Sending Food Back at a Restaurant

[Shooby]

  I know the chefs lecture us that we are supposed to eat our steaks medium rare, but no thanks.  I preferred my food cooked, not sitting in pool of blood.

[Tennesseer]

Aug 12, 2017 19:59:55 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Aug 12, 2017 12:58:18 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

So, it's a chicken cheese hoagie? Why have the word steak in it at all?
It's confusing.

Why say poutine when you really just mean fries with gravy and cheese curds?  

Because poutine is a French word which popularly translates to fries with gravy and cheese curds in English. And as the poster you are trying to pick a fight with lives in Quebec Canada, where the majority language is French, the poster uses poutine.

[zibazinski]

Oh isn't that sweet. ❤️

[Tennesseer]

Aug 12, 2017 20:21:41 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Oh isn't that sweet. ❤️

I thought so.

[Shooby]

Aug 12, 2017 20:13:29 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Aug 12, 2017 19:59:55 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Why say poutine when you really just mean fries with gravy and cheese curds?  

Because poutine is a French word which popularly translates to fries with gravy and cheese curds in English. And as the poster you are trying to pick a fight with lives in Quebec Canada, where the majority language is French, the poster uses poutine.

And we call things "cheesesteaks" which is our terminology.

[mollyanna58]

I have sent steaks back a few times for being too rare. I order medium rare; I can eat rare; but I can't eat cold and raw. I had one manager argue with me that they had "temped" my steak and it was the correct temperature for medium rare; I pointed out that the meat was basically purple.

But steaks never quite taste right if they have been recooked.

[justme]

Aug 12, 2017 17:56:51 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

My favourite beef dish was Steak Tartare. Raw.

Oddly, as much as I love my steaks the true medium rare, I never have developed a taste for uncooked steak. I'm guessing I like it warmed enough for the fat to melt.

[justme]

Aug 12, 2017 20:00:46 GMT -5 Shooby said:

  I know the chefs lecture us that we are supposed to eat our steaks medium rare, but no thanks.  I preferred my food cooked, not sitting in pool of blood.

Because cooked "blood" is way more appetizing. 😂

If you believe a rare steak is sitting in blood, well the blood doesn't just disappear when heated. Mmmmm blood cooked until it turns brown.

[weltschmerz]

Aug 12, 2017 20:00:46 GMT -5 Shooby said:

  I know the chefs lecture us that we are supposed to eat our steaks medium rare, but no thanks.  I preferred my food cooked, not sitting in pool of blood.

You've never even seen Steak Tartare, have you?

[Shooby]

Aug 13, 2017 0:29:20 GMT -5 justme said:

Aug 12, 2017 20:00:46 GMT -5 Shooby said:

  I know the chefs lecture us that we are supposed to eat our steaks medium rare, but no thanks.  I preferred my food cooked, not sitting in pool of blood.

Because cooked "blood" is way more appetizing. 😂

If you believe a rare steak is sitting in blood, well the blood doesn't just disappear when heated. Mmmmm blood cooked until it turns brown.

Then it is juice.  

[irishpad]

Aug 12, 2017 17:56:51 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

My favourite beef dish was Steak Tartare. Raw.

I have only had Steak Tartare twice (hard to find on menu's.)   Last time was  in your country, Hy's Steakhouse in Winnipeg.   It was sooooooo good!   I image that the cut of meat they use for this has very little fat so no worries about uncooked fat in it.   

[weltschmerz]

Aug 13, 2017 14:10:49 GMT -5 irishpad said:

Aug 12, 2017 17:56:51 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

My favourite beef dish was Steak Tartare. Raw.

I have only had Steak Tartare twice (hard to find on menu's.)   Last time was  in your country, Hy's Steakhouse in Winnipeg.   It was sooooooo good!   I image that the cut of meat they use for this has very little fat so no worries about uncooked fat in it.   

Yes, it's extremely lean.

[Anne_in_VA]

I've only sent back food a couple of times.  I like my steak medium and Outback gave me a very rare one, so I sent it back.  Unfortunately it was way overcooked when I got it back, so I rejected it and ordered something else.  I was very nice about it, but it just wasn't cooked properly.  I think they gave me a free dessert or something, but it's been quite a while and don't really remember.  Another time I got a burger at some place like Red Robin (don't remember where) and half was cooked through and half was totally uncooked and raw.  When I sent it back, they recooked it and even put it on the same bun where I had taken a bite taken out of it.  I ate some of it, but just couldn't eat it all.  

[Deleted]

Never, you have a very high chance of something being done to your food.

