The Blue Board

See, that's how I've always viewed it just because... that's how it's always been described to me. However, I have a hard time believing some guy went to culinary school just to overcook steaks to go with ketchup for some whiny little kid. I guess it's really not any different from what I do (graphic design) because my artwork is at the whim of a client. I guess it's different when I compare the two to, say, a painter or a musician. If you go to a symphony play they don't play Mozart the way YOU want to hear it, they play it the way it's supposed to be done.

Maybe I'm overthinking this.

I guess the customer is always right, but I feel if you got a top quality restaurant you should eat the food how its meant to be eaten. Going to a great steak place and getting a well done steak and eating it with ketchup is just dumb, you can go anywhere and get that.

To answer this question you have to decided as a restuarant what your goal is.
if your number one goal is to run a money making business first, then you better cater to the customer regardless of their douchebaggery. Hence the popularity of the chain restaurant.

If your goal to to express yourself through your cooking and show the ability of your craft then you have the right to say no to a customer. If you actually are good at what you do, people will show up to eat your dishes.

i love steak sauce. no homo.

I too am a fan of A1 steak sauce, but I always try the steak first, if well seasoned, I forgo the sauce...

If you are paying good money for a meal, order it how you want. If you the customer doesn't enjoy the meal, the restaurant has failed its most basic function. The annoying part is when a customer sends something back but the restaurant did nothing wrong, you the customer didn't read the description and doesn't like an ingredient. Restaurants have slim profit margins, so if you send your food back that restaurant is now working for you for free-and unless its effed up pretty good they shouldn't be working for free. I have run restaurants for years. We have no issues making the food however you'd like, the frustrating part is when the food is made properly and the customer still complains.

Its about casing the joint so that you can come back and rob it later in the week.

It depends on the restaurant. If you go to Le Bernandin, you don't send back the roasted white fish for lacking salt. If you go to Applebee's, you can send back the steak for being undercooked. Certain restaurants, in my opinion, carry the esteem and weight in the culinary world, that you take what you get with only a VERY few exceptions. I can't outcook Michael Symon or Wylie Dufresne or Jimmy Bradley or Tracy Des Jardiene. If it's not the way I like it, it's on me and not the chef barring something extremely rare like spoiled food.

If I save money to eat at those places then the food is more important than the experience. If my food aint right and it wasnt my fault then i'm saying something

Good points.

If you order something your haven't tried at a restaurant, you might not like it. That happens, and you know next time not to order that. Last year I tried Wood baked lump crap with morels and truffle sauce. Hell, stuff turned out so good I would have pushed my grandma down a flight of stairs to get another helping.

Agree about the steak, I am completely happy with the cut I can buy and grill myself. A little olive oil, and a little montreal steak grill. Then medium rare, and don't nothing go on top of that damn thing. If I'm over at one of you guys house this summer and you're grilling steak, and I ask for some A-1 sauce, it means you completely f'd up my steak.

I don't really have anything to offer this thread that hasn't been spoken already.

I just don't understand why people go to restaurants that have universally known chefs, or at least known by people that like good food, and won't let said Chef do what made him famous or rated highly. I went to a Mario Batali restaurant with my wife about three years ago and she ordered a pasta with seasfood in it. She proceeded to ask the server if she could please get some parmesan cheese to put on the pasta. I didn't flip out on her or anything but I was honestly embarassed. I told her that I'm sure if Batali wanted cheese in his seafood pasta that he would have put it in there. I then told the server not to worry about it and we would take the food however Batali recommended it.

As far as steaks go, I never ever order one at a restaurant. I can drive a mile and a half and get a 1.5 inch T-Bone (my personal favorite cut) and cook it in my green egg just the way I like it. The steak might cost 25 dollars for the cut and I don't have to tip and know exactly what kind of seasonings I like on it and how I like it cooked. Still don't know how anyone eats a steak anything but medium rare but again that's just me.

When it comes to sauces on steak I somewhat disagree. I don't use ketchup (sacrilegious) or steak sauce but a good red wine reduction is pretty damn good on them as long as you don't drown the steak with it and use it as a compliment.

Well said on the steaks sir. I agree with everything you said including the t-bone.