Was I right not to eat this steak? (Pic)

[JulyDreams]

Went to restaurant tonight. Ordered steak well done as I am 30 weeks pregnant. Came like this after opening it up. Looked worse in person, the photos don't show it as pink as it was in the restaurant. I was nice enough and just asked at the end to have it taken off.

Was I right I'm not eating this? Waitress was very polite and agreed to take it off bill for us although didn't say much about how it was cooked....? DP said it looked 'ok'

And your contention is that the onus was on OP to chase up the negligent waiting staff, and that her ruined meal was therefore her own fault? You stated, after all, that had you been dealing with her complaint, you would have refused to refund her for the inedible meal.

I never said anything was her fault. Don't put words in my mouth.

You may have worked in "all sorts", but you could do with a refresher on customer service basics.

Yes, because wanting to know of any staff or food issues so they could be rectified is missing the basics

Did you miss the part where if I knew about the issue OP would have been both a new meal and the meal foc? That's not missing any basics, that's good customer service.

@Regularsizedrudy

He did offer me to have his but not the same when it's not what you order... yeah was a total waste. Wish we had just stayed in now 

OP is correct, you should avoid pink or bloody meat when pregnant because of the risk of toxoplasmosis. Burgers and mince are higher risk for food poisoning from bacteria because the bacteria isn't in the tissue of the meat, it is on the surface (transferred during preparation) so as long as the outside of a steak is seared, there won't be any bacteria inside the steak, whereas when the meat is minced, the bacteria is transferred all over the mince (and inside the burger). Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite that lives in the tissue though so the meat needs to be cooked through.

NHS advice is definitely to have all meat fully cooked. I love medium rare steak and as I am currently pregnant, am very much looking forward to it once baby is here. I haven't eaten a steak because I wouldn't like a well done one, seems a waste of good meat. Plus exactly as you found the amount of done-ness varies so widely.
But OP you should have spoken up! Silly to sit there unable to eat. If you ask in the right way and explain the pregnancy they would have rectified it for you. Many people have no idea of the pregnancy food restrictions.

Knowing me, I'd have eaten it, but it looks like rare or medium rare. All the best op

I only eat well done meat (the idea of pink or bloody make me feel sick). I have to send my steak back a good 1/3rd of the time, and that's etc asking for it very well done, verging on cremated (not because that's how I want it, but otherwise they give me medium).

Maybe places have kicked it round the kitchen or spat on it, or sat on it or something, but since I'm oblivious and nothing has ever made me ill following sending things back, I'm just not going to dwell on it and enjoy my steak.

You should have asked OP. It was silly to sit there with uneaten steak.

Ps, yes it's following government advice, but a lot of it of just very precautionary. If that's his you like your steak, I'd have just eaten it personally.

I was nice enough and just asked at the end to have it taken off.

It’s a lot ruder to not pay for something rather than ask them to cook it a bit more.

You would have been fine eating it but if you felt it was too rare then they would have happily cooked it for longer.
If you’re so worried about undercooked meat then steak probably wasn’t the best choice.

@JulyDreams yeah I suppose but there were plenty more customers there. I don't think they gave a crap about me when I walked out hungry. Don't mean that in a shitty wait either literally just saying. they paid for your dinner and you didn’t give them a chance to do anything else. Next time ask for it to be cooked more or highlight you can’t consume pink meat because you are pregnant.

No idea why you are getting so many responses that it’s fine to eat rare steak. The nhs guidance is pretty clear on this.

Oh this might explain why I didn't know. I was pregnant in France. Unpasteurised soft cheese, excessive fish and some types of pâté were big no-nos. Everything else seemed to be fine over there. I definitely wasn't told meat had to be well done and my consultant was well aware that I spent 3 months eating steak because he thought it was funny (having been vegetarian from age 8).

I’d have eaten that. I accidentally over cooked a steak a few weeks ago (second tri) and was devastated.

If I did feel the need to follow the extremely risk averse NHS advice then I simply wouldn’t order steak in a restaurant.

Pregnancy is kind of irrelevant, if you wanted your steak well done for any reason that's fine.

You should have asked for it to be cooked a bit more though rather than waste it and ask for your money back.

This is why I didn't eat steak while pregnant, a well done steak is a travesty. First night I was home from the hospital I had a delicious rare steak. That's not well done but in your shoes I would've got the attention of the waitress and given them opportunity to replace it, especially as you fancied it.

I'd have eaten it. I don't like my steak any other way. When I was pregnant with my first three there was no such rules about what you can and can't eat. When I was pregnant with my 4th suddenly there was all these rules. Nothing had changed about what I ate so I didn't avoid certain things based on new rules. All was OK. So I'd eat it. But I understand that those who knew no different abide by the rules like clockworks based on that I guess I understand but I'm sure it would have been fine.
Food is something I love I wasn't about to eat overdone or different stuff because the rules suddenly changed when I'd done it before and all was well. The rules are way OTT IMO. But each to their own... Doesn't require a thread on others opinions if you weren't comfortable with it. Never understand that about this sort of thread. Like _ my steak was rare I didn't eat it because I'm pregnant and no one ever before did it right but I'm doing it right am I right?????
Doesn't really matter what anyone else says right? You did you and that's enough.

Interesting. France has a much higher toxoplasma seroprevalence than the UK, about 50%. French friends in the UK were surprised that it wasn't part of routine pregnancy screening here. I think the advice was that it was only women who haven't been exposed before that need to take precautions (in the early noughties). One of my friends is an only child because her mother was advised to terminate her pregnancy and never have another child after catching toxoplasmosis (France in the late 70s).

I love a rare steak so I've just avoided steak completely during pregnancy. I miss it but I'd rather just wait until I can have it how I like it without worrying about it. You probably could have eaten the steak and it'd be fine but it's not worth it if you'd be worried.

I dont think the nhs advice is over the top. The vast majority of things are ok to eat. Some things should be avoided uncooked but are perfectly fine if you heat them (blue/mould ripened cheeses). Some things can be frozen beforehand to make them safer e.g. cured meats.

There are only a few things that should be avoided completely leaving plenty that you can eat

I had my last 2 children abroad so I wasn't privy to any of the NHS "guidance"

My obgyn told me not to eat raw meat and I think that was about it. I ate rare steaks during all my pregnancies. And soft cheeses. And sushi. That's not actually the point of the post though.

I think it's irrelevant that you're pregnant, op, your food wasn't cooked as you asked and that's the issue. You were U not to ask them to cook it longer, but at the end of the day you didn't pay for your meal so nothing lost.

Pregnant or not I want my steak to be cooked to my liking and I would send it back if it wasn't.

This is why I'd much rather spend £££££ at the butcher and cook at home!

Also seared steak is fine, it's when it's minced into a burger or hache that it becomes a problem.

Seared steak really isn't fine, @nearlyspringyay. The parasite that causes toxoplasmosis is inside the muscle tissue. If the meat isn't cooked through, it won't be killed. The risk is small but infection during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, still birth, and blindness, developmental delays.

OP, that steak looks delicious but I wouldn’t have felt comfortable eating it while pregnant either. I’m in France, land of the rare steak, and French women are most definitely told to cook all meat all the way through during pregnancy. I would have tried to get them to cook it more too, and would have been unimpressed if the service was so bad I couldn’t manage to ask for that.

Oh wow, and I thought I was bad with my obsession with rare steak during pregnancy! You ate beef mince raw?! I didn’t even know you could do that! 😮

You do know you can have pink steak when pregnant? I assume you don't usually have it well done as you specifically mention being pregnant. You only have to be careful with the likes of mince and sausages as they can have bacteria.