Eating out is not just about the convenience of being served cooked food instead of preparing it yourself and the experience of being in either a new or familiar environment dining on new dishes.
You have to know your table manners, too, and this applies to steak houses where meat dishes are the stars.
Use Your Eating Utensils
While you may want to eat with your fingers to get to the meat of the matter, so to speak, you have to remember that certain kinds of meat should never be eaten with your fingers.
You may, however, use your fingers to eat hotdogs, hamburgers, and ribs as well as chicken pieces since it will be impractical to use eating utensils.
But when it comes to other types of meat, such as sausages without buns, steaks, pork, and veal, whether these are grilled, boiled, and stewed, you have to use a knife and fork.
This makes sense considering that dividing the meat with your fingers can be messy while cutting the meat into bite-sized pieces with your teeth can be even messier.
Enjoy the Meat As Is As Much as Possible
While you may want to smother the steak in sauce, you should avoid doing so especially in a fine dining restaurant.
Think about it: You should enjoy the tender, juicy and succulent qualities of the meat, which require little to no sauce at all, not to mention that you will be insulting the chef’s capacity to produce such a delicious piece of meat.
If you still want to enjoy the delicious sauce with your steak, you can instead pour a small amount on your plate (i.e., next to the steak).
You will then be able to dip each bite-sized piece of meat into the sauce – truly, a good balance between sauce and meat.
Tips on Cutting Meat
You should also be aware about the proper way of cutting meat. Keep these tips in mind so that you will not appear like a caveman in a restaurant:
- Hold your knife in your right hand and your fork in your left hand.
- Use your fork to hold the meat in place and cut the meat into a single bite-sized piece with your knife.
- Place your knife on your plate, transfer the fork with the meat in it to your right hand, and put the meat in your mouth.
Now that you know your table manners, you will be more at ease when dining at Smith and Wollensky, a fine dining restaurant that serves USDA Prime steaks and a wide range of other food and beverages for truly satisfying meals.