The Condiment Red Flag To Watch Out For At Any Steakhouse

Dining at a steakhouse should be a luxurious experience. After all, if you are paying premium prices for cuts of ribeye, filet mignon, and New York strip, your meal should be juicy and succulent with each successive bite. So, if your server brings you a steak smothered in steak sauce or even offers you a bottle of this condiment upon serving you, this is a red flag that the steak could either be an inferior cut or prepared in a subpar manner. 

You might also want to avoid ordering the dish at a steakhouse if this has happened during one of your dining out experiences. And unfortunately, getting a steak that is not worth its price tag happens more often than not. Spoiler alert: Not every steakhouse serves beef graded prime by the Agriculture Department. Per the Washington Post, only 2% of meat sold in the food service industry can boast that they serve prime-graded beef, which could be why steak sauce is more popular than it should be at certain steakhouses.

A good steak has some irrefutable qualities that can be both seen and tasted. It is going to be well seasoned with a simple salt and pepper. The chef should salt it before it is cooked, and you should also add another sprinkle before you cut into it to enhance the already incorporated spices. The exterior will have developed a lovely golden crust and a beautiful sear. It should be cooked somewhere between rare and medium rare. If you prefer a more well-done steak (and depending on the cut you've ordered), then maybe steak sauce has a place on your plate.

Steak sauce has been around for a while and tends to be both sweet and tangy. You may even have a bottle of it in the form of A1 Steak Sauce, which is popular because of one ingredient: Orange puree. Its acidic nature helps to tenderize a tougher cut while making it more flavorful. It's not great for a filet mignon or a dry-aged cut of beef (which is the overrated steak you don't want to order at a steakhouse anyway), but if you have a charred steak or one that is overly fatty, you might want to take the steakhouse up on dousing your steak with it.