Food Bytes: Special Occasions (Morton's the Steakhouse)

Had a special birthday occasion to celebrate, so I made reservations at Mortons. The last time I was there was before the mad cow disease and the subsequent ban on US beef, so you can imagine how long ago that was.

Telling them in advance that we were there to celebrate a birthday paid off. They had prepared a special table for us, decorated with shiny bits...

... and a customised menu. Little touches like that probably don't cost very much, but definitely help make the occasion more memorable.

After we had sat down and made ourselves comfortable they gave us their usual presentation of the menu with the various cuts of meat, selection of veggies and seafood. This practice is not really uncommon, but personally I must say I'm not that keen to see cuts of raw food, or a live lobster waving its claws at me just prior to getting slaughtered.

Mortons is famous for its beef, and they do pretty large cuts of it. The waiter was not pushy about whether we ordered 2 mains or shared 1, although he did gently remind us that they would be happy to help us wrap up leftovers to take home. We noticed with amusement that they had renamed their "ladies cut" as a "slightly smaller steak". Probably to make the guys feel better about ordering it?

The famous Mortons Onion Bread...

*Shinta ordered "shrimp" as his appetiser, so I was imagining some really small pale looking prawns and was really surprised when the waiter appeared with 3 huge grilled prawns cooked with butter. As you can probably guess, I stole some!

My oysters were fresh and juicy. I'm not a fan of the large fat ones (bit gross for me), so these medium sized ones suited me just fine.

*Shinta's medium Porterhouse steak...

My "slightly smaller" New York Strip...

Done medium rare just the way I like it!

We also ordered a side dish of sauteed buttom mushrooms to share. Really liked it a lot despite the fact that we were so full.

Dessert was the "Morton's Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake" which came complete with a candle and waiters gathering around to sing Happy Birthday with great gusto. The staff also took our photo and presented us with it in a signed card from them. During the course of our 2hour dinner there, we heard the birthday song sung no less than 5 times. According to the waiter, apparently up to 10 times a night is "normal"!

The chocolate cake was liquid on the inside. This was the slightly sweeter version, less rich and easier to finish than my favorite one at Pump Room.

At the end of dinner, we departed happy, and like most others, holding a take away bag.

The cold steak and mushrooms were still excellent the next day. Mortons is probably not as accessible a restaurant to most since they specialise in steak, but for those who do like beef, its great to pay them a visit every now and then. If only we could afford to go more often!

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Morton's the Steakhouse
Mandarin Oriental, 4th Storey, 5 Raffles Avenue, Marina Square
Tel: +65 6339 3740
Hours: 5.30pm to 11.00pm(Mon to Sat), 5.00pm to 10.00pm (Sun)
http://www.mortons.com/singapore//
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