I have often ordered a roast beef sandwich with mustard, and based on experience also specified no mayo. If it comes without the mustard they may have mustard available for me to apply myself, if not I would expect to get the same sandwich back with mustard on it. If came with mayo I’ll request another sandwich, and expect they’ll reuse most of it anyway. The notable difference here is an undercooked steak is just a mistake while putting mayo on a roast beef sandwich is a crime against nature.
Good call.
I used to work in a restaurant kitchen–customers would routinely bitch about how food was prepared and get pissed off whenever they didn’t get comped instead of having their complaints heard and the dish fixed in a perfectly satisfactory way (to a sane person). I’ve had people eat an entire meal and say they want their money back, or another meal served, because (they said) the plate was dirty or the food was overcooked or some unprovable nonsense like that.
Ehh, perhaps at Ruth’s Chris Steak House. But this is Texas Roadhouse.
For me, I love a good, rare steak, and that’s what I always order. But I wouldn’t send back a medium, or medium well; it’s still edible, and I would feel bad about them throwing away a steak. However, if it were the other way around (such as the OP), cooking the same steak a bit longer should be perfectly acceptable.
The only time I have ever sent back food was at a seafood restaurant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I ordered grilled fish (catfish?), and it was truly inedible; the interior was raw. The server apologized, and he got me a tasty replacement in quick order.
I’m the same way as you as far as overcooked meat. I’ll eat it. No sense in sending back perfectly edible food. But the one time I sent back food that I could remember was when I ordered chicken tenders or something similar for my kids (then about 5 and 3). As I cut through it, the interior was unmistakably raw. I discreetly called a server over, and just pointed to the cross-section of the chicken. I didn’t even say a word. Her eyes bugged out, and she was like “oh, my god, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry” and quickly took our order back, got another batch cooked right, was comped for both orders of chicken tenders, and then another 50% off our entire bill. I would have been happy with just getting a properly cooked order in and, I dunno, maybe throw in a dessert, but I’m chill like that.
No, I haven’t heard that, either. Pittsburgh or maybe just blue.
If the steak was undercooked I would fully expect to get the same steak back, just cooked a bit more to my liking. How is that a problem? What’s the advantage of getting a completely different steak? It’s when it’s been overdone that I wouldn’t expect to see it again.
In fact, increasing doneness is one of the main uses of a salamander (basically a very powerful gas broiler) in a restaurant kitchen.
The OP’s situation seems more or less common to me - my wife, before she realized she just really didn’t like meat at all and gave it up, was famous in her family for having her meat cooked to EXTREMELY well done.
Which hurt us carnivores feelings, because she’d order beef tenderloin (because you could cook it super well done and it wouldn’t be too tough to cut!) “butterflied and well done”.
Ouch. And at least every 2nd to third time, it would come back as medium to medium-well. And she’d have to send it back to be re-cooked after saying she really meant it.
So yeah, there’s often a disconnect between what the customer is explicitly asking for, and the cook thinks they want or should want. And undercooking is at least a bit more easily fixed, and my wife didn’t want to make a fuss, or demand a new steak/discount - she just wanted it her way.
For me, I prefer medium rare, or just on the rarer side of medium rare. But if the server brings me rare I’ll have it without a problem, or even if it’s just medium. Past that, yes, I’ll ask them to do something about it.
And dear god, the repeat on the salmon brings back (bad) memories. I ordered a salmon pasta dish once, and had the same experience, looked fine outside, but cold and raw in the middle. I asked for it to be finished, and the server gave me “the look” and took it back. 15 minutes late I got it back - the dish was thermonuclear, the pasta sauce was breaking, and the fish was weeping, and “cooked” around the cut edges, but still semi-raw elsewhere - obviously they took it back and eventually just threw it in the microwave for 3 minutes or so.