This isn't for the faint of heart:

[milee]

Aug 12, 2017 9:42:50 GMT -5 dannylion said:

I've only sent food back once:  prime rib that was rare 

I need to find out where you got rare prime rib.  Since I've moved to Florida, it seems next to impossible to get prime rib that's much less than medium.  Maybe different regions have different preferences so they do a longer initial cook on the whole thing around here, but for those of us who don't want it that well done it's a PITA because it means we pretty much have to make it at home to get what I want.  At least if you like it well done, they can always cook it longer; no way to un-cook something, though.

As far as the question in the OP, though, it has to be pretty bad for me to send something back.  If it's just the wrong thing but it's still something I eat, I'll eat it and consider it an adventure.  If it's totally inedible, I'd politely ask to send it back.  But I guess I tend to eat at places that are at one of the two extremes - either very basic or fairly high end.  At the basic places (like Chipotle) the food is pretty standard so unless it's the wrong item, it's fine.  At the high end places, if I've paid $XX for my steak they'd want to know if it wasn't right.

[milee]

Aug 12, 2017 12:48:58 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

Aug 12, 2017 9:42:50 GMT -5 dannylion said:

I've only sent food back once:  prime rib that was rare when I had specifically stated that I wanted it well done.   I cannot abide rare meat of any kind.  Meat must be brown all the way through the middle.  (I do not care what anyone thinks of that.  It's my food, I'm paying for it, I get to decide how done I want it.)  I like to make sure my food is dead before I eat it. 

My late uncle's second wife was very high-maintenance and something of an attention whore.  I never liked going out to dinner with her because she always sent her food back.  Always.  Every. Single. Time.  If she felt she was not getting enough attention from her dinner companions, she would send it back more than once.  I didn't like her.  (Still don't, but she lives on the other side of the country, my uncle passed away 10 years ago, and I don't have to go out to dinner with her anymore.) 

I like my steak still twitching. Once my dad and I went out and both ordered steaks. The waiter asked how we wanted them cooked. Dad said Burt and I said raw.

I let them know it's totally OK if it "moos" at me.

[swamp]

Aug 15, 2017 8:22:39 GMT -5 milee said:

Aug 12, 2017 9:42:50 GMT -5 dannylion said:

I've only sent food back once:  prime rib that was rare 

I need to find out where you got rare prime rib.  Since I've moved to Florida, it seems next to impossible to get prime rib that's much less than medium.  Maybe different regions have different preferences so they do a longer initial cook on the whole thing around here, but for those of us who don't want it that well done it's a PITA because it means we pretty much have to make it at home to get what you want.  At least if you like it well done, they can always cook it longer; no way to un-cook something, though.

North east.

[Shooby]

I am not sure why wait staff are so "offended" if you want to send something back?  So much for the "customer is always right" kind of philosophy.

[milee]

I suspect reasonable waitstaff aren't offended if a customer points out that s/he received incorrect food.

I suspect that excellent waitstaff aren't offended no matter what the customer sends back.

I suspect that mere mortal waitstaff get tired of people who are just a PITA since they suspect nothing can be done to please that type of customer anyway.

[dannylion]

Aug 15, 2017 8:22:39 GMT -5 milee said:

Aug 12, 2017 9:42:50 GMT -5 dannylion said:

I've only sent food back once:  prime rib that was rare 

I need to find out where you got rare prime rib.  Since I've moved to Florida, it seems next to impossible to get prime rib that's much less than medium.  Maybe different regions have different preferences so they do a longer initial cook on the whole thing around here, but for those of us who don't want it that well done it's a PITA because it means we pretty much have to make it at home to get what I want.  At least if you like it well done, they can always cook it longer; no way to un-cook something, though.

As far as the question in the OP, though, it has to be pretty bad for me to send something back.  If it's just the wrong thing but it's still something I eat, I'll eat it and consider it an adventure.  If it's totally inedible, I'd politely ask to send it back.  But I guess I tend to eat at places that are at one of the two extremes - either very basic or fairly high end.  At the basic places (like Chipotle) the food is pretty standard so unless it's the wrong item, it's fine.  At the high end places, if I've paid $XX for my steak they'd want to know if it wasn't right.

It was some time ago (in the mid-1990s), and as I recall, it was somewhere in Bethesda, MD (or possibly the part of Rockville that calls itself "North Bethesda" because "Bethesda" has more cachet than "Rockville").  I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it is likely that it is no longer in existence as that area has been developed and redeveloped and is no longer recognizable.  In any event, since I do not find any amount of pink to be palatable, what I consider "rare" might not meet your standard for "rare," so you might still be disappointed.  

[Wisconsin Beth]

Aug 15, 2017 8:28:58 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

Upper midwest likes ours rare as a general rule.   

I love the one steak place we go to.   I prefer mine between rare and medium rare but on the rare side.   They know exactly what I mean and cook it perfectly.  Although they call it rare +

which place?