A Toronto restaurant is catching heat after a video went viral showing its chef seemingly overcooking a steak.
Despite recently undergoing a rebrand that saw what was once a South American restaurant into a supper-meets-nightclub, Runway 06 (formerly Marked) has still maintained a number of signature menu items from their past life.
One such menu item, a dry-aged 28oz Canadian prime bone-in rib eye, has been the subject of a healthy amount of controversy lately.
Back in August of 2024, while the restaurant was still in, as Taylor Swift fans would say, its Marked era, the restaurant uploaded a video detailing the cooking process of the rib eye, which is served alongside a garlic and shallot potato puree (as part of the rebrand, this has been replaced with beefsteak tomato) and pistachio chimichurri. What could go wrong, right?
Things start off simply enough, with the chef pan-searing the gargantuan cut of beef with garlic and thyme before popping it in the oven to finish cooking while they get to work on the sides.
It’s the clip moments later, when the chef removes the steak — which goes for $119, I might add — sticking in a meat thermometer that almost immediately jumps up to 183 degrees Fahrenheit, that had people flying to the comments to offer their own two cents on the dish.
“She hella overcooked it. Her thermometer was hitting 180 internal temp,” one person comments, though they admit the puree looks “fire.”
“Internal temp of 183 and climbing, Jesus Christ,” writes another, while yet another commenter adds “the second she seared it first I knew it was gonna go completely wrong.”
In the roughly two months since the video went live, it’s managed to rack up more than 24 million views (at the time of publication), a healthy portion of those, no doubt, coming from the discourse surrounding the supposedly improper cooking of the meat.
According to a representative from Runway 06, however, the chef actually prepared the meat precisely how they were supposed to.
“We know the debate around how a steak should best be cooked will never end and the battle between rare and well-done lives on,” they tell blogTO, but, they add, “at Runway 06, all our rib eyes are cooked to order.”
In the case of this particular video, Runway 06 confirms that the cameraman specifically requested their steak well-done, so the controversy can, at last, be laid to rest.
“We encourage folks to come and try our rib eye for themselves, and we’ll make sure it’s first class,” they add.
Runway 06 is located at 132 John Street.
