Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Steakhouse Knives

The wife and I don’t go out to eat that often and less often go out to eat steak. Every steakhouse we’ve ever been to gives you what amounts to a hacksaw to cut your steak with, big heavy knives with thick serrated dull blades.

You order a nice steak, cooked to perfection and then you try to cut it up into manageable bite size pieces but instead of nice clean cuts you end up shredding the meat to what looks like pulled pork. Why the he%% don’t restaurants give you a sharp plain edge knife?

I’ve used my pocketknife a couple times but the wife gives me “the look” so last night while I was butchering my steak I told her that I was going to order a folding steak knife that won’t embarrass her.

After getting home from the steakhouse I did a little research and ended up ordering a folding, stainless, Opinel #8 with the olive handle off of Amazon. The reviews suggests that I’m not the only one that hates restaurant knives and other guys bring their own when going out to eat steaks. My Opinel knife is due to arrive on Monday.

Anybody else do this?

Can you imagine how much abuse a restaurant knife being held by Joe Public would see and the staff required to keep a good knife serviceable?

After my accident I've been very critical of the knives that come with my steak. I hate having to saw through a piece of meat. I don't know if it's a safety issue or something bit it's very rare to get a good knife that comes out with your steak so I started carrying crkt decent knives, good price, and they don't look terribly out of place in a nice restaurant.

There are hordes of thieves in society .

30 years ago I had a part-time job in a Biloxi casino - employees were stealing the cheap silverware. When I heard that I had a hard time believing it. Nice Steak Knives would get stolen- daily.

I bring my own and use various Opinels depending on what I think I might order. Mostly use #10 and #8 acid etched carbon steel but recently got a #7 stainless that was used this week. My brother started giving me crap like he always does when I get my knife out but he was begging to use it soon after. Sucks to be him.

I bring an elegant little KAI 5700. The steak house knives are despicable. They shouldn't even be called knives.

Because you'd cut yourself and sue the restaurant?

My first thought as well. Sharp knives require maintenance.

I've used my Buck 110 auto in restaurants to cut steaks

Serrated steak knives are an abomination.

I just whip out the huge benchmade, wait staff usually say whoa!

We have steakhouses here in Charleston with sharp knives, most notably Halls Chophouse; also the front of the house staff are full time professionals, not part time college kids. Last steak I had there was about a hundred bucks and worth every cent. We don’t go there too often these days.

Maybe try eating a steak somewhere other than Outback?

Yep, especially cutting up stuff on a ceramic plate.

Thats what i was thinking

Can't ever remember needing a back up knife to eat a good steak

And tell your wife if she gives you one more dirty look - she's going to get smacked .

Looks like I’m not the only one who hates steakhouse knives. Thanks for the replies.

No Outback for me. Longhorn is not too bad.

True story, I took the family out to one of the best steak places nearby for a son's birthday, Del Frisco's. So there were five of us, the boys were all teenagers and I was obviously the one who was gonna pay the bill. Well, the waiter was high or something, he goes around the table, takes my wife's order, then takes the three boy's orders, then turns on his heel and walks back to the kitchen, forgot to take my order. All the boys start laughing, they couldn't believe it.


He finally figures it out, apologizes, and says he'll make up for it. I figured, great, a free desert or something. But no, he goes on and on about how everybody loves their steak knives---big old serrated blade, and hard plastic handle made to look like wood. He says he'll give us a set, and comes back with a brown paper bag full of steak knives, with the bag stapled shut. We get home, and my wife opens the bag and starts laughing. The knives were all beat to hell, with gouges and cracks in the plastic handles, and dull as butter knives. We just threw 'em in the trash, and haven't been back there since.