Grrrr. Restaurants that don't know the meaning of MED RARE

The BBQ Pit
1

I like my beef rare. I like it to say ‘Ouch, stop that!’ when I cut into it. I like so that a good vet and a Band-Aid can bring it back to life. I still want to be able to take its pulse when I eat it.

When I go out to eat and I order a steak, roast beef or a burger, however, I usually order it medium rare. Sometimes my beef comes out rare, other times it comes out medium and, when the planets are aligned just so it comes out medium rare.

The last FIVE times I’ve ordered beef in some various form I’ve gotten it cooked anywhere from medium well to shoe-leather well. If I’m at lunch with a person who may not have time for me to send it back, I’m stuck. Sure I can mention it and sure I can get my meal comp’d but that’s not the point. I’m not eating at fucking McDonald’s. These are places that should know how to cook a piece of beef! I’m talking ten-dollar burgers—on the lunch menu! For fuck’s sake if the burger is falling apart, grillfuck, you passed medium a few exits back!

What pushed me over the edge and prompted me to bitch in the Pit was today’s lunch. I ordered a sandwich from a made-to-order place. I specifically asked if the roast beef was rare. She said yes. I should have known something was up when the sandwich didn’t moo when she handed it to me. I get back to my office and unwrap it to find roast beef that’s been cooked to medium. Medium! Medium is not rare. It’s fucking brown! Rare is not brown! At least it wasn’t dry.

Clearly this is some sort of cosmic mix-up. Somewhere, someone out there is getting my bloody burgers and steaks while I’m getting their hockey pucks. If you are he or she, let me know so we can straighten this shit out.

2

I’ve been hearing that a lot of restaurants have stopped cooking meat to anything under medium because of health concerns. The rare categories leave too much chance of not killing parasites and such, leaving the restaurant open to a lawsuit. Welcome to the 21st Century! :slight_smile:

Then again, I could be totally wrong. On the rare (hehe) occasions I do eat steak, it’s gotta be gray all the way through.

3

To be fair, I should mention a couple of things. A lot of restaurants have a specific policy against serving rare beef. This is generally due to bacteria issues (I may be wrong, but I think that it is actually against health codes in some places). Also, the vast majority of customers (in my experience as a chef) are terribly uneducated when it comes to this issue. Generally, when they say “rare”, they actually mean “medium rare” and so on. All of that said, I wish I could tell you the code word to use to let them know that you know what you are on about. Try using the word “bloody” and see if that helps.

4

The Keg is very good at providing the information you need to order your beef. They have a list and decription so you know that “Medium Rare” is pink/red throughout and “Rare” is “blue”… and so on.

Whether or not that corresponds with what you belive is “medium rare” is irrelevent. You just read the description and pick the one that meets (ha, “meats!”) your taste. If they have a category called “Medium Squishy” but the description matches what you feel is “Medium Rare” then that’s the one you pick.

I don’t know why more restaurants don’t have a similar kind of “chart” so that patrons and kitchen staff know that they are talking about the same thing.

5

I know which places won’t serve beef cooked below medium and I don’t order beef from them. Besides, if the establishment’s policy is medium or higher, the server should tell me when I ask for it cooked medium rare.

Rare is the restaurant that actually knows what rare means hence the reason I order medium rare.

I went to Kobe, a Japanese steakhouse joint, the other night. When the dude asked me how I want my steak cooked, I said rare. He even commented that I was a person who knows how to eat a steak. How was it cooked? Fucking medium. Feh!

6

JuanitaTech, I completely agree with you! I share your beef (heh heh) with food establishments that ruin perfectly good cuts of meat by overcooking them.
The only thing with resteraunts cliaming that they have to cook all beef to medium well or well done for health reasons pisses me off.
If I am going to pay good money for a steak an I say I want it Medium Rare I better damn well get that steak medium Rare!!. Ground beef pattys in lower end resteraunts (like McD’s, Jack in the Box or a greasy spoon diner)- yeah, it might be wise to have the ground meat cooked thouroghly. But a steak has a low risk of having bacteria on it by the time it is cooked, even at medium Rare. The contamination comes from bacteria getting mixed in to the ground beef . You are not going to get ecoli in the middle of a steak or a roast- It is all on the surface and it dies when cooked. You can darn well bet If I order a steak medium rare and it comes back anything more- It will be sent back! I have eaten med rare or rare cooked steaks my whole life. Ok I am only 27, but I have eaten a lot of steaks in my life (mmmm steak) and I have never gotten ill from it.

