New restaurant will bring $30 steak dinners to bustling Midtown development

A new restaurant is coming to Midtown that will satisfy Houstonians’ carnivorous cravings at an affordable price. Medium Rare has claimed the former Artisans Restaurant space, at 3201 Louisiana Rd., for a Houston-area location that will open next spring.

Founded in Washington, D.C. in 2011 by chef and restaurateur Mark Bucher, Medium Rare serves a very simple, prix-fixe menu. Every diner receives bread, a green salad, and steak frites — a coulotte (top sirloin) topped with a Bordelaise-style sauce and paired with hand cut fries — for $28.95. Vegetarians may replace the steak with a grilled portobello topped with a roasted red pepper sauce.

Beverage options are similarly succinct: five red wines, four draft beers, three white wines, and one sparkling. Add one of five desserts for $12.

Weekend brunch has a few more options, including eggs Benedict with steak and portobello mushroom hash, French toast and sausage, and, of course, steak and eggs.

The restaurant has expanded to three locations across the D.C. area. A New Orleans outpost opened last month.

The simple menu keeps Medium Rare’s costs down by reducing food waste and allowing it to serve diners more quickly than a restaurant that offers more options.

“We have no waste, and since people don’t have to make a lot of decisions, the tables turn a little faster. You can easily get in and out in an hour,” Bucher told Nola.com.

Medium Rare is charitably minded, too. Its Feed the Fridge program pays restaurants to stock refrigerators with free meals. The program has dozens of locations at D.C.-area schools, community centers, and other locations.

Houstonians already know the area for providing beef-loving Texans with an affordable meal. Gen Korean BBQ, which is also located at The Mix in Midtown development, serves an all-you-can-eat menu for $29.95 at dinner.