I should know better

[Anakah]

Gah. I went out with my friend who is a complete restaurant SC. I know she is but hey I was hungry.

We go to Denny's and she says; I feel like steak. I could already smell the trouble with that one. She wasn't real bad but she was more suck talk behind the back and kind of just irked me.

We ordered our drinks and she tried an Island breeze while I stuck to my usual habits and got Rootbeer.

I ordered a salad and the club sandwhich. Friend got some kind of new steak that she wanted medium rare (I can't remember what the hell it was) and we just talked while we waited.

The lady drops off the salad and things are fine. Friend isn't too thrilled with the drink but thats understandable if you try something new.

Anyway, we finally get out food and my god for twelve bucks it was the smallest steak I had ever seen. I know its not the waitress's faut but DAMN her two scoops of potatoes were bigger... I told her I needed a magnify glass. And don't worry I said none of this infront of the waitress.

Her garlic toast was bigger lol Anyway, first thing she does is cut the meat and of course its pink...

S (just suck lol) I am not eating this.

Me: Why?

S: It's really rare... Did they not cut it to check if the middle was cooked right?

*crickets are chirping in my head* Last I recall she wanted medium rare.

S: It's disgusting. It's supposed to be a little pink not like this.

Far as I could tell it wasn't that bad... I am a creature of habit and I like my meat completely dead and well done. There was no blood coming out of it or anything it just looked medium.

S: Where is the damn waitress? I can't eat this!

I just stayed quiet and began eating my food. Her portion was kind of crappy for the price though. She got onion rings as her other side and they gave her like five rings total. But it's Denny's so I had low expecations to begin with which is why I enjoyed my food lol

I finished my drink and we waited for like twenty mins and no waitress at all. It was not busy and there was plenty of help. I get ansy around her because she is so impatient and I was fearing a scene.

S: Man, my mom would have sent this thing back so fast...

Me: Have you tried it?

S: Noo...

She finally takes a bite and decides its okay.

S: I'll leave her a dollar fifty and so can you.

Me: That's really mean.

I get that she kind of ignored us after we go our food and paid a lot more attention to the other table she had but I don't think that would ever be appropriate. Especially since things are really hard now.

I flagged down another waitress (whom is a friend of my bf so it wasn't like I was being an ass or anything) and asked for a box. Thats when the other came around and started filling my drink up and paying attention. Finally we got our bill and mine was like fifteen dollars or so and I put about four dollars on the tips and so did she so I think eight dollars wasn't too bad, I hope.

Thank god she didn't say anything to anybody but she did get what she asked for... I dunno if this was real bad but she makes me so damn nervous when she is constantly bitching about her food, no matter where we go...

[One-Fang]

People order "medium rare" because it sounds cool. Then they're disgusted when it's pink and little drippy bloody in the middle. Yeah, that's what medium rare is. Frankly, if hers was just "a bit pink" then they cooked it too long, not too little. Steak with 'rare' in the cooking style should still be bloody.

I suppose it wouldn't do any good to inform her she really wants to order steak "medium" in future?

So, question for the masses - you order a steak and consider it minimally small for the menu price. Do you a) eat it anyway and not go back there or b) send it back?

[CaroPhoenix]

One-Fang - I'd eat it and then not go there again, or at least not order that steak again.

I love my steak rare. R.A.R.E. Still mooing and bloody. Yummy! Mr. Rum prefers medium. That's too cooked for me. Sometimes I'll "compromise" and say medium rare, but when I can ... RARE!

[Aethian]

My response....a. I have bypassed places before because of what the quanity is to the price.

[RetailWorkhorse]

So, question for the masses - you order a steak and consider it minimally small for the menu price. Do you a) eat it anyway and not go back there or b) send it back?

Eat it and order something else to go with it. Then not order that steak again if I really like what else I bought.

But then I'm the kind of person that will do stuff like order two entrees when it's just me.

What? I get hungry!

[fma_fanatic]

People order "medium rare" because it sounds cool. Then they're disgusted when it's pink and little drippy bloody in the middle. Yeah, that's what medium rare is. Frankly, if hers was just "a bit pink" then they cooked it too long, not too little. Steak with 'rare' in the cooking style should still be bloody.

I have to agree with this. I waffle between medium and medium rare depending on my mood. Most times I'll go with medium, have it come out medium rare and it doesn't bother me. I also tend to cook my steaks at home on medium and most times they'll come out somewhere between the two. Not that it matters since SO will snarfle it down anyway.

But honestly, to sit and whine about it without trying it? That's bad. And yes, Denny's does suck when it comes to things like that. Bob Evans or IHOP are loads better IMO.

[Kiwi]

People order "medium rare" because it sounds cool. Then they're disgusted when it's pink and little drippy bloody in the middle. Yeah, that's what medium rare is.

um actually I order my meat medium rare because I like it that way

I like it pink with a little blood. mmmmm blood

Ive never tried to be "cool" in my life either because with me it just comes natually

[bainsidhe]

So the steak was small, but what did the menu say? If the menu called it an 8oz steak and that's what she got, then tough. If it called it a 12oz steak and she got something that looked like 8oz, then she had reason to be upset.

So she misunderstood what medium-rare vs. medium-well was. Hey, it happens and not all restaurants have the same standards for what medium-rare is. As long as the customer is polite, there should be no problem altering the bloody goodness. Except the server was MIA and didn't show for 20 minutes. I'd be pretty upset at that point, especially if I was offended by the blood on top of the puny size. I'll try tasting something that may not look good, just to confirm whether or not I like it, but I get a bit squeamish with the 'ol blood. I'm much better than before, since I used to have it practically burnt before I'd even touch it.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

When I went to Balthazar's in New York, the steak I got was smaller than I had expected, but I did intentionally order the smaller one, so I didn't mind. It was also kind of tough, but I get my steak medium-well, so didn't mind that, either.

But not paying attention to her table? That's just annoying.

[Nyoibo]

I wish people would learn what well done, medium, medium rare, rare and blue actually mean before they order it, you just look stupid if you complain about it when you get exactly what you order.

[hecubus]

You should have seen trouble coming when she ordered a steak at Denny's!

[One-Fang]

Heheh, sorry Kiwi, I mean "some people...." Sure there are some people who know exactly what medium rare is and prefer it that way. But a lot of people think it sounds cool, order it, then send it back to be cooked more.

DH used to work in a Pizza Hut and cook the steaks. He got used to, if someone ordered "medium rare", he'd cook it to medium. There were fewer send-backs that way.

[Geek King]

I kinda surprised my parents once when they took me out to eat. In my defence, I was working midnights at the time, so normal dinner hours to me were waking up a couple hours earlier than normal.

We were at a sportsbar-type place and I ordered a steak. When asked how I wanted it, my sleep-deprived brain-to-mouth filter shorted out, and I told the waiter, "Raw." He and my parents got a bit of a startled look on their faces, and I corrected it to Rare. I still hear about that one.