Sue,
A quick google of the restaurant,(with "flashlight" in the search), shows that this is business as usual across the chain.
Glad you enjoyed the meal.
Jo

That is carrying customer service a bit too far. In some restaurants I wish they would give me a flashlight to read the menu. Ambiance is nice but so is visibility.

I don't think you can compare Shula's with the Palm, though. The Shula's around here are more like a sports bar with steaks. Now I tempted to go just to experience the flashlight routine.

Sounds like they are watching too much CSI.

What I have to shake my head at is when I order my steak Pittsburgh--they don't know what that is.

Oh dear. I think I'd find that as appealing as the overly friendly waitperson who squats next to my table to tell me the specials.

I disagree that this is going over the top.

It gets the question of whether your steak is cookect correctly or not out of the way right up front.

No muss, no fuss.

I think it's a good idea.

Cathy, I had no idea what "Pittsburgh" style was either. I don't want mine cold in the middle, but I want it extremely rare so I order mine "warm/raw". Waiters never believe me, and my steak is always too well done.

Annie

As odd as it is, we also have eaten somewhere that they pulled out the flashlight to check on the doneness of the meat. Darned if my addled brain can remember where that was, but I tend to agree with Kframe, it's okay by me!

I also have had the flashlight treatment. Perhaps because I say "blue rare"...of "I don't want it so well done that a good vet can't save it"...so I guess they have to show me that that's the way my steak has been cooked.
Linda C

I tend to agree with Kframe about the penlight.

I think it was a bit too much that she almost carried the soufflee back though.

I love Outback's rack of lamb, but refuse to go there because it irritates the heck out of me that they squat at the table, or scootch you over to sit next to you, and chat you up almost every time they come to the table. Drives me crazy! I'm there to catch up on my husband's day, or friend's, not to "meet" you.

My DH always orders raw, because else it will be too cooked for him ;)

Not sure if the pen light would bother us or not. Depends how it is carried off :D

Annie, yabut you aren't working at a steak house so you are excused!

I don't think the flashlight would bother me as like Annie, it's got to be very rare. And if I am paying a lot for it, then I expect my instructions to be followed especially since I was asked how I wanted it up front.

*A steak ordered "Pittsburgh rare" is rare or very rare on the inside and charred on the outside. In Pittsburgh, this style is referred to as "black and blue" (black, i.e. sooty on the outside, Blue rare on the inside).

Wow. I never heard that term but that's how I like my steak. I always just spell it out by saying, "red on the inside, black on the outside"

That's how I like mine too, but had never heard the term "Pittsburgh rare".
(Maybe because I'm 3000 miles away and nobody here would understand!1?!?!?)

I've always order "Blood Rare" after a restaurant cook told me that's how to get a steak the way I like it!

If it's very casual, I tell them just to chase it across the grill! LOL

Deanna

The story behind a "pittsburgh steak" is that old steel workers in Pittsburgh would cook their steaks on the side of the huge vats of molten iron. Hence, burning the outside and keeping the inside raw.

A few thoughts from posts in this thread:

At any good-or-better restaurant, a server should be able to describe their interpretation of the different levels of doneness. Better yet, understand your specific request. (I find when I explain exactly how I want it to look, it rarely fails.) Their cooks should be able to deliver, within a reasonable margain of error. No flashlight necessary.

I'm way closer than 3000 miles to Pittsburgh and never heard the term before a couple years ago. I'm thinking that shouldn't be taken for granted.

1000% agreed on the Outback thing. It is forced casualness at its worst and I and I hate it. I don't judge the server by it because I know it's a misguided corporate directive that they are forced to comply with.

The immediate flashlight inspection upon serving is a bit odd to me. But I don't eat out that much. I'm wondering if the meat is removed from the grill and placed on a very hot plate where it might continue to cook if someone nibbles sides, butters their spud, passes the condiments, talks a while...before actually cutting into the meat. So the management has decided to avoid both the issue of waste and dissatisfied customers by making sure the patron examines the meat right away. Any decent grill cook can tell by feel and timing what's happened to the steak without dissecting it.

I'm sorry and probably a bit uncouth - but I might have just burst out laughing when the flashlight was pulled out! Ha!

dedtired - I don't know if Shula's is changing it's marketing strategy (this is the first one I've been to) but this was no sports bar, although it obviously has the football theme going. The personnel were dressed to the nines and they had incorporated bits and pieces from other steakhouses, right down to Morton's rolling cart of meat. The prices were comparable as well.

The food was actually very good and I have to say that my steak was perfectly cooked. But I still prefer the more traditional approach of the Palm ;)

Sue

I rarely go to Outback, but I've never had them scoot me over to sit, or squat at my table to chat thank goodness. I don't go to any restaurant to socialize with the staff.

Speaking of strange experiences--in Chicago on business, I went to dinner at Eddie Debevics. The bus boy had a pack of cigs rolled up in his tee shirt sleeve and the waitress was chomping on her gum. When I placed my order she said "a little chubby to be ordering mashed potatoes aren't ya'?".

