Critic's Review
Morton's is one of the best known steakhouse brand names in the country, and they were recently acquired by Landry's, a restaurant group that currently has 37 brands in it's portfolio. Last spring, Morton's put itself up for sale, and in February Landry's closed the deal. They quickly shuttered 8 locations, primarily in areas where there were 2 stores in the same city (they closed the Miami Beach location in favor of the location in Brickell). Landry's also owns the Chart House and Bubba Gump's here in Fort Lauderdale.
The most notable move they've made is that they've raised prices about 30%, which always raises questions in a struggling economy. If you thought Morton's was pricey before, prepare to be punched in the stomach when you get the check here now.
The entrance to this place is in the rear; if you're coming from Las Olas you just make a right turn before Sun Trust and walk up to it.
From a physical standpoint, the place is the same; the staff and management remains, and the decor remains corporate/clubby with tufted leather chairs and dark wood accents.
But one big change from the Landry's marketing crew is the addition of dance music in the lounge; eating a big steak to Fashion Beats, Climbing Walls and True Love is simply marketing genius. Considering that the model of overpriced food and bad music failed miserably just a block away at the now abandoned Rare Las Olas, you have to wonder what they know that we don't?
One of the big contributor's to the original Morton's owner's demise was a failure to understand modern marketing. They don't have menus with prices available on their website (or specific menus at all), which just doesn't cut it with today's information hungry generation. When I got to the lounge, a friend of mine who frequents the place was there, and he tried to convince me that nobody goes to Morton's for dinner expecting a deal, but there's a relativity factor that sometimes overpowers one's ability to pay. If you go to a Mercedes lot expecting to pay $80K for a car and they tell you that the price is now $105K, it's difficult for even the wealthy to not get a bad feeling about it. I have difficultly conceptualizing that; considering the place is largely the same as before, there will be no fallout.
They've added some new menu items, like a $35 short rib and $35 Salmon filet; the most significant subtraction is the Prime Rib, which was served Bone-In and probably what I would have ordered. They've added another chicken dish also, but I didn't come here to have chicken or Salmon. The 24oz porterhouse is now priced at $57, which is about as much as they were charging on 5th Avenue in Manhattan before the acquisition. What's ridiculous is that they charge the same for a 17oz "NY Strip", which is the cut from the larger side of a porterhouse. Figure 8oz of bone, so the 24oz porterhouse I was served was probably 10oz of strip steak and 6oz of Filet Mignon (the other part of the porterhouse); both bone-in. To me, the porterhouse is a much better deal (if you can call this a deal). I had $86. left on a gift card, and it looked like I was still going to need to spend out of pocket.
Bread is included; it's sort of an onion loaf that was toasted and was served with a plate of soft butter.
I didn't like the bread; it reminded me of an onion roll and it wasn't soft inside. I didn't need the bread anyway.
I ordered a Pellegrino, which I was later horrified to learn is billed at $9.25, which is patently absurd.
Steaks here are prime, but not dry aged. For a couple of dollars less at Steak 954 you can get a dry aged prime steak (as well as beachfront ambiance); the aging process adds a lot of expense to the beef and arguably a better flavor. As steaks go, this was a very good one; tender, exactly medium rare and with a minimum amount of fat or gristle. I can't complain about the quality of the steak in any way. The service, however, was nothing special. I had to ask for salt and pepper, I was expected to cut my steak with the same knife provided for the bread, and there was no offer for steak sauce. Also, when I initially sat down, the only offer made was "is tap water OK"; rather than a question about what I'd like to drink.
Sides are $12, which is about $4 too much; I opted for the mushrooms and spinach combo, expecting to get 2 half orders rather than a full order of creamed spinach. It would be nice to make your own combo, but that doesn't fit the price gouging, ala carte business model in places like this. The spinach and mushrooms should have been served segregated, as the mushroom juice made the spinach too soggy, and if the spinach was sauteed in anything good I couldn't tell; it was just waterlogged. The mushrooms were typical; no better or worse than what I got at Ruth's Chris or III Forks for 33% less.
