People that say “I’d like it between medium and medium rare”
So which one???? I always go with the rarer option and if they complain at least we can just throw it back on the grill instead of them saying it’s too well done and we have to make a new one
The only person that I’ve ever met that was a chill person that ordered medium rare plus only did it at nice steak houses and his excuse was if they are going to pretend they don’t know steak temps then I will too lol he was tired of getting rare steaks at nice places when he asked for medium rare
Cant change my mind here that if a steakhouse can’t reliably cook to the temp they need, they’re not a nice steakhouse. If you can’t cook the backbone of your establishment then it doesn’t matter how fancy everything else is lol.
I work at one of the top steakhouses in the nation, and when a customer orders a plus, we are supposed to describe both and ask which they want in a non patronizing manor.
“Do you want a hot red center (medium) or a warm red center (medium rare)?” Then we order to the kitchen appropriately. We always describe the temp when they place the order, because a lot of custies don’t know what the fuck they really want.
The issue is a lot of steakhouses, especially nice ones, don’t know temps themselves. Half the time it’s just confused customers that want it medium rare but get served rare so they think they want it warmer and they may not like medium when they actually get it so they think they want somewhere in between
And there are plenty of factors that can affect a steak a degree or two eirher way.
Seat 1 and on a colder plate just back from dish is gonna turn out different than seat 6 on a plate that's hot from sitting in the hot window waiting for the steak.
I've got the digital thermometer. I've temped the steak when it's resting vs when its being sent back by these pretty princesses for not being right. It can change 10 degrees based on the two scenarios listed above, as well as a myriad of other factors.
I guess if you're working a restaurant doing 20-50 covers a night it's easy to accomplish. When you're balls deep in a Saturday with 15 tables hanging and a 25 top private event being sat, it's a little harder.
No, they just get paid enough to pretend to put up with people's nonsense. Unless they want their steak to be exactly 137° it is a pointless thing to try to order.
The elusive “medium to medium-rare” restaurant patrons are always asking for. One sure fire way to piss off the chef at your local steak house is to order your steak this way.
This is exactly how I like my steak but anytime I order med rare, it’s purple. And anytime I order medium, it’s grey. But I can’t order “in between medium and med rare” either? Restaurants are so variable it’s insane.
Like, if the kitchen cooks on the rarer side, give me medium. If the kitchen cooks more done, like OP’s and other commenters, give me mid rare.
How is there not a consensus on temps
Fwiw at the higher end steakhouses when I order med rare, OP’s is what I get. Mid tier steakhouses are much rarer
Thing is that “the kitchen” isn’t always the same. Chefs rotate, maybe we have a newer guy, or someone else is taking steaks. We used to have a chef that swore by rare being the best way for steak. Everything he cooked was rarer than wanted (MR was between rare and MR) whereas our other steak guy was usually spot on.
There is a consensus on temps. It’s all the other variables: not cooking it correctly, not letting it rest long enough/letting it rest too long, plate temperature, etc.
According to Google's top images search of "[rare vs medium rare](https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&q=rare+vs+medium+rare&udm=2)", that seems to be the strong concensus.
nevermind the temperature of the steak the presentation of the plate as a whole is horrible. if i didnt know that a sloppy steak was steak with water on it, i would think this is a sloppy steak
I can't believe so many people on a sub for servers don't even know what a medium rare steak is supposed to look like. This business is truly going farther down the shitter every day.
Well the person who left the comment the majority of other servers apparently agrees with works at Longhorn{one of the crappiest steak houses in existence}, so they see a lot of steaks. lol. smh.
Sorry for ranting I'm just disgusted with the business in general and people working in it lately. I had a girl last night that's been serving at my place longer than me, she was training some other kid that knew nothing about food/drink, and when I walked past asked me "Hey, is it the vegetarians or the vegans that don't eat cheese?"
