Steakhouse Is So Juiced Up For Its Vegan Cut, It’s Pricing It Higher Than Beef
Image via Chunk Foods
Foodies who have beef with the limp vegetarian options offered at dining establishments might want to head down to this Florida steakhouse chain, which proclaims to have been pleasantly surprised by its own offering.
On Wednesday, Charley’s Steak House became the first place in the US to serve up a 100% plant-based filet mignon. And get this—the six-ounce slab, priced at US$69, is more expensive than the restaurant’s own eight-ounce beef center-cut filet mignon, which costs US$55.
The “meat” in the F U (short for “Freaking Unbelievable”) Plant-Based by Chunk steak was developed by Israeli-based Chunk Foods, a startup partially funded by Robert Downey Jr.
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Chunk Foods prides itself on making “whole cuts” of meat alternatives that taste realistic thanks to a fermentation process similar to making cheese or sausage, Insider reports. Its steaks contain ingredients like fermented soy and wheat, beet juice, fortified iron, and coconut oil—which cooks up like the marbling in beef.
Chunk Foods’ CEO Amos Golan tells the news outlet that the plant-based filet mignon has a “nice umami flavor” and a juicy texture unlike those in other plant-based proteins.
The F U steak is coated with a dry rub before being tossed onto a wood-fired open flame pit, cooked in the same way Charley’s Steak House does its animal-based cuts.
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The result is so impressive, it “fooled” the chain’s employees at blind taste tests, says Charley’s Steak House executive vice president Clark Woodsby. Tasters “want more and more of it,” he tells the publication, adding that the vegan filet mignon “fulfills [a] niche” the restaurant has been trying to fill for 15 years. Prior, its vegan guests had to make do with meat-free side dishes.
With things moo-ving this positively, Charley’s sister restaurants in central Florida intend to bring the exciting option to their menus. For now, you can find the vegan steak at its Orlando location.
[via Insider and UNILAD, cover image via Chunk Foods]
