Food: Good Steak Isn't Served The Way You're Used To

There’s nothing more cringeworthy than reading social media posts about restaurants and steakhouses. The amount of times people go to a “high-end” steakhouse and complain about the quality of their steak is one of the more ridiculous things when it comes to reviews. It’s always “I love a good steak, but all this money for a steak just to have it undercooked.” In most cases, that person ordered a medium-rare steak but when they go to a fine-dining restaurant it’s not what they expect. Let’s stop the lie, you love a cheap steak prepared to your liking at chain restaurants.

Medium-rare steak often is perceived as undercooked at these establishments and it shouldn’t be. The appearance of a “bloody” steak will immediately make a guest send it back to be on the grill a bit longer. It’s the biggest complaint when it comes to “fancy” restaurants. “At that price, they should know how to properly cook my steak.” Well, they do sir, you’re just used to a poor cut of steak.

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The problem is that chain restaurants have ruined what a good cook of beef is supposed to be. Medium-rare doesn’t get served as it should at your local Outback steakhouse. A good cut of beef, cooked to medium rare, is based on temperature and that’s where quick-serve restaurants mess it up. When it comes to a good cut of medium-rare, it cooks to 135 degrees, sits on a cooling rack for 5 minutes with no heat, and then is plated and dressed to serve.

Chain restaurants are so laser-focused on bringing you a hot meal that they’ll set it under a heat lamp while the rest of your dish is prepped. At the very least, they’ll continue to finish the rest of your table’s meal. That’s the difference. A good steak doesn’t sit under a heat lamp to rest. Heat lamps are designed to keep things at or around 165 degrees and for a dish cooked to a medium-rare at 135 degrees, the heat lamp continues to cook, instead of cool. When your server brings your plate, it’s probably closer to a medium than med-rare.

If it’s prepared properly with a good sear, the steak will cool and will appear juicier and thus look more “bloody”. Let’s not even get off track with it not being blood on your plate. If you don’t like the aesthetics, don’t jump online to bash a good restaurant, just bump your cook up to a medium at fine dining. Better cuts of beef when cooked properly are going to have a slightly undercooked appearance. You’re just used to mass-produced chain restaurant steak and are just bugging cooks to recook your dish when it was cooked properly 9 out of 10 times to begin with.