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Twitter lines have been running hot this weekend after food writer Vicky Andrews tweeted a photo of a menu at a restaurant in Liverpool offering an 8oz “ladies fillet”, with the caption, "Would you order a 'ladies fillet'?"
The £18.95 dish, described as “one for the ladies! A beautiful 80 cut, cause we can.....” sits on the Manhattan Bar and Grill menu, alongside the heftier offerings of 10oz fillet steak and 12oz New York Sirloin.
It wasn’t long before other chef and industry professionals got their teeth into the gendered dish, with renowned food critic Jay Rayner waging in on the debate tweeting; "a fillet for the laydeez. Because... I mean.. but..."
While London chef Angela Hartnett was lost for words ...
The patronising merits of the menu were also debated during live TV on the breakfast time show, Good Morning Britain:
A flurry of Tweets in response have ranged from mockery, "I wouldn't order it, even if the punctuation were correct" and gender stereotyping "I like my steak pink but this is ridiculous. A ‘ladies fillet’ for our tiny girly gobs," to anger and dismay, "gender-specific steak.. ridiculous.. "
Meanwhile, it hasn't all been negative press with others thinking it's a good idea, "It's cheaper and smaller if you don't feel like eating the full steak" and one twitter user highlighting that it's a fairly common practice on menus in Germany, attaching a photo of a menu with a Mr and Mrs Rumpsteak!
The restaurant has been overwhelmed with the response, which has come out of the blue for them, seeing as the dish has been on the menu since 2015 and was put there at the request of diners wanting smaller steaks.
Speaking to the Independent Karl Hassan, the managing director of the restaurant, also defended the steak on the grounds that the city is home of the Grand National, the biggest race meeting in the world.
"We name the first day of the event Ladies Day. So the Grand National has Ladies Day and Manhattan Bar and Grill has the Ladies Fillet!”
However, the tweets haven't fallen on deaf ears with Hassan later speaking to The Guardian about introducing a more neutral name, “Maybe we will look at changing it. In light of what people have been saying, it’s certainly something to consider.”
