How To Spot A Good Steakhouse Restaurant

Good steakhouse restaurants can cost you a lot of money, but then at least the experience and the taste of the food make it worth your while. They’re great places to visit when you’re on a date, when you want to celebrate a special occasion with family or friends, or if you’re just hankering for a truly exquisite meal.

But how do you differentiate between a good steakhouse and a lousy one? You can always go by the recommendations of friends, and you can also read the customer reviews as well as the articles written by experts.

You can, however, make your own determination as to whether a steakhouse place is great or bad. There are subtle signs you can take into account when you enter a place. You should be mindful of these signs whenever you enter a steakhouse, especially if it’s your first time there:

1. The attitude of the wait staff.The decorations and the music may be nice, but how the staff treats you right off the bat is the more important factor you need to check out. That’s because their attitude can carry over into how they prepare their food. If they’re unhappy or angry, they may not care too much about preparing the food properly. Besides, if you’re going to pay top prices for your meal, you deserve the best service.

A positive sign is when you enter an establishment and there’s noticeable enthusiasm among the staff personnel. The best places know they’re in a good steakhouse, and they’re determined to make sure that you realize it.

2. Quality of the ingredients.It’s always great if the server is nice enough to entertain your questions, so you can ask about the ingredients in the dishes. Most of the time, these servers in good steakhouses can provide details regarding the premium ingredients they use. But if you find out that they’re using generic or substandard ingredients, then at least you know for sure you’re not coming back in the future.
3. Knowledge of your server. The best places have servers who actually know and care about what’s in your dish and how it’s prepared. If they don’t know, they can volunteer to find out. Be wary about places where the servers don’t know and don’t care about the meat or anything else. That’s the kind of uncaring attitude that may also be prevalent among the people who prepare the food.
4. Wine list options. It’s not a good sign at all if a steakhouse is blatantly trying to rip you off. One of these blatant signs of a rip-off is if they’re charging exorbitant prices for wines, and there are very few options that you can get by the glass. They’re basically forcing you to buy a bottle of wine you don’t want, just so they can squeeze more money from you.
5. They may say that it’s laminated because they don’t want it to get dirty. But it also means that they rarely update the menu. The truly good places print out their non-laminated menu each day because they always only serve the freshest food.

Moreover, the more info the menu has, the better the place really is. They should contain information about how the cow was raised and about the marbling. There should be some info regarding the cuts as well.

Yes, you should listen to your friends as well as experts about their recommendations for the best steakhouse restaurants. But you should form your own opinion as well, and following the tips we’ve shared here can help you decide if a particular place is worth checking out.