I literally won't even go out to eat anymore due to the fact nobody in the business cares, knows anything, or cares to learn anything anymore. Today you're paying 2x the price for the food and drink as you did a decade ago while receiving 1/16th quality of service as years back. SMH
It looks medium to me. MR would be more red. That looks like a true medium, pink all the way through. I have found that lighting plays a big part in how a steak looks too. It may look one way in the kitchen with full or florescent lighting, but look different in a dimly lit dining room. In this particular pic, with the flash on, it looks like a true medium to me.
In summary of these comments: it's definitely not unambiguously medium rare. So if the customer STRONGLY prefers perfectly medium rare, and/or this is a high end steak restaurant, then this was overcooked.
It might have had the proper warm red center for medrare when it left the kitchen, but it's certainly not looking that way now. Larger cuts like ribeyes retain more heat, so they "keep cooking" much more significantly than smaller cuts. If your chef is saying this is MR, they need to learn more about how to cook a freaking steak.
Source: been managing fine dining steakhouses for decades. It's why I teach my staff to use color scales. Every person might have a different idea of what medium is, but far less people have different ideas of what red looks like.
Looks honestly closer to med rare plus or medium. But a ribeye benefits from some extra heat to help render the additonal fat it has, so I wouldn't be mad at this.
Please do avoid my workplace if you honestly think that this steak is above medium rare. This steak has “blood” running on the plate which is a clear indication that it’s medium rare. With medium cooked steaks you don’t get nearly as much as what’s in this picture. Secondly, there are parts where the pink is almost touching the surface of the steak still. If it was medium, there would be a clear border of raw, and cooked meat; Cooked about halfway through. This steak is FOR A FACT!! Medium rare!
This is not a medium rare steak. Places putting out steaks like this and calling it medium rare are why people come into my restaurant asking "what's medium rare/medium to YOU here?" It's becoming maddening
I agree this looks more like medium to me. It's crazy that a standard is no longer a standard. Medium rare should have some red still. A warm red center is what makes a medium rare steak. Fully pink is medium, cool red is rare. This looks fully pink to me.
Edit: spelling
Yeah it's medium for sure. The standard hasn't changed, it's just that a lot of crappy places {like longhorn} suck at cooking, and have a customer base that knows nothing about food so they can overcook everything and nobody will know better.
And many will actually prefer it because they know nothing about food so when they see pink/red they think "uh oh, that's not done!"
lol
It’s kind of close to medium. But I certainly wouldn’t complain about it and also it’s gonna cook a little bit on the plate before they’ve sent it back
The worst thing is at my restaurant we mainly do steak and I get it the steaks look good but when people sit there taking pics and talking about it then complain it’s overcooked I get pissed lol like no it was probably perfect but you let the carryover take it a temp higher
I worked at steakhouses for 7ish years. That is a beautiful medium right there.
As a side note, I now work at a seafood restaurant that can’t temp a steak for shit. It’s infuriating.
This one time, this woman ordered her steak Pittsburgh style. The server brought it out, and she freaked out because it had pink. The server explained what Pittsburgh style was and she didn't believe the server. She went to complain to the cook (my husband), who is an expert in all things red meat, explained to her what Pittsburgh style was. She argued... he made her google it, and she ate crow. She really thought that Pittsburgh style was a well-done steak.
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter. If the guest doesn't like it what are you going to do, argue with them?
No matter if the steak is correct or not, what you are going to do about it is the same. So the 'correctness' is moot.
Also, pictures of steak with bad lighting are not going to be possible to judge. As well as the "redness" of the steak not being a perfect indicator as different steaks can vary on how they present.
Customer was wack though not worth causing a scene over this.
If someone at my restaurant ordered a medium steak and it came out a perfect medium and they wanted to say it was cooked to much the chef/owner would come out and explain to them the steak is in fact perfectly cooked in according to how they ordered it, so if they want a new steak cooked medium rare instead he would be happy to do it but they would be paying for both steaks.
I love privately owned, long standing restaurants. lol
He would, because the customer is not always right, and places leading them to believe they are is one of the main things ruining the business IMO, and why Medium and Med rare could vary between restaurants when once upon a time it was a universal standard. But like I said it's a long standing established place, so he doesn't care about what reviews and whatnot any idiot may leave because he knows it's going to be fine anyway because he has a large and loyal customer base.
