{"id":243731,"date":"2010-08-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/affordable-decadence-mortons-three-course-special-lowers-the-cost-of-luxury-dining\/"},"modified":"2010-08-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T07:00:00","slug":"affordable-decadence-mortons-three-course-special-lowers-the-cost-of-luxury-dining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/affordable-decadence-mortons-three-course-special-lowers-the-cost-of-luxury-dining\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable Decadence: Morton\u2019s three-course special lowers the cost of luxury dining"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Nelson
\nSDUN Restaurant Critic
\n<\/strong>
\n

\"Affordable<\/a>
The single-cut filet entr\u00e9es are served with two side dishes to share plus an accompaniment choice of shrimp, scallops or crab cakes. (All photos by Paul Body)<\/figcaption><\/figure>When New Yorkers say that a new restaurant is \u201creally uptown,\u201d they\u2019re usually talking about a place downtown or in Midtown. They\u2019ve been doing this ever since Duke Ellington suggested taking the A Train uptown for the ultimate night out.<\/p>\n

Our Uptown is definitely San Diego\u2019s hip zone. But because expense account types, conventioneers and others make downtown their headquarters, the city\u2019s more formal, special occasion restaurants tend to cluster there\u2014the closer to the convention center, the better. So when a special occasion comes along, it\u2019s doubly special for us in Uptown if it coincides with a special offer at one of the relatively few really fine downtown eateries, such as Morton\u2019s The Steakhouse.<\/p>\n

An international icon that was founded a few feet from Rush Street in Chicago\u2019s uptown district, the Morton\u2019s chain is synonymous with luxury, specifically with oversized portions of deluxe meats, seafood, side dishes and desserts, served by highly trained staffers in deluxe settings. Even the music is recorded to suit Morton\u2019s ambiance, and in San Diego, as elsewhere, Frank Sinatra is likely to narrate dinner from the first martini through the last bite of hot chocolate cake. Dinner is quite an experience, and given the exceptional quality and lavish servings, it\u2019s quite an extravagance, too. At least it is much of the time.<\/p>\n

At the moment, however, Morton\u2019s is offering a specially priced, three-course dinner for two that will make you want to celebrate your birthday or anniversary before the end of September, no matter when on the calendar the event actually takes place. At $109.99, it\u2019s by no means inexpensive, but the meal is quite grand and is definitely a bargain compared to the restaurant\u2019s regular prices. <\/p>\n

The usual Morton\u2019s experience is something of a theater piece, since after the cocktail order is taken, a server wheels over a cart laden with the prime steaks, giant lobsters and slab-like cuts of fish (the swordfish can be amazing) that are the restaurant\u2019s all-American specialties. The show-and-tell can be fun, once, but another nice aspect of the prix fixe special is that you get down to business quickly. <\/p>\n

\"Affordable<\/a>
Caesar Salad<\/figcaption><\/figure>Here\u2019s the deal (details about the individual preparations will follow). For the first course, choose a Caesar salad or the unique Morton\u2019s salad. This will be shared, but since the servings always are over-sized, there will be plenty, especially since the salad will arrive alongside a loaf of irresistible onion bread. (Slice the bread into thick wedges with a steak knife, slather it with butter and enjoy, but remember, it\u2019s very easy to fill up on this spectacularly flavorful loaf.) The second course really is extravagant, since it offers two single-cut filets, paired with two of the following: broiled sea scallops; colossal shrimp served in the restaurant\u2019s suave, buttery Alexander sauce; or a jumbo lump crab cake. The main course also includes one of Morton\u2019s signature potato preparations and a fresh vegetable dish, both meant to be shared\u2014and both served more than plentifully. Finally, split a hunk of hot chocolate cake, a giant wedge of key lime pie or an island-sized cr\u00e8me br\u00fblee. Chances are, some of the cake or pie will go home, along with enough steak to build a couple of deluxe sandwiches for lunch the next day. <\/p>\n

The key to Morton\u2019s cuisine really is quite simple: everything is prepared knowledgeably and made exclusively from the best. The Caesar salad, for example, is composed strictly of crisp hearts of Romaine, tossed with a mellow-sharp dressing and crisscrossed, unless you opt out, with pungent anchovy filets. As hearty as it is, this probably makes the lightest preface to Morton\u2019s dinner-for-two. The alternative Morton\u2019s salad is richer, a jumble of tender butter lettuce with deluxe blue cheese dressing, chopped eggs and anchovies. Each bite fills the mouth with memorable flavors. Since Morton\u2019s is the house that steak built, the main event of individual, single-cut filets features the finest beef available in this country, cooked to order, preferably in the red-to-pink zone for maximum flavor and juiciness. The seafood garnishes that transform the steaks into surf \u2018n\u2019 turf events all are prime, too, from succulent sea scallops to shrimp Alexander\u2014so huge they seem to aspire to lobster-hood\u2014in smooth, tart beurre blanc, and on to the oh-so-rich jumbo lump crab cake, served with a robust mustard-mayonnaise sauce that underscores the delicacy of the crab.<\/p>\n

If the steak makes the dinner, the side dishes make the steak, and at Morton\u2019s, all the vegetables and most potato preparations are served in boats that feed two more than generously. The steamed jumbo asparagus spears, fresh as dawn and elegantly bathed in sauce hollandaise, headline a list that includes garlicky saut\u00e9ed green beans, wonderful creamed spinach and a nice medley of saut\u00e9ed spinach and button mushrooms that is relatively light on the palate. The jumbo baked Idaho can be loaded as lavishly as you like and shares well, but the hash browns are crisp and buttery, and the saut\u00e9ed Lyonnaise potatoes have a pungent onion garnish that goes quite beautifully with a good filet. Thus, it\u2019s hard to choose. Or is it easy, since everything is good?<\/p>\n

\"Affordable<\/a>
Key Lime Pie<\/figcaption><\/figure>After all this, dessert only seems natural, even though the calorie count will climb like the stock market did in days gone by. The prix fixe choices all are Morton\u2019s classics, and the selection depends on your mood. Cr\u00e8me br\u00fblee provides a satisfying close to a savory steak dinner, but anyone who likes chocolate may prefer the gooey, velvety hot chocolate cake. Compared to these, the Key Lime pie seems light as a cloud\u2014but since this is Morton\u2019s, it also is rich as Rockefeller. The nice thing is, at this inclusive price, you don\u2019t have to be a Rockefeller to enjoy a memorable splurge. Remember that tax, tip and beverages are in addition to the prix fixe.<\/p>\n

Morton\u2019s the Steakhouse
\n285 J St.
\nCentro
\n696-3369<\/strong>
\nmortons.com<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Nelson SDUN Restaurant Critic When New Yorkers say that a new restaurant is \u201creally uptown,\u201d they\u2019re usually talking about a place downtown or in Midtown. They\u2019ve been doing this ever since Duke Ellington suggested taking the A Train uptown for the ultimate night out. Our Uptown is definitely San Diego\u2019s hip zone. But […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1304,"featured_media":243732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Affordable Decadence: Morton\u2019s three-course special lowers the cost of luxury dining","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}