Lawry's 2021

We were so looking forward to our annual trip to Lawry's. Pretty glad that the dine out restrictions has been relaxed a little for the people who have been vaccinated.

So, the bread has changed. For some reasons, it's not longer those hard dinner rolls. It's some soft sweet buns now.

We had a new carver today who was grappling with getting sliced prime rib off the cart. It could have been because today's meat was more sinewy than usual. Never had them so sinewy previously (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七).

They even dripped mashed potato gravy over the creamed corn while serving. New carver needs to be more careful with that.

Another annual ritual at Lawry's

This year's prime rib Lawry's came a little late. But - as how it is often heard, better late than never, yes? It's been a while since I didn't get one without the bone though. Honestly, I cannot discern enough of a difference in my meat to care. It's all good.

Slow roasted ribeye from Marché

A roast by any other name would taste......the picture in front of the grill station at Marché showed the regular ribeye which they've always been doing and that kept me wondering what was the difference between that and their regular steak. We eventually figured it's the prime rib that they had on their board. For $19.90, I couldn't complain. Reasonably tender and well seasoned. I know it's not fair to compare so I won't. Heh!

This year's musings at Lawry's

Ever since I found out about their creamed corn last year, I've forgone the creamed spinach. Think it might be that way for a while. 

Looking back, we've mostly come here for their prime rib. It was the one good thing they did well consistently. The other items on their menu were pretty forgettable. Maybe they represented classics from another place and another time, but we wouldn't be here for those.

Prime rib and creamed corn from Lawry's

I've never tried the creamed corn at Lawry's until recently and I can't believe that I've been overlooking them all these years. These tasted exactly like the sweet milky creamed corn that I liked from ONO. A contrast from the savoury gravy for the mashed potatoes and salty au jus. Well, while it is still a good thing to be enjoyed!

A new thought on the annual ritual at Lawry's

I've been lamenting musing for some years about how Lawry's is still undisputed for slow roasted prime rib and to that point, whether if that's a good thing or not. This year, I've reconciled with myself that the reason for the status quo isn't important. I'm just going to enjoy it while it is still a good thing to be enjoyed.

The Stinking Rose, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles

Faced with the prospect of seeking alternative dinner plans, The Stinking Rose (55 North La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, tel : +310 652 7673), a garlic themed restaurant came up as a suggestion. As it turned out, all of us liked garlic. What coincidence! 

While waiting, we filled up on bread and beer with their garlic rose relish - the latter a pretty darned good concoction of chopped garlic and parsley with salt and vinegar in olive oil.

Since we were prepared to be garlick-ed up for the night, we got ourselves a portion of their bagna cauda - roasted garlic in extra virgin olive oil and anchovies. Those garlic were sweet and just slightly pungent. Made an excellent spread since they were also pretty soft after all that roasting.

Made also good eating with even more bread along with the garlic rose relish.

Almost everything on menu was supposed to be flavoured with garlic. I couldn't taste any of it from their chilled asparagus with blue cheese bits. But I liked them because they were tender without being fibrous and of course, those blue cheese. 

More munching came in the form of fried calamari. These were crispy and had a good squid-y chew.

Here's a garlic prime rib which featured some of the roasted garlic cloves on top of the meat. That prime rib wasn't too bad. Probably not as tender as Lawry's across the road but I couldn't complain.

We couldn't leave the restaurant without giving their garlic ice cream a go even though we were stuffed. The topping if you were wondering wasn't some roasted/burnt garlic sauce of some sort. It's salted caramel. The garlic came from the ice cream and the flavour came through without being excessive or weird. It's actually kinda nice.

Keens Steakhouse, Midtown Manhattan, NYC

We had heard about Keens Steakhouse (72 W 36th St, NY 10018, tel : +212 947 3636) and made it a destination for this trip. The place was initially part of a theatre and literary group from London and eventually broke off into a gentleman's club and eventually, a restaurant in 1885. The ceilings of the restaurant is lined by the pipes that had belonged to the members from the older era. Pipes of owners that are probably long gone.

As can be seen from their packets of sugar, the steakhouse likes to remind people that they've been around for quite a long while.

We were served warmed loaves with butter while waiting for our orders.

I decided that it would be an appropriate time to also nurse a glass of Brooklyn Lager, nice brew by the way, while waiting.

This was possibly the first proper vegetable item we had after arriving in NYC. A nicely done Caesar salad. Just so that we could balance the meat heavy meal.

The one item that I had been intensely curious about after hearing of was their mutton chop. About 26 oz from what I gather - cut from the loin of a Colorado sheep about a year old. The meat was a masculine red, tender and had a light blanket of that lovely gaminess (more on the fattier parts). Good stuff there. Came with a serving of lemon-y escarole to balance out all that delicious meat. 