Well obviously I didn't know it was a gimmicky tourist trap with fake 50's diner decor and an insulting waitstaff. After I got over the initial shock it was okay.

I spent over 20 years in the restaurant business, and never heard the term "Pittsburgh" in relation to steak. I always heard "char blue" or just "blue". Of course, I am in California, so maybe the term just hasn't traveled here.

If overly familiar wait staff are an annoyance, I would simply state that when I made my reservation or tell the manager prior to being seated. Just say something like, I prefer a more formal style service.

When training wait staff, one of my bugaboos was waiters that used the term, "guys" when addressing customers, as in "are you guys ready to order?". It was a hard habit to break people of, but it was an expensive restaurant, not a hamburger joint.

I used to tell my servers that you really only have about 3 minutes to size up a table and discern what the customers want from you. Some people want friendly, some want formal, some want you to be a comedian or social director for their party, some want you to not be heard, and barely seen. It is one of the things that makes for a truly good waiter, that sizing up. Anyone can write an order down and carry a plate.

I just have to comment on my one and only Ruth's Chris steakhouse experience. I guess I just don't get the whole high-end steakhouse thing. I love steak, but I also love flavor. When DH and I had a gift certificate to Ruth's Chris I was looking forward to a tasty meal. My steak tasted like it had no seasoning on the meat at all. Not even salt and pepper. I understand that with quality meats you want to taste the meat, but no pre-cooking seasoning AT ALL? Not even S & P? I thought that was weird. And the sauce they served on the side tasted like it was from a bottle...not home made. Their sides were unimpressive, too. I make better scalloped potatoes at home.

Is it just me? I'd much rather have a steak au poivre or a steak frites or a nice salt-and-peppered filet with blue cheese and have a more full-flavored experience, which one can get for a lot less than RC's prices, by the way.

We often had good steaks while growing up but they were never seasoned with anything. If my mother caught me dipping an edge in ketchup she had a fit that I was ruining great meat.
I guess she would have loved Ruth's Chris!

A penlight wouldn't bother me but friendly waiters certainly do. Put me in the category of waiters should be background and rarely heard - but inconspicuously attentive. I have never scooted over for a waiter and never will.

I'm not crazy about having a raw slab sliced at the table either. I don't really like looking at that raw meat before dinner.

Some of those high end steakhouses are a tad fetishistic, in my opinion.

Likewise, I don't like overly solicitous wait staff hovering over me--the reductio ad adsurdum of that practice is skewered in the New Yorker cartoon at the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: cartoon

I wouldn't want my meat seasoned in the kitchen, I want to decide my own level of seasoning. Plus, many people nowadays are on salt-free diets, so not seasoning is more sensible.

IMO thats very tacky, I have been in very high end Steakhouses hell I think ive been in everyone in the NYC 5 boroughs and never I mean never seen a "Penlight".

Its been awhile, so I don't remember how the meat was at Ruth Chris's, but when they brought my husband his soup......it was boiling!! And I mean boiling.......bubbling all over the place. Weird.
I had a prime rib at Outback recently, and it was the worst piece of meat I'd ever had. Even though I ordered it medium-rare, and it looked medium-rare, it was more the consistency of tough pork. It was just awful.

One of Ruth Chris' schtix is that their steaks are served on pans heated to 500 degrees, so that they stay hot to the last bite. I hadn't heard that their soups were served that way!

Years ago, I used to go to Ruth Chris in SF on a fairly regular basis and every time but one I was quite happy with both the food and the service (once, there was a waiter that really annoyed me). Like all chains, I'm sure that some are better than others even if the recipes and rules are all the same.

Once, the owner of the restaurant I managed tried to get away with ordering a lesser quality Prime Rib, trying to save on food costs. A customer sent one back, and I cut into it to see what the problem was...it was as tough as could be. After getting 5 or 6 sent back that night, he switched back to the higher quality (though he denied to us that anything was different, I saw the chef rolling his eyes).

However, once in a while, even a very good quality Prime Rib will be very tough in a strange way...it almost feels a though there are knots in the meat. Apparently, if an animal is particularly stressed, or particularly susceptible to stress, they metabolize their fat, starting with the fat inside the muscle...stressed animal=tough meat.

In this case, there is no way for the restaurant to know they got a bad piece of meat until customers complain. I am not familiar with Outback, so I have no idea which scenario might apply. I have heard from friends that they enjoy eating there, so I suspect they may just have gotten one of these roasts from a stressed animal.

Laughing at Cathy/Mustangs being taken aback at De Debevic's! LOL!
That's their schtick...sassy rude waitresses, dressed A la 50's and then some...and in one i have been to after the main lunch crush the wait staff does a song and dance number on the counter. And the grand kids love their great mac and cheese.
There is a restraunt group in the Chicago area called "Lettuce Entertain You". Their venues range all over the board. Cafe Babareeba and Papagus, Maggiano's P.J. Clarks to name a few...all innovative all offering good value and all offering good service and food....at least those I have experienced, and their reputation is good.
Linda C