I didn’t call the manager (because the wife didn’t want to make a fuss), but I didn’t eat it, and I left a subpar tip (15% when I would normally do about 20%) and never went back. Which is, IMHO, the best option. If they can’t cook to the customer’s request (or properly cook at all) don’t make a fuss at the time, it’ll be hard on other customers. Pay, leave, and feel free to leave a bad review (for whatever it’s worth) and don’t give them any of your money again.
Presentation I guess. Overall it was just a negative experience and bringing me back a steak I had cut in half didn’t help matters. And yeah, I cut in half, but only to make sure the entire steak was severely undercooked before sending it back. But, like I said earlier, based on feedback I’ve gotten here I’m an outlier when it comes to expectations. I accept that.
I have heard this is true for pre-formed patties. But if the steak is grinded just before cooking, I’ve heard it can be cooked medium or even medium rare. Anyone know if this is true?
Be warned. Doing something “Chicago-style” means doing it without pants on.
That’s how I was! I wonder how many people who like their meat very well done (or “ruined,” as meat aficionados usually put it) would be happier just not eating it at all.
IME there are totally different expectations at a Texas Roadhouse level restaurant and a Ruth’s Chris or above level restaurant.
At TH and below, overdone is the norm. Medium rare doesn’t mean warm red center. It means almost no juice left. And yes, if possible you’re getting the same piece of meat back.
At RC and above, the opposite holds. Rare really is cold red center. And you will get a new one if you’re not happy.
it’s also the case that for small steaks barely 1/2" thick, doing the lesser degrees of doneness are difficult. On a grill those pass through every stage from frozen to well done in a short time. Starting from borderline frozen is a great way to make it impossible to cook properly.
Once it’s a couple inches thick, anything from rare to well done is doable for a skilled crew with the right tools.
I suspect it’s a substantial percentage! She persisted for years, probably decades come to think of it, of only eating the most heavily cooked meats, or deep fried foods, and drowning them in A1, wooster, or the like.
She felt, by her reporting, growing up in a very meat and potatoes household, that it was “normal” and she felt obligated - ignoring her own preferences.
So, someone liking well done meat, or liking to have a lot of heavy seasoning/sauces on top is a possible sign.
When it’s both? Seems very likely.
Or their parent was simply a horrid cook. Lots of folks hated vegetables until they tasted them done correctly, not boiled into tasteless bitter mush.
I wonder how many of the well-done + drowned in ketchup crowd have formed really warped ideas of how stuff “should” taste.
I once worked with a woman who ordered her steaks well done, and then smothered them with ketchup.
Sure, I didnt think of that.
Sorta. I mean, if you and 4 buddies are eating out, and they put Daves scampi in front of you and your cheeseburger in front of Dave, it is just switched. But not if it is a different table or group.
In some areas, this is true of ground beef, like burgers. But not steaks.
I concur.
Yes, I was just agreeing with @InternetLegend that these are likely signs of someone realizing they’re doing something from habit or expectations in terms of what should be a “meal”. But there are those who just like things differently than I (or most of us in this thread) do, and it isn’t wrong.
But you make a good point - my Mother in Law is not a … gifted cook. And my FiL never seasoned with much more than salt and pepper his whole life (his wife and the rest of the family have tried to expose him to more options since retirement, but while not dismissive, he has his preferences as well, which is fine).
My wife and I met in college, and I ended up introducing her (as a good NM boy of 10ish years) to Mexican food, after which she was hooked on experiencing a much wider range of flavors! To the point she’s probably a bit more adventurous than I am on most (non-meat) dishes.
I dunno; my mom’s talents lay in other arenas than the kitchen, certainly, but while I did indeed start really liking a lot of vegetables I’d hated as a child once I had them cooked properly, meat that’s recognizable (not cooked to a cinder and/or drowned in a palatable sauce) absolutely turns my stomach. For instance, beef tastes the way wet dogs smell to me.
I sometimes put A1 sauce on cooked tofu, just for old times’ sake. And, for the record, if I sent an undercooked item back, I’d be happy enough to see the same item back, but cooked more. I’d expect it not to take very long, though.