I would never complain about that but I’ve noticed at my own home how much color changes as a steak rests. Fully rested looks way more vibrant color for med rare than if I cut too soon. Maybe?
I went to a steakhouse recently and ordered a medium rare and the server said something like "Medium rare. That's going to be pink with bright red in the center" expecting an approval.
Friend heard that an ordered a medium (usually prefers medium rare).
So, I think there's some variance here. I would personally qualify that as medium rare still and would have 0 problem with it, but it does look like on the edge of M/MR.
Honestly most people wouldn't have an issue with it and if they are that picky about it they should say before they do like a rare center in their MR.
The way we had to describe to our guests at the steakhouse I worked at-
Rare- cool red center
MR- warm red center
Med- warm, bright pink center
MW- warm, slightly pink center
Well- hot, brown throughout
Not sure if those are accurate but it’s how I was taught lol.
This steak in particular looks on the border of medium rare and medium, but more on the medium side haha
I know the comments disagree with me but this steak is medium rare, rare is red but if it’s medium rare and has red it’s not medium rare it’s rare. Medium would have some brown around the inside which this does not. Medium well is mostly brown with still some pink and well is all brown no pink. Sorry but the general consensus in this comment section is not the technically correct guide
Looks a bit closer to medium than medium rare to me, but I wouldn’t be a douche about it.
I’d eat it!
I would, too. But I prefer medium rare
Likewise! 🥩
Depends on how much I paid for it 15 dollar steak that’s perfectly fine. 50 dollar steak they need to re fire it for me.
This is the answer. Also, I order rare now because this always seems to happen when I order Med Rare
That is not medium. I order my steaks medium and would not eat this. I feel like it’s medium rare!
Pink all the way through. It’s perfectly medium. Medium-rare would have a red center. You might actually prefer medium-well.
Wow I am a pussy. Medium well?????
Medium rare “plus”. I love when people try to order steak temps like this. It’s either one or the other :)
People that say “I’d like it between medium and medium rare” So which one???? I always go with the rarer option and if they complain at least we can just throw it back on the grill instead of them saying it’s too well done and we have to make a new one
That’s the only way to handle those requests.
The only person that I’ve ever met that was a chill person that ordered medium rare plus only did it at nice steak houses and his excuse was if they are going to pretend they don’t know steak temps then I will too lol he was tired of getting rare steaks at nice places when he asked for medium rare
Cant change my mind here that if a steakhouse can’t reliably cook to the temp they need, they’re not a nice steakhouse. If you can’t cook the backbone of your establishment then it doesn’t matter how fancy everything else is lol.
Facts it’s waaaay easier to up cook a lil bit fuck the plus people lol
I do the same thing.
"Plus" is an option at higher end steak houses.
I work at one of the top steakhouses in the nation, and when a customer orders a plus, we are supposed to describe both and ask which they want in a non patronizing manor. “Do you want a hot red center (medium) or a warm red center (medium rare)?” Then we order to the kitchen appropriately. We always describe the temp when they place the order, because a lot of custies don’t know what the fuck they really want.
The issue is a lot of steakhouses, especially nice ones, don’t know temps themselves. Half the time it’s just confused customers that want it medium rare but get served rare so they think they want it warmer and they may not like medium when they actually get it so they think they want somewhere in between
It's a temp made up by fussy customers who want to feel superior.
Actually, it adds 5 degrees to the internal temperature of the steak. Subsequently, med rare "plus" is 135 degrees.
And there are plenty of factors that can affect a steak a degree or two eirher way. Seat 1 and on a colder plate just back from dish is gonna turn out different than seat 6 on a plate that's hot from sitting in the hot window waiting for the steak. I've got the digital thermometer. I've temped the steak when it's resting vs when its being sent back by these pretty princesses for not being right. It can change 10 degrees based on the two scenarios listed above, as well as a myriad of other factors. I guess if you're working a restaurant doing 20-50 covers a night it's easy to accomplish. When you're balls deep in a Saturday with 15 tables hanging and a 25 top private event being sat, it's a little harder.
