There is no doubt that the supplied knife at a fine steak house
CAN cut the meat. But, there's a huge difference between TEARING through a fine steak with a serrated steakhouse knife and SLICING through it effortlessly with a very sharp, very fine edge.
"Justified" to use your own knife at a fine restaurant? What? Who is thinking about justification? It's simply a matter of enjoying using a very fine knife. No "justification" is needed.
We had dinner tonight at what is arguably the finest steakhouse in Scottsdale (Dominick's) - a town that is full of fine steak houses. The supplied steak knife was serrated and certainly was capable of cutting through the steaks, it wasn't necessary to use my own - but my beautiful little KAI knife, which was designed to take to "dinner out", was quite a joy to use and sliced through our wagyu ribeyes like a hot razor through soft butter. Quite a pleasure to cut with it. I'm glad that I brought it - and so was my wife.
The place was packed, as usual. And the meal, also superb as usual.
As for "offending" the chef, or the restaurant, by using my own knife, or making a "scene" by doing so - that's utterly laughable. Not a single sole, including our wonderful waiter, even took notice of the knife.
To think that oneself would the center of attention among the many observable subjects in a busy fine restaurant is laughable (self-centered). People are far too engaged with themselves and their party to be paying any attention at all to what other people in a restaurant are cutting their food with.
When I showed the KAI to our waiter, she thought it was a fantastic idea to bring such a razor sharp knife - not because it was necessary - simply because it's really ENJOYABLE to use such a wonderfully sharp bit of cutlery to slice through a fine steak!