Beefing up Lawry's

Our meal at Lawry's was good but I could cringe at how tacky the décor and uniforms were. I felt like I was in Shijingshan Amusement Park. While I understand the need to exude an ‘old-school-theme-park’ feel, it would take a while to get over the sheer awkwardness of my surroundings.



Before the actual meal, we were served a basket of homemade (Oompa) Limpa and Sourdough slices, with piped butter. Piped butter… It’s been a while huh? The bread slices were rather run-of-the-mill but at least the butter was soft enough to glide over the warm slices.



The Famous Original Spinning Bowl Salad, a mix of crisp romaine and iceberg lettuce, watercress, beets, chopped eggs and uber-crispy croutons, tossed in a salad bowl that spun on a bed of ice. The waitress even got onto her tippy toes when she poured their “exclusive Lawry’s vintage dressing into the mix. Hats off to her enthusiasm.

A little too drenched out for my liking but I loved whatever egg bits I found and the eggs and uber-crispy croutons. Were the croutons deep fried or something? They were that delicious. Mmm, vintage dressing? I sure hope it isn’t sitting around the kitchen, aging, as we speak.



Brie cheese crab cake with avocado dressing was pleasant but I could hardly taste the cheese or the crab for that matter. So it was a very tasty deep fried er, cutlet.



Lawry’s bakes their yorkshire pudding in small skillets. A natural instinct would be to peel off the caramel-brown fluffy tips but to me, that bit though pretty lacks taste; instead the flavour resides in its buttery insides. And of course, it gets 100 times better when you soak it in gravy.

Oh by the way, they also gave us whipped horseradish cream and another version made spicy with wasabi, but I was happy to leave them out of the equation.

Though I was flippin’ tempted to order the Catch of the Day (sea bass and scallops), I went with cattle mentality and order The Singapore Cut. Santa He Who Slices Dah Beef wheeled over a metal cart that remained me of Bob Blumer’s Toaster Mobile.


The beef looks pinker than it actually was.

Medium Rare. When we were kids, Dad would always order Medium for us, but Medium Rare for himself. I would always remember how much better his Roast tastes, compared to my kid-friendly slab.

I know of people who gush about the Idaho mashed potatoes but I'm more of a creamed spinach believer. Love love love their creamed spinach that was subtly seasoned with spices, bacon and onion.. I could have done with another serving.

Service was earnest but I could hardly understand them due to their thick accents. I also don’t know understand why waitress referred to me as “Mrs X” when she handed me the menu. All I could think of was how weird it would have been if I dining with a colleague or worse, ex-boyfriend.

Awk-ward.

Lawry's The Prime Rib
333A Orchard Road
#04/01-31
Mandarin Gallery
Meritus Mandarin Hotel
Tel: 6836 3333