We’ve all been there: Stuck in a seemingly endless loop of doing a thing, getting it wrong, trying again and getting it wrong again.
Typically, this level of Dante’s Hell only happens when you’re at work, trying to just grind through the day. Recently, a TikTok tackling this very idea was posted by a restaurant bystander, and it got over 1.6 million views. The reason? Apparently an imperfect steak and a public curious to see what kind of person is bold enough to squabble with the Texas Roadhouse kitchen.
Ceiry Flores (@ceiryflores) explains in the caption that she “had to record bc I was baffled.”
Why? Because a guest at the next table kept sending his food back. Now imagine being the server.
How perfect does the meat need to be?
Guest Mangles Meals, Expects Multiples
In the surreptitiously recorded video, a man in a blue and white short-sleeved Michael Kors shirt, sawing through the middle of his steak. As his dining companion shines a light on it, he hoists it up on his fork. His face? Supremely dissatisfied.
Then, he pushes the cut away with a little shake of his head, and the server picks up the plate to take it back to the kitchen. From the angle Flores got, viewers only see the server’s back. Yet it doesn’t take a body language expert to see she’s seriously stressed.
In the video text, Flores notes that each time the steak has been sent back, a new one has come out to replace it.
Throughout, the server is standing next to the picky diner, left hand jammed in her back pocket, her focus entirely on the guest’s plate. Then as he’s rejecting the food, she tucks a piece of flyaway hair behind her ear. It is frustration and resignation in a single gesture.
It’s also excruciating to watch.
Sir, Perhaps You’d Like A Chicken Sandwich?
One commenter, Matisse_00 (@matisse_00), cuts to the chase: “After the third time it’s time for a manager to say they’re sorry they won’t be able to meet the request, they can pick another item or leave.”
Because how many times can a customer send a plate back before being encouraged to “please try another specialty.”
In an article for Medium, writer Larry Majewski says that when you send a dish back to the kitchen, it is tantamount to swimming upstream. The returned dish “instantly disrupts the outward flow of food” and often has the added bonus of enraging the chef.
Now, consider that’s happened five times.
At this point, management needs to step up and attempt to smooth the situation over. Not least because, as several commenters noted, the kitchen in question is located inside a chain restaurant.
TikTok user Marlene (@marlycakes) says, “Dude you’re at Texas Roadhouse for crying out loud, not a Michelin Star steakhouse.”
Meanwhile, Majewski, who owns a restaurant, says, “the reasons for sending a dish back have no bounds.” He’s gotten complaints ranging from “too much black pepper” to “not enough tentacles.”
Pure Speculation O’Clock
Peering closely at the steak in question, it looks like it’s being served rare. So is the meat too rare or not bloody enough? A five-time send-back suggests that not only is it not rare enough but that the guest wants something specific and special.
Perhaps the guest has come to Texas Roadhouse looking for a “blue steak.” A blue steak is a steak that is charred on the outside but practically uncooked on the inside and sometimes called “Pittsburgh style.”
Legend says that when steel was booming in Pittsburgh, the workers would sometimes bring in steaks for lunch. Rather than cooking on a grill, workers would slap their steaks down on some of the hot metal they were surrounded by. With temperatures reaching 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, it charred the outside of the meat quickly while leaving the interior close to raw.
Of course, it is possible there’s another likely reason for sending steak after steak back: Tage bait. That, or as Webe_King (@webe_king) speculates, “Bros account balance was -11.53 so he needed it to be free.”
BroBible reached out to Ceiry Flores via TikTok direct message and with a comment. We will update this article if she replies to us.
@ceiryflores I had to record bc I was baffled #texasroadhouse #steak #karen #food @Texas Roadhouse