Morton's, it's not just salt anymore

Up until this past weekend, I have lived my life visualizing the blue round cylindrical shaped container with the girl holding the umbrella whenever someone mentioned the word, "Morton's." And the funny thing is that up until the writing of this blog I never noticed that they don't use the possessive, it just says, "Morton Salt." In any case, I no longer associate the name Morton with salt after endulging in Morton's Steakhouse's 2 can dine for $99 promo.

I'll get right to the meat of the review and say that the steak isn't as good as Ruth's. However, the ambiance and presentation was slightly comparable to that of Smith & Wollensky. But on to the deal of which myself and my beautiful date along with the married couple from our Flemings experience enjoyed.

First off, Morton's is conveniently located in the shopping area of Boston, probably a block or two from the Prudential Center Mall on Boylston Street. Great service began from the moment we exited the car with the valet staff who promptly took the car and sheltered us under an umbrella to make sure their cash, oops I meant clients, didn't get wet. Upon arriving inside we were promptly seated and a huge hot and might I add delicious baked bread was placed on the table. That bread, the monstrosity, somehow managed to whittle away to crumbs in a relatively short time. For salad, the ladies had the Morton's salad and the guys had the Caesar's salad. As for the complimentary anchovies provided with the Morton's salad the ladies decided to pass. :)

The next course was the steak and seafood entree of which we dined on Colossal Shrimp Alexander, Jumbo Lump Crab Cake and medium done single cut filets (the ladies, of course chose to have their steaks butterflied and done medium well). For sides we had mash potatoes, steamed brocoli, hashbrown potato, grilled asparagus, and creamed spinach. What I failed to mention above is that before you select what you will be dining on for the evening they bring all the raw ingredients (including the steaks and 3lb live lobsters) around on a cart for your viewing pleasure. And based on what I saw, they must have their own farm because those must have been the biggest, freshest and healthiest looking veggies I ever saw. And they tasted just as good as they looked. Ha, I just had a flashback to a point in the evening when I commented on the size of the asparagus spears claiming it looked, dare I say, phallic. Oh yeah, the steaks were good but nothing spectacular. Hey, what can I say? Ruth's Chris and their 500 degree plates has me spoiled, ROTTEN.

Now onto what impressed everyone at the table, dessert! BOTH the chocolate cake and the key lime cake were absolutely fabulous. I mean, they refer to their chocolate cake as legendary in their menu but who would have guessed they were telling the truth. And as for the key lime pie, I must admit that I was surprisingly overwhelmed. I demolished it. I have never even had key lime pie that tasted good enough for me to eat more than half of a small slice before. I practically inhaled the generous slice that was placed before me at Morton's however.

All in all, I would have to say Morton's has some of the best desserts of anywhere that I have had the opportunity to dine, great freaking sides and seafood, but nothing exceptional when it comes to their steaks.