If I might say so, Keens also did a very competent prime rib. Tender and flavourful and personally, as enjoyable as the mutton chop.

For the consideration of an even more balanced diet, some nicely done creamed spinach. These were delicious.

And because the food was good, we were encouraged to get a dessert. That's their key lime pie. Lightest I've had and possibly in my limited experience, also the best I've had. There was bit of fresh flavours from those bits of zest and just a few small notches from what one could consider ethereal. Best of all, it wasn't excessively sweet.

If you didn't know, Keens also has a little piece of dinosaur sirloin that's been aging on their walls for over 75 million years. Imagine that!

Lawry's this year

Lawry's has new hires for the service staff it seems. One in particular was oozing the lack of motivation. But their prime rib is still nice. Expensive no doubt but it's the best we've got even today.

Morton's Sunday Lunch

It's been a while since our last visit. Not counting their bar that is. But thanks to their CRM tools, Morton's remembers us. The decor of the interior has changed some. Those glass panels letting the sun in were actually a good idea. A bit of furnishing has been replaced and the layout has changed a little. Otherwise, it's not unrecognizeable from the old setup which looked a little more dark and golden. 

We've been here enough times to know that we have to manage their onion loaf so it's half time at half a loaf even though it was tempting to go on with their salted butter. The other half gets bagged home.

The lunch came with a small cup of lobster bisque. Piping hot, umami-stic and crustacean-ily flavoured with a velvet texture. The atrocity of made up words.  There was also a chunk of the tail meat in the bisque. 

We've never had their centre cut iceberg before and have alway wondered what it was all about. Today we found out. While this wouldn't be considered healthy as salads went - damn, this was good eating. What worked for us were the chilled crisp leaves, the cream & blue cheese, bits of egg and bacon that made it a delight to eat.

Our last experience with their prime rib was a long time back. Here's 10 years later, eating it again. We prefer Lawry's slow roast version that doesn't get onto the grill. They've also got tastier creamed spinach but Morton's win with their mashed potatoes which were tastier on its own.

One of the desserts we picked was the key lime pie. We picked it because we've never had it from Morton's before. The fillings had a nice flavour from the lime and was rather sweet. I thought it was nicely done but if I had to choose, I'd pick the green one from PS Cafe over this.

Their chocolate mousse was smooth and airy. While it wasn't out of this world amazing, it was still nice. Because it didn't taste as sweet as the pie, it was also a lot easier to eat.

After the sweets, this was the perfect drink for closure. Black and no sugar. Not one of the more aromatic coffee around, but drinkable stuff because there was some strength in it.

Another year, another Lawry's

Another year has passed. These guys have maintained their status quo as one of the best if not indeed the best prime rib guys around in this sunny island. I'm not sure how to feel about that these days but I suppose it does make deciding a little easier with the dearth of options. In further development of old news (the oxymoron!), Lawry's has also been raising their prices. Their Diamond Jim Brady has gone up by more than $60 over the past 9 years and it is almost $160 before tax and service these days. Ouch!

A Lawry's cut with bone in

So here's a Lawry's Cut of their bone in prime rib. Also a first time trying their buttered peas. Wow, they're sweet.

The Diamond Jim Brady now with bone in

After 12 long years, USDA beef with bone in is finally back at our shores! Here's the bone in prime rib from Lawry's. Needless to say, we enjoyed it as we usually did. Today's cut of the rib felt much heftier than I had expected. Just as I was wondering if the Diamond Jim-bo had shrunk, this bone in slab proved me wrong. I wasn't referring to the additional weight or volume from that bone, it felt like there was a lot more meat as well. But, I'm not complaining. Just thinking aloud - why is the creamed spinach sometimes on the side and sometimes on a separate dish?

Black Angus Steakhouse, Orchard Parade Hotel

I had only been here (1 Tanglin Road, #01-08 Orchard Parade Hotel, tel : +65 6734 1181) once years ago for lunch and haven't stepped in ever since. This old school stage of a restaurant was actually kinda refreshing ironically.

The mains came with salad/soup options. This was their coleslaw. Never had it served that way before and it's actually not bad.

I remembered this thick stewy soup from the last time I ate here. I did not seem to have changed with those chunky pieces of beef amidst the barley and carrot.

Their fried zucchini to start had a batter that tasted suspiciously like the one next door at Modesto's. But those zucchini at Modesto's were larger and juicier. Better value for money spent there than the ones here, which were upstaged.

We ended up with prime rib which looked a lot better than the weak measly slice for lunch that I had years ago. By the way, the potato above was the one that came with the works. The toppings sure looked really sad for a steakhouse potato.

I got suckered (by the menu) for an option with lobster tail and butter. This wasn't bad but I still think Lawry's does a better job with a more tender slow roast and possibly with better quality meat paired with a more flavoursome au jus.