Waffle House Sources Its Steaks From This Chicago-Based Company
Waffle House is famous for its all-day breakfast, a policy that's behind selling an amazing 272 million eggs a year. But the Southern chain that the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain gave high praise to also sells more steak than you might think, having at one point claimed to sell more T-bones than any other restaurant. Steak is an option there for both breakfast and lunch or dinner, and it gets all of them from the same place, an Illinois-based company called Stampede Culinary Partners.
The chain has gotten its steak exclusively from the company (formerly Stampede Meat) for longer than a decade, according to Waffle House, which calls it the nation's leading provider. Stampede's business began in Chicago in 1995 to supply restaurants with meat. It's grown well beyond that in the decades since, expanding into poultry, and now selling a range of products like smoked, deli, and shredded meat, and other prepared items to different kinds of businesses in addition to restaurants, like retail stores and airlines.
Stampede now produces and sends out its products from its locations in the Chicago area, New Mexico, Texas, Georgia, and Ontario, Canada. The 30-year-old business's success has drawn attention, and it was bought by a Canadian speciality foods company in early 2026 for a whopping $688 million.
The kind of steak Waffle House serves and is it cooked sous vide?
The Waffle House menu has a 10-ounce T-Bone steak, a 5-ounce sirloin, and a cheesesteak, which is very thin beef chuck. Some locations additionally have a Delmonico, which is a smaller cut. They are USDA Choice, one level below the top Prime level. The separation between the two comes down to how much fat marbling is in the beef, which boosts flavor and makes it juicy and tender. Prime beef has the most marbling, and while still good quality, Choice beef has less. Cuts with the Select rating have the least.
The regular steaks are options for the same menu items, either with eggs for breakfast, or with hashbrowns and Texas toast for lunch or dinner. The thin-cut Cheesesteak appears in an Omelet breakfast, a Texas Melt on Texas Toast with melted cheese, and a Melt Hashbrown Bowl with cheese and grilled onions for lunch or dinner.
In a 2025 Reddit thread, someone who claimed to be a Waffle House unit manager stated that the steaks are cooked sous vide. Another person who also self-identified as a worker at the chain chimed in to say that the Delmonico arrives that way, and people working the grill only have to sear them. That lines up with meat supplier Stampede saying it makes the most sous vide products in the country. Sous vide, which is French for "under a vacuum," is a process in which food is vacuum sealed in plastic bags and slowly cooked under water at a low temperature that remains constant. The meat doesn't dry out or harden using this practice.