D.C.’s Steak Frites-Only Chain Brings $31 Meal (With Free Seconds) to Houston

It’s steak night every night at Medium Rare — with steak and fries offered for a flat price and a special sauce shrouded in secrecy

Washington, D.C. restaurant Medium Rare has built a reputation for keeping its menu simple with a single choice — steak and fries — and its special sauce shrouded in secrecy. This November, it is bringing that simplicity and mystery to Houston’s Midtown.

For $31, diners at Medium Rare can enjoy a culotte steak, or top sirloin cap, that’s seared to their preference, drizzled with its cult-favorite sauce, and plated with fresh-cut fries, a mixed greens salad, and bread. Technically, the restaurant does offer a second option. Those skipping meat can opt for portobello mushrooms served with red pepper sauce, and everyone gets a second round of their entree for free.

Alex Staniloff

Possibly even more intriguing than the steak deal itself is the sauce. Owners Mark Bucher and Tom Gregg are incredibly secretive about the recipe, so much so that there are Reddit channels dedicated to breaking down and recreating it. According to a report by the Washingtonian, a full written recipe for Medium Rare’s sauce doesn’t exist. Instead, its components are noted and divided among the kitchens of Medium Rare’s eight locations like a “culinary code.” An outside company builds the sauce’s base and delivers it to each Medium Rare outpost. Then, two cooks per location are taught how to finish and perfect the sauce. If something goes wrong, only Bucher knows how to fix it.

“It’s probably best to say that it’s a combination of au poivre and steak Diane with a little fettuccine Alfredo mixed in. Not literally, but it has those things,” Bucher told the Washingtonian.

Medium Rare’s Houston outpost, which is located in the Mix shopping center along with restaurants like Piola Pizzeria and Gen Korean BBQ, will also dish out homemade chocolate and carrot cakes, Key lime and apple pies, and a classic hot fudge sundae, which can be added to any meal for $12 each. The drinks menu, too, keeps it short and sweet with beer, wine, and a selection of six cocktails, including a pineapple mule, hibiscus margarita, Lavender 75, Gold Rush, a blackberry sangria, and a seasonal drink.

Alex Staniloff

Medium Rare’s weekend brunch, which features its steak frites special, comes with unlimited cocktails, coffee, juice, and soda for $35. Diners can also choose other entrees instead, such as the 24-hour-soaked French toast, steak breakfast sandwiches, steak and eggs, or its take on eggs Benedict, a steak and egg portobello mushroom hash served with a poached egg, hollandaise sauce, and fries.

The restaurant is a stark contrast from other flashy steakhouses that have opened in Houston within the past year, and more on part with local steak nights, that offer set deals on a specific cut of steak, often with sides, and sometimes a drink included. Houston-based restaurateur Ben Berg opened two steakhouses this year, including the ritzy Turner’s Cut, which sells steaks for $76 and higher with tableside martini service. At Prime 131, Berg’s live-fire steakhouse and sushi restaurant in the Heights, steaks start at $54 but can be as pricey as $58 per ounce with a 4-ounce minimum. And Mexican steakhouse Toca Madera, which opened in June, sets showy cocktails ablaze to serve alongside flaming tomahawks.

Medium Rare

Medium Rare, which officially opens on Monday, November 18, is less extravagant but exceedingly playful. Servers use crayons to scrawl diners’s orders atop paper-covered tables, and the napkins feature flirty French pick-up lines.

The restaurant plans to open a location in Boston and Philadelphia in early 2025.

Medium Rare will be open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays, from 2:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 2:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. Brunch will be served on weekends from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 3201 Louisiana Street, Midtown, 77006.

Medium Rare