I devised this grading system to judge steaks by. I consider it to be impartial while highlighting what someone most expects out of a good steak eating experience.
Price
Everything costs money. Steak costs the most money. And even though steak is one of the more pricier options on restaurant menus, it’s one of the least profitable items offered by the restaurant. So that price that you see can go a long way towards informing you whether you’re getting a good deal on a good steak, or overpaying and being gouged by a restaurant putting out a mediocre cut for a higher price to pad their profit margins.
Look
It’s often said you eat with your eyes first. Why else would some restaurants put these beautifully staged photos inside their menus of the options they offer? So when that plate plops down on the table and you finally lay your eyes on what you’ve been waiting for, that’s supposed to be a memorable experience. If the steak doesn’t look very good, chances are it doesn’t taste very good.
Cooked to Doneness
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the different ways to order a steak. Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, and Well Done. You can debate the best of that group among yourselves, but whatever your preference is ends up being just that. If you’ve ever cooked steak at home, you should know that if you take your eyes off of it for a second, that becomes a minute, becomes two minutes, then becomes overdone steak. So when you’re paying someone else to handle the hard part for you, this becomes a crucial factor in how you’re going to remember a steak. Was it cooked how I wanted? If it was, my compliments to the chef. If it wasn’t, then what exactly am I paying for? This one factor can make or break any steak.
Taste
The taste I’m referring to is the taste of the meat itself. How steak like does my steak taste? Different cuts of steak will have different levels of tenderness and beefiness. Regardless of how a restaurant wants to dress up a steak, it shouldn’t clash the natural flavor of steak. This will usually be an indicator of the true quality of the steak. Was it tender and juicy with a lot of natural flavor? Or was if full of gristle and chewy, excessively fatty, and lacking flavor? In this area, “You get what you pay for” is going to apply. A 20 dollar Choice ribeye isn’t going to be the equal of a 40 dollar Prime, dry-aged ribeye. Of course any steak can be ruined by being overcooked, this category will be closely linked to Cooked to Doneness. How it tastes to you will reflect upon your preference in how you like to order your steak and what cuts of steak are your favorite.
Seasoning
The factors a restaurant can control among its steak offering: Price, Cooked to Doneness, and Seasoning. The latter, Seasoning, is what I tend to use to begin to separate the seemingly endless offerings of steaks just rubbed with seasonings and thrown on a grill. What seasonings were used? Was it a good balance and combination of flavors? Was it marinated? This is where an average steak can be elevated to the realm of a great steak. It is a truly endless opportunity to make an impression. Certain flavors are almost ubiquitous now, a Cajun rubbed steak or Teriyaki marinated steak are offerings you’d probably see in chain restaurants. Injecting flavor into a marginal steak to make it a better experience. More expensive steakhouses are going to rely on the superior quality of their meat. Whatever road they go down, execution is what matters here. I also tend to reward creativity/originality and effort. I’d much rather a seasoned steak than a bland steak.
Bang for the Buck
This is truly the money line. We’re not all made of money. And who likes overpaying for something? If you’ve ever eaten an expensive steak and thought to yourself, “I had a better steak a couple weeks ago for half the price at Steakhouse X” then this is the category for you. Basically it boils down to how much did you pay for the steak vs. how much do you think it was worth? This will involve some comparison shopping between restaurants and the value of certain cuts of steak. Is it a complicated mathematical formula? Not at all, but as restaurant patrons, this can be the most critical factor for influencing where to eat or what to order. Again, we’re not all made of money. And even if I was, why would I pay 50 dollars for something I can get for 25 dollars? More expensive, should be better. But because that’s not always the case, that was a central idea in creating this blog.
Additional Info
Since we’re trying to focus mainly on steak, we don’t go too much into the side dishes offered with the meal. Some restaurants offer one side, some offer two sides, and some don’t let you pick from a list and instead will serve a steak with their choice of side or sides. Also, most steaks will come with a salad. Good or bad, they don’t really influence the steak, so they’ll mostly go uncommented. However, since they’re included in what you pay for, they will influence our Bang for the Buck estimates sometimes. Mainly, I’ll really only note a side dish that’s pretty exceptional.
Service
I’ve heard the most feedback about this. Again, I’m only trying to focus on how good a steak is. Maybe this will change in the future? Poor service is one of the major sticking points of a dining out experience. I think it can be even easier to remember the service vs. the actual food.
It is my goal to judge the steaks a restaurant offers. How they train their servers or the kind of people they hire, that’s entirely up to them. But would you go to a restaurant with rude or incompetent servers? Probably not, no matter how good the food was. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, you can never know the kind of day someone is having. You never know if someone just got hired and is learning the ropes. You just never know. If you want to make a commentary on the service, do it with your tip. The same can be said about a bad meal. If you have a bad meal at a restaurant, don’t take it out on a good server. Just don’t give the restaurant anymore of your business.
But judging service can be so highly subjective, so I don’t want to take on the burden of either approving or disapproving of an experience based on service alone. My criteria of good service includes: refilling my drink often(I drink a lot) and having a good attitude or helpful demeanor. Maybe other people look for other things? So I’ll leave this area up to the individual.
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