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How to order steak at a restaurant to ensure an enjoyable experience that won’t leave you with a headache, indigestion, or worse the next day.
I went out to eat at a local steakhouse recently with my extended family for a celebratory dinner. We had a lovely time – good conversation, lots of laughing, and enjoyment of each other’s company.
Unfortunately, the next day I felt pretty rotten for the experience.
While I had made every effort to order food that wouldn’t make me feel lousy or fatigued later, my attempts to dodge the chain restaurant food land mines had failed.
I even had to use my go-to natural headache remedies or I would have had to resort to painkillers to get through the day.
I knew exactly what had gone wrong, and I silently chided myself for wimping out and not saying something to the waiter at the time when the steak I ordered did not arrive as I had carefully instructed.
You know how it goes, though. Sending back your food because it is not served as specified is such an annoyance. At the time, I was having such a good time with my family that I decided to just suck it up and eat the food even though I knew it was going to do a number on me the next day.
This is truly one of the biggest downsides of eating clean, whole foods the vast majority of the time.
When you do eat something that is overly processed or laden with toxic additives, it tends to sucker punch the life out of you for about 24-48 hours afterward.
The optimal digestion and improved health and vitality experienced by eating a traditional diet on a daily basis make the occasional negative event of eating factory foods very, very noticeable.
Those who eat processed foods most of the time don’t seem to suffer from this reality possibly because their bodies are so “used to” getting beaten up by chemicals, additives, and GMOs all the time that their nervous system has stopped even registering the experience.
Does this mean that eating processed foods and apparently not suffering from them is not dangerous?
Definitely not!
I compare the experience to that of an alcoholic who can drink a bottle of whiskey and still appear sober.
Just because the alcoholic can “handle” the whiskey doesn’t mean it isn’t doing tremendous biological damage.
On the positive side, my dinner at Outback Steakhouse provided some good material for this article, so here are the pointers I would suggest next time you go to a restaurant and are trying to order steak in such a way that won’t give you a headache or worse in the coming hours and days.
Skip the Chain Restaurants
The first suggestion I would make if you are going out for steak is to avoid chain restaurants if at all possible.
Chains are cheaper than a locally owned steakhouse and that is why they are popular. That budget-friendly menu comes with a price, however, and that is lower-quality food.
Big companies have significant buying power within the industrialized food distribution system because they buy in huge quantities which allows for big price breaks. This is then passed along to the consumer.
However, food that comes in huge quantities is typically lower quality and processed in a highly industrialized setting.
It would be better to choose a restaurant that only has one or two locations where the owner lives within the same community and is also eating there!
A small restaurant tends to more carefully source its ingredients. For example, at least one steak restaurant in Tampa sources its beef locally from grassfed farms.
Not only would steak from this restaurant taste better than one from a corporate chain, but it would also contain more nutrition too.
Tell the Waiter “No Seasonings”
Another problem with ordering steak out is that when the meat sourced is of low quality, it correspondingly has little to no flavor.
Restaurants, particularly chains or franchises, typically compensate for flavorless meat by brushing steaks with seasonings before grilling.
This makes them taste more like the natural, mouthwatering flavor of grassfed steaks.
The problem with these “seasonings” is that they contain neurotoxic MSG, which will likely give you a headache, nausea, or worse for up to 48 hours afterward.
This is what happened to me at Outback Steakhouse. I ordered my steak without the seasonings (grill only) and yet when the steak arrived and I took a bite, I realized the mistake.
Weirdly, my nose often itches slightly when a bite of food with MSG in it comes near my mouth.
If this happens to you, be sure to send it back and request what you originally ordered. You will be happy you did in the morning.
Order Sauces on the Side
Sometimes steaks are served with some sort of sauce brushed on top. Again, this is typically to enhance the taste of low-quality, flavorless beef.
These sauces usually contain GMO corn syrup, GMO corn starch (thickener), chemicals, additives, and MSG.
It is a good idea to request any sauces (brown sauces, gravy, etc) that come with the steak be served on the side. Then, you can take a small taste first to see if it is made from scratch and might be safe to eat.
Most likely, it will be from a bottle, jug, or packet and not worth consuming.
In that case, just get some butter and garlic on the side to melt over your steak when it arrives, use some salt and pepper and you will be good to go.
Rare or Well Done?
While it is true that a rare steak is easier to digest and more nutritious than a steak with the life cooked out of it, if you are eating steak at a restaurant where the quality of the steak may be questionable, I would suggest ordering it well done. This will avoid the potential for pathogens or parasites in the meat.
If you are ordering steak at a quality restaurant in your community that sources from local, grassfed farms, however, ordering the steak seared or rare to medium would be fine and certainly a more enjoyable and digestive-friendly experience.
Do you have other tips to order steak safely at a restaurant? Please share your experience or knowledge with us in the comments section.
If you’d rather just prepare steak at home instead of ordering out, here is an MSG-free, homemade steak sauce recipe to try!
