We went to Morton’s in SF after the Warriors game on Friday.  The place is conveniently located right next to Union Square.  Actually, ‘convenient’ and union square are somewhat misleading - parking is kind of a mess, and it’s relatively hard to get around through traffic.

In any case, it was late so we just did valet.  Interestingly, since the place was almost closed the valet charged me $12 to park the car on the curb right in front of me.  The guy basically went back and forth to parallel park about 5 times - and that was $12.  sweet.

If you’ve ever been to morton’s, you know their big deal is brining the ‘menu’ over for you to look at.  This is basically a cart with big pieces of meat saran wrapped to plates.  Servers work in teams, and our server went through a script pointing out the different pieces of meat, as well as a piece of tuna.  He also held up a whole lobster, live - but just barely - that was sitting on the top of the cart.

We got the porterhouse for 2, the idea being that we can get both a filet and NY with the  porterhouse.  We also ordered oysters to start with and some wild mushrooms (unremarkable).

For wine, we got a stag’s leap artemis.  Morton’s has a very impressive wine menu, and the stag’s was one of the few wines I had heard anything about.  They have a sommelier come over with the wine and do a fancy serving and stuff.

The oysters were good.  They were served with freshly grated horseradish and cocktail on a bed of ice.  Just typical half-shell presentation.

The porterhouse was huge.  They offered to divide it for us, and did a nice quick job, leaving only a bit of meat on the bone.  The server also separated the filet from the strip, and identified them for us.

The meat was excellent.  The seasoning was subtle, but it complemented the meat well.  The crust on the outside of the meat was nicely done, keeping the inside of the meat juicy.  In terms of temperature, we asked for medium rare and were told this would be pink all the way through.  You can see the coloring in this pic.  It was perfectly done for my tastes - and the server checked in on us to make sure it was how we wanted it.  I love bloody, and I think if you’re going to have bloody meat, Morton’s is the perfect place.

The porterhouse for 2 is big ,by the way.  I eat a lot, and I could barely finish my portion.  For $100, it’s not a great deal - but I think it does give you an excellent piece of meat that allows you to taste different cuts.

All in all, it was a great meal.  The service was nearly perfect.  The food was very good.  The price was high, but acceptable considering the service and ambience.  One thing I noticed is that these chains sometimes lose their touch when they expand - not so with Morton’s.  I’ve been to the one in Hawaii as well, and it seems like they’re pretty consistent with their service.

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