I think I'm still in shock. Over the weekend I did a shop at a famous steakhouse, the one with peanut shells on the floor. I've been to this location dozens of times but this was my first mystery shop there. Everything was going great like usual until they brought out my entree. I ordered a country fried sirloin with gravy on the top. Something was floating in it. The waiter helped me determine that it was a green bean. Neither of us had ordered green beans. The waiters response, "well ma'am it is a kitchen and sometimes things get mixed up like that. Would you like some more gravy?"

No, more gravy was not going to fix it so he decided he would have it remade. The manager comes back with the new country fried sirloin and apologizes. He leaves the table and I start to cut into my food. There stuck between the meat and the breading of this sirloin I pulled out a quarter sized thick pickle! I'm not even joking, this really happened! So the manager comes back by to see if everything is okay and I show him what I have just pulled out from underneath the breading. He apologizes again and hangs his head a little. Then, he actually informs me that they use the same breading for their country fried sirloin that they do for their fried pickles. Of course they do or I wouldn't have had a pickle in there. So I asked the manager if he realizes that breading raw meat in the same breading with the pickles is cross-contaminating the pickles. He has nothing else to say. They take the sirloin back and remake it a third time. At this point my husband is finished with his meal and to be quite honest I'm no longer hungry. I just had them box it up and our dog enjoyed it immensely.

There must have been a hundred people or more in that restaurant with us. They were so busy we had a 1 hour wait for a table. What are the odds that the one person this would happen to would be me while in the middle of a mystery shop on the place?

I doubt you are the only person these things happened to.

Of course, Food Safety Standards should never be compromised, but from my experience it happens regularly. Quantity over quality.

Your honest report may be the catalyst needed to make this a safer place to eat at, or it may fall on deaf ears. Maybe it wasn't a coincidence.

If I were you I would call or email your local county health department and file a complaint. They will go and inspect. You can do it anonymously pretty sure, and this way the HD is aware of it which may mean more than a shop observation. It shouldn't take a genius to figure out you can use the same breading, but maybe two different pans? Geez!

Pickle fried steak—sounds like a great festival food!

Wow, what are the odds that this happened to you during a mystery shop! I can tell you that you were in the right place at the right time, as someone needed to see what was going on behind the scenes at that restaurant. I am usually one that gives the benefit of the doubt, but the way prices are and the time that it spent to get you seated and your order corrected, there is no benefit here. That truly seems like a dinner from H-E double hockey sticks. I'm so sorry that happened to you because when you described the restaurant as being one of the popular ones that puts peanut shells on the floor it sounds like one of my family's favorite restaurants for family night.

This is a perfect example of the importance of mystery shopping - especially at restaurants where health and public safety should be a top priority.

I have shopped this same chain many times and have never had an issue like this. That being said, I know that each one is independently owned and they are franchised. I hope this gets the owners attention. It often seems also that you can go to a store or restaurant many times with no issue, but as soon as you go in as a secret shopper is when the issue occurs. Murphey's law!