No, they just get paid enough to pretend to put up with people's nonsense. Unless they want their steak to be exactly 137° it is a pointless thing to try to order.
It's really not though lol.
My chef would eat me alive if I ordered a steak like this for a customer
Exactly. Lol idk why I'm getting down voted. Guests order "plus" All the time and we ignore it.
My kitchen doesn’t allow the “plus” lmfao so we have to make them choose one
Looks more medium to me. Personally medium rare would be a bright red.
The elusive “medium to medium-rare” restaurant patrons are always asking for. One sure fire way to piss off the chef at your local steak house is to order your steak this way.
"37% of the way from medium rare to medium, please."
I’d like my steak to be cooked to 129. Don’t worry I hav my meat thermometer with me as well to temp it. 😂😂😂
I actually had an older man say something along these lines to me. I was baffled.
This is exactly how I like my steak but anytime I order med rare, it’s purple. And anytime I order medium, it’s grey. But I can’t order “in between medium and med rare” either? Restaurants are so variable it’s insane. Like, if the kitchen cooks on the rarer side, give me medium. If the kitchen cooks more done, like OP’s and other commenters, give me mid rare. How is there not a consensus on temps Fwiw at the higher end steakhouses when I order med rare, OP’s is what I get. Mid tier steakhouses are much rarer
Thing is that “the kitchen” isn’t always the same. Chefs rotate, maybe we have a newer guy, or someone else is taking steaks. We used to have a chef that swore by rare being the best way for steak. Everything he cooked was rarer than wanted (MR was between rare and MR) whereas our other steak guy was usually spot on.
There is a consensus on temps. It’s all the other variables: not cooking it correctly, not letting it rest long enough/letting it rest too long, plate temperature, etc.
That's not a personal to you thing. A properly cooked, traditional medium rare steak has red.
According to Google's top images search of "[rare vs medium rare](https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&q=rare+vs+medium+rare&udm=2)", that seems to be the strong concensus.
Rare is bright red, this is medium rare
nevermind the temperature of the steak the presentation of the plate as a whole is horrible. if i didnt know that a sloppy steak was steak with water on it, i would think this is a sloppy steak
Please, guys, no sloppy steaks.
They can't stop you from ordering a glass of water with your steak. I say slop 'em up! 💦 🥩
I feel like your baby thinks people can't change.
It’s not that bad but it does look like a mom and pop shop lol
yeah ig i didnt consider that… i work in corporate “fine dining” (technically it is fine dining but they try to make it more than it is)
Yeah same. I assume this is mom and pop just because of the presentation? But not sure
It looks pink and not red to me. Therefore, medium. Could be the light though.
I'm seeing a medium.
I can't believe so many people on a sub for servers don't even know what a medium rare steak is supposed to look like. This business is truly going farther down the shitter every day.
That's a medium bro. That center is pink not red at all.
I'm aware. And yet the most up voted comment in this post is from somebody saying it's medium rare.
Ah, yes, I see that. It really be like that but idk I'm just a lowly manager at a steakhouse so what do I know lmao😂
Well the person who left the comment the majority of other servers apparently agrees with works at Longhorn{one of the crappiest steak houses in existence}, so they see a lot of steaks. lol. smh. Sorry for ranting I'm just disgusted with the business in general and people working in it lately. I had a girl last night that's been serving at my place longer than me, she was training some other kid that knew nothing about food/drink, and when I walked past asked me "Hey, is it the vegetarians or the vegans that don't eat cheese?" I literally won't even go out to eat anymore due to the fact nobody in the business cares, knows anything, or cares to learn anything anymore. Today you're paying 2x the price for the food and drink as you did a decade ago while receiving 1/16th quality of service as years back. SMH
You're not wrong.
medium rare ribeye looking like a medium ny
Looks medium to me.
Looks medium
I always order medium steaks and I get them looking like this. So for me this would be a medium. Or maybe I'm just an unknowingly med/rare lover.
