On The Quality Of Meat At Restaurants

When it comes to dining, nothing tempts my palate more than the edible flesh of animals. Delectable is a word that comes to mind when I wish to describe meat. Although vegetarianism is a very popular trend nowadays, most restaurants still offer a large number of meat dishes. I have always ordered one of these selections when eating out.
When ordering meat there are a variety of ways for it to be cooked. Rare is when the outside is browned, but the inside remains red. Medium rare (my favourite) is very hard to accomplish in its pure form, but competent chefs have no trouble with this. The outside is brown, then there is a layer of pink followed by a warm red center. True medium rare meat will have three layers. Medium is pink throughout. Medium well has some pink, but mostly brown and well-done meat is consistently brown. I used to think that this was common knowledge, and as such it would render this entire paragraph superfluous, but this cannot be the case.
There is reason this information cannot be as well-known as I previously thought. Almost every restaurant I have gone to in the past couple of years has without fail overcooked my steak. I always ask for medium rare, and they serve me a steak well done. I used to merely accept this, not wanting to send food back, and I would simply tip much less than usual. But when I am paying $45 for a filet mignon, the chef should not burn it and expect me to say nothing. I now send it back (which still frightens me a bit, since the annoyed staff may sabotage my food) and request a new steak cooked properly.
In most restaurants the quality of the meat has also diminished. I now receive steaks with only a small portion of meat surrounded by large amounts of fat, whereas I used to receive good cuts of meat. One overrated place at fault on both counts comes to mind: Peter Luger Steakhouse. I know a great many people that believe Peter Luger's to be the best steakhouse around. I have news for everyone-- Peter Luger Steakhouse sucks. First off, they force people to get a shared steak. This results in a larger piece of meat, and therefore the quality plummets. Secondly, if half the party wants the steak cooked rare and the other half wants it well done, the waiters insist on serving a large steak cooked medium. This is bullshit. Of course, when the customer insists that they will not eat a steak that is cooked too much or too little, then two steaks will be served. But someone paying the exorbitant price at this steakhouse should not even receive the suggestion of getting a steak cooked in a way that is not to his or her liking. So as for Peter Luger's, the bacon appetizer is amazing, but the steak just plain sucks.
My point is that restaurants seem to be buying lower quality meat, and this gets combined with chefs that no longer pay attention to how the meat was requested, and the prices have gone up if anything. As far as the quality of the cut of meat, not much can be done. For the overcooking however, there is a solution that sometimes works. Now when I order a steak, I give the waiter a speech. I let him know that most chefs overcook the steak, and that this is a problem. I also tell him that if my meat was not cooked properly, I would much rather have it undercooked than overcooked. Although this may make me sound like a pain in the ass, I feel that something has to be done and this is a solution that has worked.
So next time you order meat at a restaurant, beware! They will have no problem serving you a cheap piece of fat with hardly any meat. And that tiny portion of meat will most likely be cooked in some way other than the way you asked for it. Perhaps the best idea is to simply go to the butcher and cook it yourself.