I went to Outback (once) and had to send back my steak because it wasn’t as I ordered it. Even the manager showed up at my table with the attitude that I was trying to put one over on them. It was unbeliveable! They replaced my steak for me, but I was so uncomfortable with their attitude I haven’t been back since, and probably will never go to another Outback. This is a good thing for more reasons than poor service. It will save me from being exposed to bad meat.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this article! So glad to hear I’m not crazy! Last week, I went out w/ some friends for a girls’ night. I had a pear cider and it ruined my night. I started sneezing before we left the restaurant and my head was stopped up to the point I couldn’t sleep by bedtime– miserable. This particular place makes everything from scratch but with commercial sources. It’s the alcohol that messes me up, small local brews are the worst. I usually have beer b/c I don’t want a corn syrup cocktail. If I stick to Busch and it’s cousins, I’m usually fine. I’ve had micro brew beer with steak at home with the same sneezy results. I’d just like to enjoy an occasional drink with friends and not have to be so careful. I will put some carbon in my purse!
Sarah I am usually right there with you, but I’m going to second guess some of the things in this article. I think it’s debatable whether the reaction you had was b/c you eat healthy all the time or that you still have some healing to do. This is just my opinion. I don’t know your situations. Secondly, I think it’s still better to have a questionable steak cooked rare than well done. Maybe with questionable hamburger meat it would be better to err on the well done side, however steaks and the cuts from which they come are inspected (I know that’s not that comforting), but most importantly they are stored in ways that don’t allow pathogenic bacteria to get out of control. I would say still get your steak rare (blue). I definitely agree about holding the seasoning and the sauce. I always tell the waiter/waitress that I want to taste the steak. By the way did you let your family know that you became ill after eating there? Sarah, keep up the good work. Your blog is one of my favorites!
Thanks for the info. Restaurants become more of a challenge the healthier my diet gets
I’m currently recovering from a 4 day mini-vacation of eating out. In those days, we visited only 1 healthy restaurant. I just about cried in relief when the server set down my salad and said, “These greens came from the farmers market this morning and the organic olive oil is from a local farm”. Anyway, I’ve been feeling horrible all week from the other restaurants. Eating out is so stressful for me, and I ruin the enjoyment of my family too with my detailed ordering and sending back food that isn’t as I ordered it. They think I’m just being dramatic and don’t believe I have actual physical reasons for eating the way I do. They do know I used to be so sick I was bedridden and am now healthy, but they can’t seem to connect the dramatic health change to my changed eating habits. It has become easier to just eat whatever is on the menu and suffer for it later; I almost never eat out. I love the analogy of the alcoholic. I hadn’t thought of it that way.
I think people don’t want to believe that food made such a difference because then they’d really need to gave a look at their own diets and they don’t want to change!
Great article and reminder!
It would be nice if you or someone else could be some sort of registry or address book for these types of places! I have two of these places locally and I’m sure there are more considering our area… I would love to pass them along! (Olympia, WA)
Adam
Our local Texas Roadhouse was very accommodating to my requests for no MSG. However, the meat there is marinated before cooking and there is still some additives in the meat. I applaud my server’s efforts to give me what I wanted!
Sarah, I have learned so much from you and often wonder how you do it all. Cooking traditionally while caring for a young family and educating at the same time. I’m retired and it seems like I’m in the kitchen most of the time cooking for just the two of us.
Anyway your article was so timely because all the pleasures of eating out has just become sucked out of me. It has become a stressful experience because no matter how I well I order I feel I’m in a mine field of toxins and I most likely ingested toxins inadvertently.
So can you please tell me what steakhouse you have found grass fed beef at in Tampa? I was thrilled with your article on Burger Monger. At this point all I can find and allow in the house is the 100% grass fed beef hamburg an hot dogs from Super Target.
Grille One Sixteen in Northdale.
YESSSS! Thanks for sharing the name of the restaurant! So excited to go!
Thanks, I’ve been there and had the steak. I thought their steak was just organic not grass fed. Almost every grass fed steak I’ve had is chewy. But their steak was great.
Now if I could find a butcher!
Yum, I love Grill one sixteen. My daughter went to Rooster and the Till in Tampa. Its in a sketchy neighborhood and a little pricey, but check it out.
I also do not enjoy eating out anymore. Kind of a bummer when hubby wants to take me out. I just always pay for it the next day. But I am hoping to try Rooster and the Till for my birthday.
carol, our chiropractor said the grass fed beef at target is not good. i wouldn’t comment if i thought you couldn’t get any better for less. but, if you go here, http://www.grasslandbeef.com/StoreFront.bok, sign up for their newsletter, every 2 weeks it will have an article in it from dr. sears. in the article, he will have a promo code for the meat on the link that will save you 15% off you entire order. you find the code in the article. and, the best thing is that there is no shipping cost, only a $7.50 handling cost per order. the next promo code should be on march 16th. i just ordered 24 1 lb pkgs. of their ground beef this week. it came out to $7, per lb. with the handling cost included with that amount. you MUST order within 2 days for the promo code to work. i ordered mon. and received the order on wed. or thurs. be sure to check out their, $20, with promo code, 1 gal. bottle of the best bbq sauce you will ever taste!
So true! Last time my whole family went to a chain Italian steak house and everyone was going on and on about how wonderful everything tasted. I took one bite of my steak and realized it was because it was loaded with MSG. My grandmother, who had mild Alzheimer’s, started acting very strange. MSG can intensify symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Such a shame our food supply is so degraded, and our taste buds are so desensitized, they have to add enhancers to make it taste good.
Hi Erica, I am eating cleaner and I don’t like processed food, but I wanted to ask you how you could tell it was loaded with MSG? I would love to be able too… Was it a specific thing about it or you just didn’t like it? Thanks!