Tonight I drove to my final dining experience for awhile. (This is saying a lot since my boyfriend and I are both in the industry and have twenty years of experience between us working in various restaurants.) Over the past few months we have undergone what has became known to my boyfriend and I as the great steak hunt. This was not a search to find the best tasting steak, this was a mission to find a restaurant who could cook a steak correctly. THE COACHMAN Our quest started one afternoon at a restaurant called The Coachman. (It is a medium-sized establishment in Plainfield near Thomas winery.) We had spent an afternoon sampling wines and decided that food was a necessity, so we trucked the short distance and being somewhat buzzed ordered way too much food including two steaks. Now, judging from the decor, our expectations were not high, just average. So when our steaks came out well done, (I ordered MR and he ordered M), we were slightly disappointed. I figured I wasn't sending mine back since I wasn't waiting another thirty minutes, my boyfriend, however, sent his back apologizing for doing so, but not wanting to eat meat cooked that much. We made our excuses for the restaurant since their sandwiches are really good and vowed to get good steaks next time we went out.
CHILI'S At the time, I did not visit Chili's searching for a steak, I was there meeting a friend before a movie. When I arrived, my steak hankering returned and I decided to get a sirloin. About twenty minutes after I made my order I just knew something was wrong. The restaurant was not busy and I ordered my steak MR. Sure enough, my steak came out MW at best. Irritated, but hungry and short on time, I quickly ate my steak and said to myself that next time I would go to a restaurant a step up on the food chain. CHARLESTONS My boyfriend and I came to Charlestons one evening wanting wine and steak. We figured that Charlestons was a restaurant where our food was expected to be correct. How wrong we were. I would like to start this experience with a side note to all waiters, LEARN ABOUT YOUR WINE MENU. When asked which wine you prefer between two, and you throw your arms out saying you really don't know anything about your restaurants wine menu, you are better off lying. Its an A or B situation where the answer isn't wrong, and C is only an acceptable option if you say, I really don't drink wine but guests seem to prefer... Not off to the best start, we ordered our wine and laughed thinking that maybe he was an inexperienced waiter. It went down hill from here. Not only did the waiter take forever to get back to our table to get our order, both of our steaks came out well done (again), and my boyfriends side dishes were missing. This is not a common occurrence for a restaurant, so we found our waiter after a time, and sent them both back. This is a big mistake in any restaurant, usually a server apologizes profusely for the kitchen error and a manager visits the table. This did not happen. My boyfriend never got his sides (after asking for them twice), I got my steak back MR but his came out so rare this time that he only ate the edges while the manager spent her entire evening socializing with various staff members and from what we could see, nothing else. I will throw them one bone in this whole mess. Someone discounted our steaks after my boyfriend barely ate the second one. LONE STAR A steak house no? Again, we both ordered steaks, warning our server of our previous luck ahead of time hoping to improve our chances. Mine came out nearly perfect, but my boyfriend, once again, ordered a steak medium, that came out well done. My boyfriend was slightly irritated, but our server was fantastic about it. Since this was the first time in our steak hunt that someone involved in the steak making process seemed genuinely interested in our food, we ended up tipping him very well, and actually didn't leave too upset about our fourth trip failing. SAHMS I have never been to Sahms before, but my boyfriend and his buddies love the deep fried cauliflower. Though my boyfriend decided he was put off steaks for awhile, I trucked on hoping to end our bad luck and ordered a steak again. Okay, I am a really bad Chef and rather ignorant when it comes to cooking red meats, however, I would assume that a steak served on a hot skillet is still cooking while it remains on that hot skillet. I don't know if the steak I received was cooked to order and then left in the window to be ran to my table or was over cooked to begin with, but when it arrived in front of me it was so well done I barely ate it. I did not ask for a new one and my server didn't seem interested if I was happy with my food. KONA GRILL The last straw. Briefly this spring I worked at Kona Grill to pick up a few extra dollars during a transitional phase. I had mentioned that Kona carried decent steaks a few times in the past, and since it had been a month since Charlestons he had decided that he finally wanted a steak again. I won't go into the details of our forgetful server or how long the food took to arrive to the table. (Though I will say to all servers, if someone asks you for the bill, ten minutes is a long time to wait to get it.) When our food did arrive to the table I turned to my boyfriend and said, "I'm almost scared to ask, did it finally come out right?" It didn't. Again, it was over cooked so I told him to send it back. It was a $30 dollar steak, when you get to those numbers, it needs to be right. It came out correct the second time, however, there again wasn't a table visit and when we got the bill we noticed that $3.75 was deducted for the mistake. That is a rather odd, and insulting amount. No discount would have been better, though half was more acceptable, even a free dessert or comped appetizer would have been nice. Instead my boyfriend pulled the manager aside and briefly relayed this to her. MORAL Restaurant managers do table visits, servers pretend to care about your guests (I know it can be hard, but it is your job), cooks practice your craft and readers if you know of a steak that is reasonably priced and can arrive on your plate cooked as asked for, let me know! Until then, anyone who likes well done steaks should dine with my boyfriend and I, they are perfectly cooked every time!