It was a special occasion and the last minute my dining partner wanted a good dinner. I had an instant mental block so we somehow decided to try Morton’s at Mandarin Oriental Hotel (a very beautiful and classy hotel!), since we love steak and it’s said to be the best!

For those who intend to try Morton’s, here are some tips:

1. Everything here is in HUGE American size portions (we should have guessed), which means it’s easily double the portion from anywhere else. So for whatever you order, do share it among 2 or 3!

2. The waiter can show you a platter of the actual size of the food, so you should view before ordering.

As you can see, there is a fairly good amount of marbling in the meat they use, albeit not as well marbled as wagyu. For me, the most important part of having steak is having a good meat to start off with. And next is the execution. I do not fancy inferior cuts/ meats that are heavily seasoned. Seasoning should not be why steak is good. It’s the meat that determines it all!

The dessert “menu” with the actual desserts!

 

The onion bun was very big and 2 of us didn’t manage to finish it. I wish they had softened the butter before serving though, as it was very hard.

We had a bottle of Saint Julien for the night because they didn’t have any Saint Emillion in full bottle. Their American wine list is quite extensive but I can’t say the same for the French wines. Alone, the wine tastes very puckery and tannic but with food it becomes very smooth and palatable. However I feel the price for this ($173++) is severely overpriced! You may like to find out the corkage charge and bring your preferred wine instead.

Morton’s Salad – $22.00++

This was essentially just cos lettuce with blue cheese dressing and an anchovy. This is half the portion as they kindly separated it for us.

Aged USDA Prime Ribeye Steak – $97.00++

Now before you scream at the price tag, do know that aged beef usually costs more due to the process that makes the meat tender naturally. In a nutshell, for the aging process some meat would be discarded so you’ve got to factor in the wastage too! I’ve had aged beef before at Astons but they gave me a sirloin so it was a disappointment. Secondly, USDA Prime beef is an expensive type of meat, much more than the normal Australian grass fed variation commonly found in Singapore. Thirdly, the size is humongous. I’d say this is probably about 600g. It can easily feel 2 – 3 people! I wasn’t expecting this so I ordered this for myself. So if you actually divide this by two, the steak is pretty much the benchmark price!

As mentioned earlier, execution is very important to me and I’m glad to say that the steak here is cooked to perfection. The doneness is very evenly cooked, which I have not seen in a long time from the steaks I’ve had at other restaurants.

As it was a large piece of steak, I started with the cap first as it’s the best part of the ribeye. It is illogical to leave the best for the last in this context because I could forsee dreading the last bites due to the huge portion and the steak would probably be cold by then!

This is the amount of fats discarded by me. it’s a pity because the fats from this meat were really good!

Aged USDA Double Cut Fillet Mignon – $97.00++

The single cut version is $87.00++ so it makes sense to get the double cut. Again, this is probably good for 2 pax. Fillet Mignon is one of the most expensive cuts of the cow. It is not quite the usual tenderloin. It’s the smaller end of the tenderloin and is the most tender part. Indeed, this steak was very tender and cooked to the perfect medium rare despite the odd shape.

Sautéed Button Mushrooms – $20.00++

This is a single portion of the side dishes and definitely too big a portion for 1 person. I found this to be very normal and will not recommend it.

New York Cheesecake – $23.00++

Even though we were very full, we decided to have this as the waiter claim it’s air flown from New York daily. Personally I would prefer if the crust was baked more. This seems like they did not bake the crust before pouring in the cheese batter. The cake itself was alright, I could taste a flour like texture though. It is not the richest cheesecake but would suffice as we were really full and do not need anything richer.

 

Overall, the experience was fine and the steak was really good. I would recommend this place for steak, but honestly the portion as above could feed 4 people better than just 2.

 

*****

Ambience: 8.5/10

Food: 9/10 (steak)

Value: 7/10

Overall: recommended for only the steak!

*****

Morton’s The Steakhouse

5 Raffles Avenue

4F Mandarin Oriental Singapore

 

Tel: 6339 3740

*****

Mon–Sat: 5.30pm – 11 pm

Sun: 5pm – 10pm