Morton's, The Steakhouse

I hadn't been to Mortons for a long time since going to the Mortons in Beverly Hills and absolutely loving it. I went to the Burbank Mortons and my first impression was complete shock. The whole place is remodeled from a well lit fabulous high end steakhouse with beautiful decor and wood paneling to a very dark room dotted with white tables and accented with faux brick fireplaces and wine refrigerators in the dining room. I have been to some dark restaurants before, but this was so ridiculously dark you could hardly see the food in front of you and certainly not your table mates across from you. Only the middle of the table is lit. My guess is that this is done to give privacy to VIP diners, but it's a little extreme when you're almost completely in the dark. You can't focus on anything except the overwhelming darkness. The exposed part of the kitchen with an opening in the wall reminded of a greasy spoon and the faux fire pits and brick work reminded me of cheap Russian restaurants that are built to look like grandma's house in the village. I can only guess that someone thought this new quaint image must be more encouraging for a new kind of casual dinner. Well, I can guarantee that you'll find out really quickly that this is a high end $$$$ place once you peek at the menu and the wine list. Most restaurants have a range of mid to high priced alcohol choices. There was no range on the Mortons list. Everything had a profit margin of 400% and above. The cheapest $10 Korbel champagne was $45. I would strongly recommend taking along your own alcohol and paying the corkage. As for the food, Mortons has the best steaks in town, if you don't like steak you're in trouble. The other choices are not exciting at all, and not worth it considering the prices they charge. One of our party had the chicken Alexander, which was breaded chicken in a buttery gooey sauce. It was bad food with a fancy name. The honey salmon was not great either. The lobster cocktail had rubbery lobster. I think the best value on the menu is the porterhouse steak and it tasted fantastic with a little char on the outside. The cajun flavored and marinated steaks are much more expensive because it's a smaller steak for the same price as the porterhouse. If you love steak, Mortons is the best value for the money, because other restaurants that are not steakhouses will charge high prices for much smaller steaks or filets. The cheese souffle for dessert was fantastic. They also called beforehand and offered us a small private dining room without asking. But the service while in the restaurant seemed efficient but indifferent. It's clear that they don't genuinely care to make a good impression on the diner. more

Morton's Foodies can be really stuck up. In the quest for trying to show-off how insightful or adventurous... more

Morton's Foodies can be really stuck up. In the quest for trying to show-off how insightful or adventurous... more

Morton's Foodies can be really stuck up. In the quest for trying to show-off how insightful or adventurous they think they are, a foodie will go o... more

Morton's Foodies can be really stuck up. In the quest for trying to show-off how insightful or adventurous they think they are, a foodie will go o... more

The service was average at best. I have had much better steaks...HORRIBLE!! I'm not wasting anymore of my time writing about an below average experience. more

Every so often there comes a time when you need to dress up and dine with the upper class. I've been to Ruth's Chris steakhouse before, and thought I would try another high end steakhouse. I went to Morton's website and found there $99 dinner for two deal. Two 8oz filets, two salads, two steak toppings, and two desserts. Pretty sweet deal. We were a party of two, and sat right away. Once you're seated, they don't offer menus. Instead, they make you sit for a bit with a large, onion loaf in front of you. Beware that the buttery, onion bread is not cut for you, but is very tasty once you pull it apart. Minutes later the server opens up with asking if we've dined here before. We saw other servers pushing food carts along tables plugging there steaks, lobsters, etc. We asked if we could skip that part since the dinner for two didn't offer those items. She seemed relieved, and we went straight with ordering. Their wine prices are good compared to some. Stay away from the peach martini, and their drinks do not come strong. The Morton's salad was nothing more than heavy greens with crumbled bleu cheese. Get their Ceasar instead. Both our steaks were cooked to temp, and tender. Both of us had their crab cake topping. Real crab meat, and excellent. Since we had two loafs of onion bread, we had the desserts boxed to-go. Their key lime pay was a little too lime tasting, but light. Service could of used some tweaking with table maintance, but maybe they depend on their bussers for that. Management never came to the table to ask us about our dinner, but I did notice him kneeling beside the table next to us talking to one of the actors from CSI. Pros: $99 dinner for two Cons: Service needs a little tweaking more

I often frequent steakhouses and I was excited to try Morton's. Both my ribeye and my friend's cowboy ribeye (both ordered medium rare) came out more than just slightly charred. Needless to say, we both left dissatisfied. I think I MIGHT try the Downtown LA location but then again there are plenty of tasty steakhouse options out there. Pros: Nice ambience for a first date Cons: They bring around a tray with raw steak and a live lobster to each table. Poor Pinchy! :( more

I work for a pharmaceutical company and we orgrnized a speaker dinner in one of the private rooms on Novermber 9th, 2006. The restaurant is beautiful and the private dining room was nice as well. Pros: a lot of celebrities Cons: poor managment- the restaurant is not run well more