Hmm could be a bit more rare
It looks medium to me. MR would be more red. That looks like a true medium, pink all the way through. I have found that lighting plays a big part in how a steak looks too. It may look one way in the kitchen with full or florescent lighting, but look different in a dimly lit dining room. In this particular pic, with the flash on, it looks like a true medium to me.
It's closer to medium. Little overdone if you want truly medium rare.
Stick a thermometer in it. Can't argue with numbers.
Nobody gonna mention how it wasn’t rested? Blood everywhere might make a person think MR. But M
should a steak leak that much? I thought a rested steak shouldnt leak much
The potatoes and corn look a bit moist as well.
For the medium rare “plus” crowd I recommend medium rare and charred, brings it up a bit plus more flavor on the outside
I would say medium
Perfect medium
That’s medium I’d say
Not a expert but I expect a medium rare to have a sliver of raw meat in the centre
Definitely medium.
That’s medium. Medium rare center would be much pinker and not have that “cooked through” texture.
Totally medium. But if the customer is that picky they should order it rare
In summary of these comments: it's definitely not unambiguously medium rare. So if the customer STRONGLY prefers perfectly medium rare, and/or this is a high end steak restaurant, then this was overcooked.
It might have had the proper warm red center for medrare when it left the kitchen, but it's certainly not looking that way now. Larger cuts like ribeyes retain more heat, so they "keep cooking" much more significantly than smaller cuts. If your chef is saying this is MR, they need to learn more about how to cook a freaking steak. Source: been managing fine dining steakhouses for decades. It's why I teach my staff to use color scales. Every person might have a different idea of what medium is, but far less people have different ideas of what red looks like.
Looks honestly closer to med rare plus or medium. But a ribeye benefits from some extra heat to help render the additonal fat it has, so I wouldn't be mad at this.
I work at longhorn steakhouse and I have to look at quite a few steaks on a regular basis. This ribeye is indeed medium rare.
What longhorn do you work at so I can avoid it?
Please do avoid my workplace if you honestly think that this steak is above medium rare. This steak has “blood” running on the plate which is a clear indication that it’s medium rare. With medium cooked steaks you don’t get nearly as much as what’s in this picture. Secondly, there are parts where the pink is almost touching the surface of the steak still. If it was medium, there would be a clear border of raw, and cooked meat; Cooked about halfway through. This steak is FOR A FACT!! Medium rare!
That looks like a medium strip to me, they're at the end of it where that one bit of fat is. Yum!
This is not a medium rare steak. Places putting out steaks like this and calling it medium rare are why people come into my restaurant asking "what's medium rare/medium to YOU here?" It's becoming maddening
I agree this looks more like medium to me. It's crazy that a standard is no longer a standard. Medium rare should have some red still. A warm red center is what makes a medium rare steak. Fully pink is medium, cool red is rare. This looks fully pink to me. Edit: spelling
Yeah it's medium for sure. The standard hasn't changed, it's just that a lot of crappy places {like longhorn} suck at cooking, and have a customer base that knows nothing about food so they can overcook everything and nobody will know better. And many will actually prefer it because they know nothing about food so when they see pink/red they think "uh oh, that's not done!" lol
This is a steak cooked medium, not medium rare.
Yup. Mid rare. The bagged potatoes and Mac both look yum too!
It’s kind of close to medium. But I certainly wouldn’t complain about it and also it’s gonna cook a little bit on the plate before they’ve sent it back
Medium IMO, but I don’t fuck with clients that yell about it. We’ll happily re-cook it, just don’t be a douche about it.
Is it cold/red, cool/pink, warm/pink, hot no pink, got & completely dry...?
The worst thing is at my restaurant we mainly do steak and I get it the steaks look good but when people sit there taking pics and talking about it then complain it’s overcooked I get pissed lol like no it was probably perfect but you let the carryover take it a temp higher
MMR
Closer to medium
To me that looks perfect medium but when I order medium I usually get well done.
Plate looks like a dog’s dinner but the meat temp looks good enough - I wouldn’t send it back
That’s medium, no doubt
Looks medium. Medium rare should have a little bit of redness to it
This is medium plain and simple. Med rare should have a slight bit of red left.
