Restaurant Servers Hate Answering Your Steak Questions

What's not to love about steak? If you're a meat eater, chances are you crave a juicy T-bone, hanger, or filet mignon on the regular. And while we're fans of cooking steak at home, sometimes it's a fun indulgence to leave the work to the professionals and get your meat fix at a steakhouse or restaurant. You'd think that ordering steak in a restaurant would be simple, right? But as it turns out, there are a few variables at play. 

Like, which cut of steak should you order? Grilled, broiled, or sautéed in a pan? And what temperature? These are questions that restaurant servers have to deal with day in and day out — and apparently, they're kinda sick of it. Over on the Reddit subforum r/TalesFromYourServer, where real-world restaurant workers share often-hilarious tales of picky or misbehaving customers, one server created a thread entitled "people don't understand steaks," where fellow restaurant workers chimed in about the multitude of questions diners ask when ordering steak.

For restaurant servers that want to commiserate over the bad behavior of customers, the subreddit r/TalesFromYourServer is a popular internet watering hole. When a user started a thread about the ignorant questions diners ask when ordering steak, the post took off. "I work at a steakhouse and deal with an annoying amount of steak-related ignorance," they wrote. "Yes I know your steak is smaller than your guests despite ordering the same size, you had yours cooked significantly longer. Yes I know your steak has fat in it you ordered a prime rib. Yes I know your steak is dry you ordered an extra well done filet."

Fellow servers chimed in with additional evidence of diners just not understanding steak. "Oh god ... I got so tired of people sending back our aged T-bones because they were 'overdone,' commented one Redditor. "I don't think I could do it again unless I was given permission to send out each one with a thermometer in it." Servers also complained about customers ordering filet — which because it lacks fat should be served rare or medium rare (via Omaha Steaks) — too well-cooked. "The only appropriate responses to someone asking for a filet to be cooked well done are 'No,' 'Hell No,' and/or 'Get Out,' one user wrote.

So, now you know to brush up on your steak knowledge before sitting down at your favorite chophouse. Otherwise, you might end up in your server's arsenal of bad customer stories.