Mostly known for its Tex-Mex and American casual-style dishes, most people probably wouldn’t think of Chili’s if they’re craving steak.
According to one customer who recently had the restaurant’s Fajita Trio skillet, there’s something suspicious about the restaurant’s steak.
In a recent clip that got over 21,600 views, TikTok creator Sasha Bentley (@sasha.bentley8) films the dish up close, questioning what exactly she’s looking at.
What’s Wrong With This Chili’s Steak?
“Yesterday I went to Chili’s, and I ordered this Fajita Trio skillet,” Bentley begins.
The dish comes with three proteins: steak, shrimp, and chicken. However, Bentley wasn’t convinced that what she received was actually steak.
“The steak is not real,” she says. “This steak tasted like a breakfast sausage patty made by Jimmy Dean’s.”
She then warns others to take a closer look at what they’re served. “So please be aware of the food that we’re eating at these restaurants,” Bentley says.
The steak she films is grayish and doesn’t have much visible grain people typically associate with a sliced steak, which gives it an almost “fused” appearance.
However, appearance alone isn’t enough to determine whether the meat is “fake.” Chili’s lists one of the proteins in the fajita trio as steak, though the menu page doesn’t specify the exact cut.
Why Does The Steak Look Like That?
These are several explanations for the steak’s appearance.
For one, it could have simply been overcooked. A TastingTable blog post states that beef generally becomes less tender as its degree of doneness increases. Higher cooking temperatures usually make the collagen shrink and harden the muscle proteins.
Freezing and thawing can also affect the structure of beef. In another USDA Agricultural Research Service study, researchers wrote that freezing can rupture muscle fibers and stretch connective tissue, changing its texture.
Another possibility is mechanical tenderization.
The USDA explains that processors, grocery stores, restaurants, or even home cooks can mechanically tenderize beef by piercing steaks with needlers or sharp blades. Those blades physically break up muscle fibers to make the meat more tender.
However, Chili’s hasn’t publicly stated that that’s the process its meat products go through. Subplot has reached out to Chili’s via email for comment and additional information.
Commenters Also Think Something’s Wrong
Several viewers agreed that Bentley’s steak didn’t look quite right.
“It doesn’t look real,” one commenter wrote.
Another said they only order specific dishes for this reason.
“And this is why the only things I’ll order from Chili’s is the triple Dipper and the quesadilla,” they wrote.
Others, however, said the explanation is much more innocent.
“That is definitely real steak, it’s just extremely cheap steak that they marinated,” they wrote.
Another commenter claimed they’d noticed something similar years ago. “Stopped eating there before covid .. realized steak wasn’t STEAK,” they wrote.
Other Customers Have Also Found Chili’s Steak Suspicious
Bentley isn’t the only Chili’s customer who has questioned the appearance or texture of the chain’s steak.
In one thread on r/foodscam, a Reddit user posted a photo of a Chili’s ribeye that they implied looked unusual. Several commenters agreed that something about the meat looked off.
“Reminds me of a cross-section of a diseased heart I saw once,” one person wrote.
A second commenter offered a possible explanation. “This is what some steaks look like when they’re frozen and thawed before cooking,” they wrote. “That accounts for the cellular damage. Exposure to air can lead to the meat being ‘discolored,’ which is actually desirable in some cases, such as dry-aging meat, but dry-aging isn’t done to frozen meat because the moisture is, well, frozen.”
Another Redditor raised a similar complaint after ordering Chili’s steak fajitas for the first time in years.
“The steak felt like processed or fused meat like what you get in a chicken nugget,” they wrote. “The texture was very weird like both rubbery and soft at the same time.”
Other customers said they had noticed the same thing.
“I agree. Steak had no grain and rubbery, way over seasoned,” one wrote. “Who knows what the hell it was.”
@sasha.bentley8 Chill’s Restaurants Are Serving FAKE STEAKS 🥩 ‼️‼️ ❌⛔️🚫
♬ original sound – Sasha Bentley
Subplot has also reached out to Bentley via TikTok messages for comment.
