Messing around in the kitchen rarely ends well, but for friends Arnie Morton and Klaus Fritsch, a simple hamburger experiment back in 1978 culminated in them opening a steakhouse – Morton’s of Chicago – and, eventually, a chain of more than 70 steak restaurants in cities around the US and abroad.
It’s with great excitement and relief that we announce Guangzhou now has a Morton’s of its own – excitement because the setup in IGC looks absolutely stellar, and relief because we finally have a restaurant that fills the gaping void between lackluster Western pub food and unaffordable five-star hotel fare.
Perched on the fifth and sixth floors of International Grand City just outside of Liede station, Morton’s Grille treats visitors to breathtaking views of the Pearl River, Canton Tower and cityscape beyond. Book a window-side table in advance to make the most of your romantic splurge.
Though the outdoor terrace is regrettably not open yet due to construction nearby, General Manager Benjamin Le Grand assures us he’s working hard to make the space available for guests and private parties in the next month or so. In the meantime, you can still enjoy outdoor seating on the balcony.
Morton’s famous happy hour is on every day from 5-7pm, serving a selection of drinks at RMB38 and bar bites for RMB28-48 instead of the usual RMB78-98. If you’re looking for the legendary free-flow steak sandwiches offered at locations back home, however, you may be disappointed to learn that the Guangzhou branch (like Shanghai’s) doesn’t offer the complimentary snack. But don’t fret: every meal begins with a generous loaf of warm onion bread free of charge.
To start, we order half a dozen oysters (RMB198), Morton’s jumbo lump crab cake (RMB128) and the center-cut iceberg (RMB58) topped with chopped egg, tomato, bacon bits and blue cheese dressing. Aside from the steak, the French oysters turn out to be our favorite dish of the evening. Served with horseradish cocktail sauce, lemon and a bit of cilantro and onion, they come right off the shell when slurped and are as succulent as you’ll find on this side of the world.
As for the other starters, the crab cake is a must-order, dipped in delicious mustard-mayonnaise sauce, and the iceberg salad left no complaints except that it was served with a fork perched on the side of the bowl, which inevitably fell into the dressing, making a mess.
Moving on to the red meat mains, we tried the double stacked “ravenous style” burger (RMB138) for the heck of it, but wish we’d ordered steaks across the board, as the hanbao was good but certainly not Morton’s-good.
The center-cut filet mignon (RMB198/179 grams, RMB248/240 grams), on the other hand, was cooked just right, with sumptuous pink juices dripping from the tender-as-butter meat. It’s a level of sensory stimulation that makes you wonder if your tongue has actually been dormant all these years – blinded until introduced to something worth seeing.
It might be difficult to part with Morton’s cozy little fifth-floor nook and return to the cold, bitter grind of daily life, but that’s how every restaurant, ideally, should make us feel, right? Adrift in a seemingly infinite moment of comforting food and warm conversation, nibbling slower and slower on dessert so that maybe, just maybe, the night will never end.
Price: RMB250
Who’s going: anyone serious about steak, local high-rollers
Good for: the tastiest red meat in South China, epic city views
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