Sous Vide in San Diego Restaurants

[mcgrath]

I wanted to like this technique. I've decided I just don't, especially with red meats. At two of San Diego's fine dining destinations, places that get much love on this board, I've ordered steak and lamb as entrees. In each instance the sous vide meat came out rubbery and hard to cut. Visually not at all appealing. If cut into small pieces it seemed chewy but was succulent and tasty.

For me, appearance and texture taken together are about as important as taste. If I had my choice, I don't think I'd order sous vide red meat again, as I should be able to have all three: appearance, texture AND taste. Problem is, menus don't typically say whether the dish is sous vide. And I don't always remember to ask.

Would like to hear other opinions on this. And should restaurants in San Diego tell you on the menu if the s.v. process is being used for a dish?

[honkman]

If it is correctly done it shouldn't be rubbery and so I wouldn't count it as problem of sous vide itself but execution of the restaurant. I had many times sous vide cooked fish, eggs, meat, vegetables and they came out great (and I think that sous vide is a technique which is also very beneficial for home cooks to get excellent and consistent result and it is not that expensive anymore). And I don't think that restaurants should name it on the menu because it is no different and beneficial than any other cooking method if done correctly and I don't expect any restaurant to write for every dish which technique they used.