After 9pm, the younger couples started rolling in to take advantage of Morton's "Power Hour" , which is really exactly the opposite. The late happy hour is the time when people who can't afford (or who won't pay) the crushing prices here come for 1/2 price bar appetizers. We've done a separate review on Morton's venerable happy hour offerings.
There's something insulting about a restaurant that isn't doing too well in a not so inspiring location that raises prices 30% and doesn't do anything to improve the product. While they can try to argue that the meat quality justifies higher prices, the $9.25 they charged for the exact same bottle of Pellegrino you get elsewhere for $6 doesn't pass that muster. From reading the releases on the acquisitions, it seems that Landry's is most interested in using the notoriety of the Morton's brand to expand into China. Considering that the Chart House continues to exist despite hardly anyone knowing it's there, I can't say that Morton's won't survive; Landry's has deep pockets. But I can't see it doing very well; except at happy hour. Rich people aren't stupid.
The damage for this was $82.95 before tip.
Notice how it says "No Beverage", as if the $9.25 I paid for fizzy water doesn't count as a beverage.
Happy Hour Review 8/11/11
Morton's is a place in Fort Lauderdale that's easy to forget about. While it's walking distance from Las Olas, it's out of site and also out of mind.
If your coming from Las Olas, you'll enter in the rear. I'm not even sure if there's another entrance.
Inside, there's a bar/lounge up front with a long bar and hightop tables.
Prices at Morton's are generally out of control. Their Porterhouse for 1 is $55 and their porterhouse for 2 is $110. So much for economies of scale. But if you don't want to pay $17 for their cheeseburger, you can come to the bar during "Powerhour" and get some of the best deals on the street.
While you won't get to drink what you want, but they have some "bar bite" specials for $5 and $6 that are worth a look.
When is it?
7 Days Open-6:30pm and 9pm to Close
The Deal
You can get "select" wines for $6.50. They have one wine in each of the popular categories. They have select martinis and cocktails for $7.50 and a number of beers for $5 (What hard times are these when $5 for a Bud is a happy hour price). But the big attraction of this happy hour is the bar bites menu. Seven items priced at $5 and $6, and they also have oysters for $2 a pop or a colossal shrimp cocktail for $4 per shrimp.
What We Got
BV Coastal Cabernet $6.50
Mini CrabCake BLTs $6
The crabcake sliders are mini crabcakes with crisp bacon strips, iceberg lettuce and a tomato slice on a nice, soft slider bun.
On a previous visit, we tried the Prime Cheeseburger Sliders, also for $6.
The Verdict
If Morton's were just another restaurant, then you might think that the happy hour prices here were "pretty good". But Morton's is a high quality restaurant and the prices at happy hour are a great deal. While I don't like that their early happy hour ends at 6:30, after 9pm this is the only place "near" Las Olas that has a late happy hour. So you can pay $4 for a meatball slider at Yolo or you can pay $2. for a prime cheeseburger or crabcake BLT slider here.
I've sampled all of the happy hour choices at one time or another (except for the iceburg wedges), and they're all very good. These apps are easily worth $10 each; and at Morton's, where you expect to pay 20% more, it's really a great deal.
The bar area is closed off from the dining room, and they have some pretty good TVs. So it's a good place to catch a game in a quiet, sophisticated environment while enjoying some late night specials.
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to a member function getUser() on null in /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php:267 Stack trace: #0 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(75): threadedComments->formatComment(Object(stdClass)) #1 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(77): threadedComments->printParent(Array, 1) #2 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(100): threadedComments->printParent(Array) #3 /usr/local/www/insideftl/comments.php(74): threadedComments->printComments(Array) #4 /usr/local/www/insideftl/single-post.php(208): require_once('/usr/local/www/...') #5 /usr/local/www/insideftl/post.php(22): include('/usr/local/www/...') #6 /usr/local/www/insideftl/index.php(170): include('/usr/local/www/...') #7 {main} thrown in /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php on line 267