7

It’s okay if they tell you. If you order medium rare, and they tell you that they can only do medium, then the patron can either accept that or choose something else.

As far as customers not knowing what “rare” really means–why should Juanita suffer for their ignorance. A good waiter should be able to make sure the customer knows what he or she is ordering.

And “rare”–that’s nuttin’. My aunt orders her steak “black and blue.” Yuck.

Me, I like medium rare for a steak. My burgers I take at medium. I had a horrid case of food poisoning once, presumably from a burger, and so rarer than medium is unappetizing to me.

8

I’ve had several servers tell me this when I’ve tried to order rare meat. I’ve thanked them politely and gotten a salad. I’d rather eat vegetables than overcooked meat. Maybe you can start asking your sever if they are allowed to serve meet bloody.

9

Having worked in restaurants for the past three years, I can tell you that here in Virginia, it’s against the health code to serve ground beef cooked anything less than medium. Some places will do it for you anyway. Most places won’t. The place I work now refuses to cook a hamburger any less than medium well, just to cover their asses in case the Health Inspector has a different definition of “medium” than we do. Two points in your favor, however, are:

  1. If the restaurant, either by law or by policy, cannot cook a hamburger medium-rare, your server should inform you of that when you order it. Some servers will say “ok” to a customer’s impossible request and proceed to ring in the item the regular way, only to have the customer complain when the thing doesn’t come out the way they ordered it. This is a learned defense reaction, brought about by multiple instances of getting bitched out about a policy they can’t do anything to change, and it’s something I worked hard as a manager to train my servers NOT to do. My policy is, explain to the customer that we can’t do as they ask, and if they have a problem with that, come get me. That’s what I’m there for. If your server allows you to order something the restaurant can’t serve, you should speak to the management, who should provide you with an apology and a full refund.

  2. If you’re ordering a steak, rather than a hamburger, you shouldn’t have a problem getting it medium rare. If you do, that means the kitchen staff doesn’t know how to cook. Complaining isn’t likely to change that, and you should find a new restaurant.

Depending on the situation, then, this is a valid pitting. The only way it wouldn’t be is if your server had told you that they can’t cook a mid-rare hamburger, you demanded it anyway, and the server “relented”, which is the worst possible scenario and which would make you an asshole. But I’d imagine that if that was the case, you wouldn’t have bothered with a Pit thread. Sorry about your crappy luck with restaurants. If you’re ever in Roanoke, stop by Texas Steakhouse, and I’ll make sure your steak comes out perfect! :slight_smile:

10

Where the policy (or health code) applies, it is only for hamburger. I don’t like pink hamburger myself, so I don’t care much about that.

But — One place I used to go to for steak, when I ordered medium rare, I got medium well. When I ordered rare, I got medium. I can’t think of anything to order below rare that would get me medium rare. Raw? After a number of fruitless conversations with managerial types, I just stopped going there. I didn’t want to stop, because they had very good meat. Why don’t they just take my word that I know what I want? The idiots can send it back to be cooked more, I can’t send mine back to be de-cooked.

And on a related but different note, the disappearance of steak tartare from restaurant menus is a fucking crime.

11

Oh, and just for the record, by far the most frequently used definitions of steak temps are:

Extra Rare - raw meat.

Rare - cool, red center (outside will be slightly seared; if you want raw meat, see above)

Medium Rare - warm red center, surrounded by pink

Medium - hot and pink throughout

Medium Well - hot pink center, surrounded by brown

Well Done - brown throughout. Shoe leather.

