Has anyone else noticed that medium-rare seems more rare than it used to be? i used to think that medium-rare was perfect, but sometimes these days it's just too damn rare. And it is highly correlated with how nice the place is. Medium is still too welldone. Lately, I have been asking for the chef to "split the difference" between medium and medium-rare.

I really don't think it's my tastes changing. Can anyone back me up on this?

Ciao, Jerry!
I'm a chef/restaurant owner and your point is well taken (no pun intended). I ask my servers to determine what the guest really wants. Once we know this, the kitchen can cook to order. The terms "rare, medium, etc" do vary from place to place. Volunteer the info to your server. It's the only way to insure that you'll be happy. By the way, for those of you who order medium-well to well, a good kitchen hand picks the proper steak for you. A well done steak should start with a very marbled piece of beef so that you don't end up with a dish of dead protein.

I have noticed lately that medium-rare is medium. I like my steaks still mooing slightly in the middle and they are coming out like they have been way overcooked. It's interesting to note that it really does vary place to place and even different areas of the country.

I agree with Venice. "As rare as you can make it" *might* come out medium rare. Otherwise, it's brown when it goes down. Yuk, make mine moo too.

You know, maybe the restaurants are not really listening anymore and don't want to cook their food too undercooked. I have never had an upscale chop/steak house tell me that I can't have it mooing, but some other restaurants "prefer" to serve their meat at least medium-rare, which of course is totally brown.

The best steak though was the mooing piece of filet at Ruth Chris' NOLA before a parade at Mardi Gras, 2001.

Perhaps the scale is sliding towards rare. Once when I ordered "Medium-Well" it seemed more like "Medium-Rare". I like it juicy but not "mooing".

In the last few years, ordering a steak MR has led to a cool center - no longer cooked through at most major steak houses...

I have been finding the opposite as well, ordering medium rare and having it come out overcooked. I would prefer a little more rare to a little more well. But this tends to be at normal restaurants not steakhouses.

I have also noticed the odd place explaining to you what you ordered, which I find very annoying, especially when they don't bring it out the way they explained it to you.

Rare or black & blue.

I like my steak to graze on my salad....

I order mine rare. I'm distressed to hear that someone who orders their meat "well" gets the very marbled piece of beef.

My Dad used to say that he wanted his meat so rare that, if given 10 minutes with a good surgeon, it would come back to life.

I also find that many places tend to cook Medium Rare with a cool reddish blue center. I want a warm Red center, not pink and certainly not blue/cold. I usually ask how Medium Rare is prepared at the steakhouse I am frequenting then tell the wait staff how I would prefer my steak. I have also found that some lower end steakhouses try to pass a thin steak to me. Um, not gonna fly with me.

Also, I want a thick steak, as thick as I can get and ask the wait staff for a thicker portion. I know when I frequent Outback, Texas Roadhouse, Lonestar and the like that the steak will be basic and not of high quality. However, when frequenting a really good steakhouse that offers Prime quality meats, I usually do not have to ask for a thick cut of beef.

Now I am getting hungry.

I find that this completely varies by steak house. The best thing to do is describe to your server how you like your steak (e.g. red warm center). If it comes out cooked wrong, don't be afraid to send it back. After all, you are paying $40 or more for a piece of beef.

Birdstrike, don't worry. There are cuts of prime (i.e bone-in ribeye) that can be over-marbled. We set them aside for well done. Your rare to mid rare is going to have plenty of fat flavor. At least that's the case from a reputable kitchen.

Well, ok. I'm molified I do admit I've never had a bad bit of beef from a reputable kitchen.