There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

My mother used to always say, “You get what you pay for”, and last week was a testament to her wisdom. One of the oldest steakhouses in St. Petersburg, The Texas Cattle Company, has always offered customers a free birthday dinner if they show their driver’s license, so I took them up on that back in November. Unfortunately, my salad came with no vegetables…it was a bowl of yellowish iceberg lettuce…and my “medium” steak was bloody and cold. After a re-cook, it was still bloody and cold, but with a burnt crust on the outside. It was such a bad experience that, even though it was my free birthday dinner, the manager gave me a card to come back and try it again.

So last week, on my friend Mark’s birthday, we decided to give it another go. We both had the exact same experience…terribly undercooked steaks…crappy looking salads…sautéed mushrooms that were straight from a can and not really sautéed at all. Again, we had re-cooks and again they still weren’t cooked properly. The same nice manager was on duty and she once again offered me another opportunity to come back.

I’m not sure I’ll go back for a third time. Obviously, they have either a problem with the temperature of their grill or inexperienced line cooks or both. I applaud the excellent customer service that we received on both occasions from the manager, and from our good server, but this restaurant needs to address the consistency of their food. Even though our meals were “free”, I’m certain this must be a widespread problem. Mom was right…you get what you pay for, or in my case, what you don’t pay for.