For example country fried steak with brown gravy over rice is delicious.
I’ll often heat beef veg soup and serve over rice.
Chicken soup over rice is great.
I wouldn’t eat rice with a grilled steak. There’s isn’t any sauce to mix with the rice.
The only “weird” thing is the server questioning your order. I find that strange.
You’ve clearly never been to Central/Eastern Europe. Hell, probably Italy too if you ask for something culinarily sacrilegious. To be honest, I’ve had it happen to me in the US, too. At Prince’s in Nashville, I asked for their hot chicken at their hottest level of heat. They asked me if I had had it before. Being a truthful sort, I said “no.” They said, “no, you can’t have it. Only the second hottest.” I protested, but she refused.
The second hottest one was plenty hot–perhaps the hottest American dish I’ve ever had – but I’d try the hottest next time, just to say I tried it. They weren’t messing around, though. It was your typical American value of “extra spicy.” It was two levels hotter than that.
Probably for historical and climate reasons… I don’t think rice grows well in that area?
But by gosh, they know how to roast meat and fowl… I’ve had some excellent dinners in Prague!
Nearly every restaurant I have been to including steakhouses has some kind of rice dish available. It’s fine to order anytime. I always liked rice but after several years married to a half Persian, I have learned to love it and eat it with almost everything.
It’s worth restating that the OP’s anecdote is about 15 years old.
Lotta provincialism has died off in a lot of places since then. Prague included.
My father’s family is from Northern Louisiana. That state is the one of the nation’s top three rice producing states.
It’s a big part of the food culture in Louisiana. Jambalaya is a classic Cajun rice dish made with meat or seafood, and vegetables. You’ll find rice in a lot of Cajun recipes. Boudin sausage is made with
I like rice and grew up eating it regularly but rarely as a side dish unless it’s mixed with vegetables. My dad liked dirty rice. Another classic Cajun dish.
I’d say OP is weirder for calling it “beefsteak” than for what they eat on the side with it. Now if you’ll excuse me, my porkbacon & chickeneggs are calling me. 
Having first come here in 2003, I can attest that a lot of the provincialism I experienced here back then (doubtless the result of a good 40 years under Communism) has died off and people have become more open to new and more varied ways of doing things.
I wanted to be very specific. You can grill steaks of other meats, and I got the impression like the association of potatos with beef is pretty common, so as not to elicit answers of the type of “I would have rice with a chicken steak.”
Not necessarily. If you’ve ever seen The Cheyenne Social Club, with Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, the two protagonists spend a good chunk of time in the local saloon, eating “beefsteaks,” which is what they call them, and which the wait staff call them too. It’s a little jarring if you’re not used to it, but it’s perfectly clear as to what it means. After all, there are ham steaks and salmon steaks too.
As for the OP, my preferred accompaniment to a good—ahem, beefsteak—is a fully-loaded baked potato. But if all my host had was rice, I wouldn’t turn it down. It’s nice with the steak juices, and the sauteed mushrooms that I typically enjoy with a beefsteak.
Yeah, but Americans, at least, when they say “steak” they mean beef. I’ve gotten into arguments with people that “steak” does not have to mean beef, nor does it have to be a particular cut of the cow (you can make steaks out of chuck and round, for instance – it doens’t have to be ribeye, porterhouse, filet, etc.) When i hear “beefsteak” in the modern lexicon, I think distinctly non-colloquial-American usage.
And, yes, things have definitely changed in Central/Eastern Europe from 2009. I lived in Budapest in 98-03, and just visiting even four or five years later, the changes were immense. Now (or at least four years ago), it’s become kind of hipster central down there. Used to be could barely find a vegetarian, much less vegan, place and now you can find restaurants catering to every diet you want. I still feel service can be a bit indifferent, but it’s a lot better than in '98, when I once had to wait 20 minutes for a waiter to show up and take my order in a nearly empty restaurant. (I didn’t flag them down because I wanted to see how long it would be before they acknowledged my presence.)
When I hear “beefsteak” I think tomato.
'Zactly. “Beefsteak” is perfectly cromulent English, but is very quaint American now rarely heard in the wild.
My (Thai) wife and I get rice with steak all the time. If you have a juicy steak it absorbs with the rice for a great taste. And leftovers always get eaten sliced on top of rice.
I don’t think it’s weird. Unusual in the context of a steakhouse, at least the steakhouses I am familiar with, where I live (in fact I’m not sure there are often any rice dishes or sides on the menu to be able to choose one). Who cares if it is weird? If it’s what you fancy, and it’s available, you should be able to have it.
I usually mop up the steak juice with a bit of bread, but why not rice?
There had to be sheep for the suba coats!