UKH

Is it just me, or is the use of a steak knife just an admission that the cook has failed in their job.

I was reading an old review of an expensive steak restaurant yesterday and one of the negative comments was about being given ordinary knives rather than steak knives. At the prices quoted, surely the complaint would be if a steak knife was required rather than the fact that one wasn't issued.

I cook steak most weeks, it's often the only meat I have in any given week. I would consider myself a competent cook rather than a great cook, but I have never cooked a steak that couldn't be easily cut with an ordinary knife.

I'll take that as a coincidence and not a thinly veiled critique of my culinary skills - https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/off_belay/what_have_you_bought-723133?v=1...

It's been about a decade since I ate anywhere posh enough to give me a steak knife, and a couple of years since I had steak when eating out.  

For me, it's not that a steak knife is required, it's that there's something really nice about the sensation of a properly sharp knife glides through the meat almost effortlessly; it's also handy if like me you enjoy a Ribeye that's been cooked by holding it vertically with tongs for several minutes so the fat strip alone cooks, then giving each side 60 seconds on a searing hot pan.  You're then cutting through very different textures of meat and fat, which is much easier to do by slicing with a sharp edge than sawing away with a table knife.

No, I hadn’t seen that.

Thanks for giving another perspective, I tend not to eat rib eye.

I think there is an expectation of a steak knife regardless of the poshness of the restaurant. I’ve not been in a harvester for about 20 years, but I reckon you get a steak knife if you order steak.

It strikes me that posher places may not give you a steak knife, because they are confident that you won’t need one.

There aren't many foods where you really need a knife. Just stick your fork in and bite off chunks. Saves hours of washing-up in the long run

When Mrs Num Num cooks steak you need a fork and a chainsaw.

Very often these days a normal table knife has as much cutting ability as the average spork.

Since investing in good quality tableware my knives are fit to be called CUTlery and bespoke steak knives are no longer needed. 

What's her beef skirt like?

I dream of owning a set of these one day https://www.theskalpel.com/buy/skalpel-1

What for?

Your either a crap cook or a open heart surgeon.

Is that similar to beef curtains? 

More like kebab.

A badly stuffed kebab?