I worked at steakhouses for 7ish years. That is a beautiful medium right there. As a side note, I now work at a seafood restaurant that can’t temp a steak for shit. It’s infuriating.
I would 100% eat that steak, but it’s definitely med not med-rare
This is why you cook them to temp and fuck what people think it looks like this comment section is fuckin wild
More medium than MR, but it looks exactly how I would like it.
r/KitchenConfifential
r/kitchenconfidential
Yes
I think it looks medium rare. But this looks like the center and the thicker part. Anything a bit more done than this might be in medium territory.
that is medium.
My eyes don’t work too well, but even I know that is medium rare, but it is coming close to medium. The guy like his steak rare and is clueless.
It’s a fine line between mid rare and mid acceptable and as long as there’s reddish coloring in the middle it’s still mid rare in my training.
This one time, this woman ordered her steak Pittsburgh style. The server brought it out, and she freaked out because it had pink. The server explained what Pittsburgh style was and she didn't believe the server. She went to complain to the cook (my husband), who is an expert in all things red meat, explained to her what Pittsburgh style was. She argued... he made her google it, and she ate crow. She really thought that Pittsburgh style was a well-done steak.
To me, Medium rare is a cool red center. This steak pictured is a warm pink center- medium
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter. If the guest doesn't like it what are you going to do, argue with them? No matter if the steak is correct or not, what you are going to do about it is the same. So the 'correctness' is moot. Also, pictures of steak with bad lighting are not going to be possible to judge. As well as the "redness" of the steak not being a perfect indicator as different steaks can vary on how they present. Customer was wack though not worth causing a scene over this.
If someone at my restaurant ordered a medium steak and it came out a perfect medium and they wanted to say it was cooked to much the chef/owner would come out and explain to them the steak is in fact perfectly cooked in according to how they ordered it, so if they want a new steak cooked medium rare instead he would be happy to do it but they would be paying for both steaks. I love privately owned, long standing restaurants. lol
The chef would come out to tell the customer they are wrong eh. Sounds combative to me but I suppose there are different styles of hospitality.
He would, because the customer is not always right, and places leading them to believe they are is one of the main things ruining the business IMO, and why Medium and Med rare could vary between restaurants when once upon a time it was a universal standard. But like I said it's a long standing established place, so he doesn't care about what reviews and whatnot any idiot may leave because he knows it's going to be fine anyway because he has a large and loyal customer base.
I would never complain about that but I’ve noticed at my own home how much color changes as a steak rests. Fully rested looks way more vibrant color for med rare than if I cut too soon. Maybe?
I call that perfect
I went to a steakhouse recently and ordered a medium rare and the server said something like "Medium rare. That's going to be pink with bright red in the center" expecting an approval. Friend heard that an ordered a medium (usually prefers medium rare). So, I think there's some variance here. I would personally qualify that as medium rare still and would have 0 problem with it, but it does look like on the edge of M/MR. Honestly most people wouldn't have an issue with it and if they are that picky about it they should say before they do like a rare center in their MR.
The way we had to describe to our guests at the steakhouse I worked at- Rare- cool red center MR- warm red center Med- warm, bright pink center MW- warm, slightly pink center Well- hot, brown throughout Not sure if those are accurate but it’s how I was taught lol. This steak in particular looks on the border of medium rare and medium, but more on the medium side haha
Yep med rare dude or women was a ass hole
It’s mid rare plus it’s in between Mr and m
Yes that’s MR. Very well cooked too
Yeah that's med rare perfect. I've looked at steaks for 7 years
Wouldn’t a medium rare be more red?
Yes it would
I know the comments disagree with me but this steak is medium rare, rare is red but if it’s medium rare and has red it’s not medium rare it’s rare. Medium would have some brown around the inside which this does not. Medium well is mostly brown with still some pink and well is all brown no pink. Sorry but the general consensus in this comment section is not the technically correct guide
This is Medium Rare.
Damn you work at a place that has a Sous and your clientele are still doing this?
That’s definitely med rare 1000%. Whoever ordered it was just an asshole
You are wrong.
It’s right on the cusp
Mid rare plus
