I recently took my mother out to a local spot, and she ordered the wood-fire grilled filet mignon WELL DONE. I held my tongue and shared a look with our server.

My question is, how grumbly are chefs about requests like this?

This is only applicable to steaks, not burgers.

Dear Diners,

I don’t understand this insistence rarer is always better.

Just takes longer and makes timing with the other meals a bit of a hassle, that’s all. We might make fun of you, but we’re not going to intentionally mess up your order.

I work as a cook in a restaurant that serves lots of burgers. Well done is not an uncommon request. Medium is most common, followed by medium rare, but plenty of people order medium well or well. Well done is easiest to cook because you don’t have to worry too much about over cooking it while you’re working on other…

Tipping isn’t something that really makes sense economically, and has forever been an under-the-table sort of thing. Of course wait staff won’t like it, they’ll have to actually pay taxes on their income now. Of course owners don’t like it, they’ll have to actually pay and treat their employee’s like employee’s and…

Let’s save some time here. I present to you, Mercenary Chef’s ‘List of People Cooks Judge’:

This. Don’t count on getting the best piece of meat when you order well done. The chef may (will) take this as an opportunity to get rid of the older less desireable meat on hand.

Agreed. I believe that they should definitely enforce this in every state. I’m currently a server and there are some nights that I make 20+ an hour and other nights I make 10. What kills me is how they get away with having us do all the extra work, like roll silverware, bus our own tables, clean our whole area at the e…

Nah they hate you for other reasons. 

“my burger-loving heart”

They won’t hate you, but you’d better not complain how it’s “lacking in flavor” afterwards.

Also, your server might think you’re a bit clueless and might be a good mark for upselling a dessert.

 Whenever I get to feeling judgy about well done beef, I remind myself of all the times people tell me "you don't hate seafood... you just haven't had it the right way yet."  I then take a deep breath and turn away.  Everyone gets three passes on irrational dislikes, but on the fourth, you're a picky fussypants, and…

Seriously, fuck tipping, it doesn’t improve service. I’ll pay for the $15 wage in my food, and I will see that cost on the menu. Done.

It’s odd that businesses only seem to ever want to negotiate the cost of labor down as far as possible. They don’t do that shit with utilities.

Agreed. If you can’t afford to pay your employees, you can’t afford to run your business. 

Good. As someone said one time, if you can’t run a business without exploiting your workers by paying them poverty level wages, then you don’t deserve to have a business. Either figure out a business model that allows you pay a fair and decent wage or fucking pack it in and make room for someone who can.