What would you have done?

Friday night, we had tickets for a live performance of "Swing", and decided to have dinner at a fairly new restaurant across from the performing arts center. They serve small bites paired with three wines that your choose from. Or you can order small plates of food or complete dinners. I choose a New York steak, served with French green beans and a spring salad. The salad was great and so were the green beans. The steak was the most awful chewing meat ever. It was cooked medium rare, seasoned well but I could not chew the pieces of meat well enough to swallow them, due to tough tissue and gristle. I ended up with a plate of ugly partially chewed meant. The waitress noticed and asked about the meat. She informed me that New Yorks are always that way, and walked off. She gave us good service, and was very nice. My husband thought I should have asked the steak to be taken back. I opted to forget about it, and not make a fuss, since we were seated next to a table with four lawyers and their wives, whom we knew.
Besides the wine was great and I was feeling mellow.

Whether I would have complained or not would have depended on a few variables:

1) Did it have the potential to ruin your evening?
2) Was it expensive (by your standards)?
3) Was the server snippy at all when asking about the steak? (Didn't sound like it)
4) Did she offer to remedy it in any way i.e. bring another steak, or bring you something else, or comp you dessert or something like that? (Also didn't sound like it)

I tend not to complain much in restaurants, but a completely inedible main would have me seriously going through nice phrasings in my head, especially if it was expensive and I had counted on dinner being a highlight of the evening.

Sounds to me like you got what we call a "vein" steak. This is a steak cut from the sirloin end of the strip. The "vein " in question is not a vein, but rather a very tough piece of gristle (connective tissue) that lies just under the fat cover. It starts out near the middle of the steak and as one cuts toward the rib it disappears. I have butchered literally thousands of boneless sirloin strips and have *never* served one of these to a customer - as a steak. We excise the "vein" and use the now veinless piece of meat as a stir fry or a saute or grind it.

I would have sent it back. It should not have been served.

Friday night, we had tickets for a live performance of "Swing", and decided to have dinner at a fairly new restaurant across from the performing arts center. They serve small bites paired with three wines that your choose from. Or you can order small plates of food or complete dinners. I choose a New York steak, served with French green beans and a spring salad. The salad was great and so were the green beans. The steak was the most awful chewing meat ever. It was cooked medium rare, seasoned well but I could not chew the pieces of meat well enough to swallow them, due to tough tissue and gristle. I ended up with a plate of ugly partially chewed meant. The waitress noticed and asked about the meat. She informed me that New Yorks are always that way, and walked off. She gave us good service, and was very nice. My husband thought I should have asked the steak to be taken back. I opted to forget about it, and not make a fuss, since we were seated next to a table with four lawyers and their wives, whom we knew.
Besides the wine was great and I was feeling mellow.

I'm more reticent than some people about sending food back, but if a New York were that tough I'd have probably done so. Sounds like an awful steak!

Mike

I would have sent it back. I can't think of any cut of meat that a restaurant would serve that is intentionally tough. I know that in my restaurant we purchased aged short loins (28 days I believe)and cut the NewYorks ourselves. The only way I know of a NewYork being that tough is if the Restaurant is cutting corners and serving "select" grade beef.

If a waitperson were that snippy with me I would ask to see the manager/owner. In the case of people seated at a close table I would have gotten up and approached someone at the bar or host station to see the manager. There is no excuse for the waitperson's behavior.

I know, as a manager/owner I never tolerated such actions.

I would give the restaurant a call now and inform them of the action. It is in their best interest to know.

but I could not chew the pieces of meat well enough to swallow them, due to tough tissue and gristle.

One of my guidelines for acceptability would certainly be being able to swallow the food for which I've paid good money.

She informed me that New Yorks are always that way, and walked off. She gave us good service.........

No, she didn't. At best, she gave you incorrect information, and at worse, she lied straight to your face. New Yorks are NOT always that way, if, as Chef Carey has pointed out, the end which contains that nasty gristle (and all strip loins are built this way) is processed for something else, or discarded and its cost amortized among the remaining, edible steaks.

I would have either sent the dish back and asked for a replacement, or asked that the charge be removed from the check.

I would have dealt with it. I'm not one to bicker about food unless they forget something I really wanted or bring the complete wrong thing [and I don't want what they brought].

If it's a bad steak, the next one's not likely to be much better. Make a mental note either don't go back to that restuarant, or order something different next time.

Personally, I never give a restaurant a second chance with my food. If the first dish is unsuitable, I have little confidence that the second will be more acceptable. Besides, I don't trust what happens with the second dish (in the hands of the cook or the server) when the first is sent back. Sorry all you restaurant people, too many horror stories from former wait people.

In short, I would have asked the wait person to inform the cook and the manager that the cut of meat was inedible and I wished to have the price of the entre removed from the bill.

I'm with you Jo Ann, with the same apologies to the restauranteurs who don't make such mistakes. I know it's a tough business, and part of that is zero tolerance for that type of gross error.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I purchased some New York steaks a few days ago. They look nothing like the cut I was served, and I know they will be a lot more tender. At least I will be able to chew them to the point where I can swallow.

I hate bad mouthing a new start up, local restaurant but I certainly will inform, if asked, about my experience.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I purchased some New York steaks a few days ago. They look nothing like the cut I was served, and I know they will be a lot more tender. At least I will be able to chew them to the point where I can swallow.

I hate bad mouthing a new start up, local restaurant but I certainly will inform, if asked, about my experience.

New York steaks most certainly are NOT all that way. I had an ethereal one at A. P. Stump's in San Jose, CA. It was the best steak I've ever tasted, and very tender.

Chef Carey explained what they did wrong.

I think you have two choices. Either write this place off as a loser, or give them your criticism of where the went wrong. This criticism is IMO totally constructive. If nobody complains, they won't realize where they erred. Now, if they choose not to improve things, vote with your feet.

-Paul W.

OK, I heard you all.....thanks! I sent a nice, professional email to the restaurant and VIOLA, there is a gift certificate waiting for me. By the way, my New York steaks last night, prepared by me and grilled by Gene were fabulous. Gene said I could give lessons in seasoning steaks!