Extra Well Done - completely and utterly burnt. Crunchy shoe leather.

Then, of course, there are the ever-popular Magic Temperatures of Steak. People love to order these, oblivious to the fact that they do not exist. They are:

Rare, but hot all the way through

Medium Rare, but make sure it’s nice and bloody

Medium Rare, but I don’t want any red in it

Medium Well, but I don’t want any pink

…and my personal favorite…

Well Done, but not tough.

These guidelines aside, though, I agree that the restaurant should provide its own guide (preferably with pictures) to its particular temp definitions. This would save everyone a lot of time and trouble. (Which is why the corporations will never do it.)

12

Philistine! :smiley:

Robin

13

I sympathize.

A similar thing happened to me at the Ponderosa. I ordered a steak medium rare and it came out completely bloody. This despite the fact that there is indeed a chart by the cashier showing the difference between the preparations.

My story was even worse because the waitress took the steak back, finally came back with in ten minutes later and plopped it on my plate well done. When I complained she a) told me not to be rude to her (!!!) and b) insisted the steak had been medium rare in the first place. At that point I asked to see the manager. The manager made her give a half hearted apology and then took the steak off my bill with a promise that a free one would be forthcoming. After ten minutes the steak did not arrive but the waitress did, to clear the appetizer plates from table and tell me she had solved the problem and muttered under her breath that she wanted me to leave.

I contacted restaurant headquarters about this matter over a month ago but have yet to hear a response.

Needless to say Ponderosa will not be getting any business from me any time soon.

14

I agree with you, Juanita! I will ONLY eat beef medium rare to rare - to me, there is no point in beef once it starts to lose it’s red color. I want there to be a pool of blood around my side dishes, thank you very much!

I’ve also gotten my share of over-done steaks, and it just ruins it for me, especially because I don’t eat beef all that often. So, when I order it, I want it done the way I like it, especially considering how expensive they can be.

I usually only make hamburgers at home, because of the increasing number of restuarants that will only serve ground beef medium well or well.

15

I agree with the OP. When I order a steak I simply want them to knock the cow on the head, wipe it’s ass, and throw it on a plate. I have learned that the only place I can get a steak the way I like it is at home.

16

JT, how many times has this happened to you? If it’s more than two, I suggest that you are just not good at ordering food.

Why? Because if there’s any sort of consistency in getting the wrong temp. of meat, you shouldn’t be ordering in terms of rare/med. rare/med. You should be ordering in terms of color. Nearly every restaurant has some perverted scale of rare/med. rare/med/med. well/etc. that doesn’t match up with reality. But at every restaurant, red is red, pink is pink, grey is grey.

Ask your server what “rare” is at this restaurant. Describe what you want, and have your server assign it a label.

17

Well, Munch, I’d say it’s has happened to me more than twice because I say so right there in my fucking OP.

Fuck that ordering in terms of color shit. I’m not a child. When I’m plopping down just about fifteen dollars for my damn lunch the waitstaff and cook ought to know what the fuck medium rare means and if’n they don’t they should ask me to clarify.

I got you’re just-not-good-at-ordering-food right here, motherfucker.
[sub]The above was written somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I’m actually more amused at the notion that I’m somehow not doing it right than angered.[/sub]

18

I always tell the waitress to “wave it in the general direction of a warm grill and bring it to me…if it’s not still twitching when it gets here, it’s goin back”.

I cannot stand the texture of overcooked meat…and to me, anything more than medium rare is overcooked. I don’t even particularly like it medium rare, I like it raw in the middle.

Mmmm, bloody meat…I’m such a carnivore :wink:

19

What are y’all, Mike Tyson? The texture and taste of undercooked (to me) meat just squicks me the hell out. I can’t even eat chicken if it’s not well, well cooked. Nasty soft bleah…

20

Try ordering it “cool in the center.” Then, if they actually follow your instructions and it really is totally uncooked and purple on the inside, you can always send it back for more grilling time, say, 45 seconds more. Better to err on the undercooked side, because that error can be fixed.