Cooking Temps of "Burger Like" Meats??

My wife and I recently went to a local establishment that serves Turkey Burgers on its regular menu and which my wife likes on occasion. When she cut the burger in half, it was very, very pink, cool to the touch, actually looked bloody and still had the ground meat consistency. We were not asked to give a temperature preference for the turkey burger by our server (who was admittedly new to the job). When my wife asked if she could get one that was a little more cooked and a little less gobbley, it was taken back to the kitchen without a complaint or grumble from our server.

Here's the question, when the manager returned with the cooked burger, I overheard him telling the new server that "all burgers are cooked to mid-well" which to my ears is medium well and described by Wiki as "mostly brown with a gray center, very little if any pink." First, this seemed to be an unintentional or intentional shot at us for complaining about the doneness in the first place. Was it appropriate to make a comment like that within hearing of the customer especially when the burger wasn't even close to being the standard prescribed? Second, do Turkey Burgers actually have a temperature standard like beef or should it simply be "cooked" throughout?

Other issues plagued our meal, but the manager did comp my wife her burger and gave us some additional "good will" items. We didn't really leave as satisfied customers and I'm disturbed by the managers comments.

All meats have different cooking temps to be deemed "safe".


Chicken and Turkey should be cooked to well done. Burger or not.

Pork does not need to be cooked as well done as people are lead to believe, and most fish can be at raw (provided they are sushi grade - flash frozen to kill any parasites.)

The only exception I can think of to cooking poultry done are most game birds (duck, quail, etc.) and ostrich - which is perfectly safe to eat raw. It's technically red meat. almost purple actually.

Beef, Bison, Lamb and most game meats can be cooked to your desired degree of "doneness"


Of further note, It's also usually recommended that unless you're grinding the meat yourself that it's better to cook ground meats ore than your would a larger cut.

Chicken and Turkey should be cooked to well done. Burger or not.

Thanks Ethan, that's what I thought but I just needed some confirmation from a professional. Thanks for the additional info as well.... who knew about Ostrich! Also, I apologize if my post came across as "snarky" (my wife's words). It was just a disappointing experiance at a place that I have typically come to love. I will try to keep my uh... snarkness to a minimum.

Didn't sound snarky to me! I'd have had a hard time eating a turkey burger w/ any pink whatsoever, but will snarf up any sushi or mid-rare burgey in a NY minute. That guy should go snark himself.