Today I went to a Golden Nugget for dinner. Golden Nugget is a restaurant chain for the budget minded.
I ordered my steak medium-rare. And the waitress had me sign the check that I had ordered it that way.
She was nice about it, but when I expressed puzzlement, and asked if this was something that the restaurant was doing to prevent people claiming they got salmonella or something, she concurred. She said she had just attended a sanitation certification seminar, and was quick to assure me that bacteria in meat is really only a concern with ground meat, which I knew about anyway.
But then she said something else. She said that some restaurants no longer will cook your steaks anything below medium.
I said nothing to this, but my inward reaction was something like :eek::mad::rolleyes:
Is this the latest trend among the out-of-control health nazis? Or our suffocating lawsuit jammed legal system? Now, I have to sign for my steaks, and maybe in the future, medium rare will be a thing of the past?
With hamburgers, yes, but I can’t remember ever seeing it with steak. ETA: The closest is seeing the opposite: a place that won’t cook steaks beyond medium. Darned if I could remember where it was I saw that.
I’ve never heard of that, and it does sound like litigious over-reaction. Steaks are not the same as ground beef. If medium-rare becomes a thing of a past in restaurants, I’ll just be cooking them at home.
I’ve never had that happen in a restaurant. And I usually order my steaks rare or medium rare, the way they’re SUPPOSED to be eaten.
I have seen warnings on menus about undercooked hamburger and/or eggs. I’ve also heard of a restaurant that wouldn’t cook eggs as lightly as my brother-in-law likes them (he likes the whites a bit runny, as well as having the yolk completely liquid). And I’ve seen disclaimers on menus that if a diner wishes a well-done steak, that the restaurant will not guarantee flavor or tenderness. But I’ve never had to sign a waiver.
Me neither. All the nasty bacterial action on steaks is on the meat surface, hence the issues with ground meat - there’s a lot of surface. If you can’t sear it well enough to kill the blighters, even on rare, you’re doing something seriously wrong, either in the cooking or the storage.
I’d say the same thing, but this place has pretty good food, and I’ve never gotten sick there. They have a bunch of signs on their walls about how long you can park or how many can sit at a table, which strikes me as unfriendly, but I’ve never actually seen these “rules” enforced.
I’ve heard of a lot of places who will only serve meant well done for safety reasons. It’s not because of their quality, but rather to cover their ass. I’d rather sign a waiver then have the restaurant dictate to me how I should eat my meat. A lot of restaurants will not let you have doggy bags these days either, for the same reason. They say " For you safety" but they really mean " We don’t want any reason to be sued."
If my steak doesn’t moo when I poke it with my fork, it’s overdone. Not that it’s a huge issue for me - when I eat out, I prefer seafood to steak. Wait - does that mean waivers for sushi, too?
I’ve never had it happen, and I’d be suspicious of a place that did such a thing - I doubt that I’d patronize such an establishment.
It’s a sign of the difference between a high-end restaurant and the bargain joints.
A bargain joint will only cook medium or well-done. A high-end restaurant will not cook any further than medium, a la this menu from a premium steak restaurant near me.
Yes they will. They don’t recommend it and they say that there are some cuts that simply can’t be cooked beyond a certain point, but they absolutely do offer a well done steak. I’ve eaten there and they had no problem with cooking it well done.
I’ve actually eaten at a number of very high end restaurants across the country and ordered steak in all of them and never once have I been told that they couldn’t cook it to my specifications. I’ve had a couple of places butterfly a steak to get it cooked properly and that wasn’t a problem, but I’ve never run into anyone who couldn’t cook a steak the way I like it.
As far as the waiver thing is concerned I’m sure the restaurant in question was either sued by someone who believed the undercooked meat made them sick or someone made such a fuss about disease at one point that they decided it would be better to have you sign that you ordered your steak a specific way to cover their ass in court. Not that it would matter anyway. If you can’t get your tubes tied even with a signed waiver before you have children because of fear of lawsuits I can’t imagine that a waiver signed at a steakhouse would make any difference in court.
:eek::mad::rolleyes:
They say " For you safety" but they really mean " We don’t want any reason to be sued."
Not that it’s a huge issue for me - when I eat out, I prefer seafood to steak. Wait - does that mean waivers for sushi, too?