Lawry's Prime Rib - Beverly Hills

Every year I approach restaurant week with a little bit of apprehension. Restaurant week usually serves as a loss leader for businesses, and while I'm well aware that most places take to inventing cheaper, inferior menu items so that they can profit from what will most likely be one-time clientele, the opportunity to try a new place, to open a new door I can rarely afford to open is impossible to resist. Unfortunately this often leaves me disappointed. 

So when I heard that Lawry's offered everything on their iconic menu at an unbelievable price, I literally ran to my car...in the vain hope of balancing my soon-to-be insurmountable calorie intake.

My eyes started glowing immediately after I sat down, thanks to my textbook bourbon sidecar. They glowed even brighter as they caught the glint of light from the Spinning Salad bowl. 

Every morsel was so evenly coated with their Vintage Dressing, which tastes like a creamy French with a light tang...

The California Cut Prime Rib states that it's for "lighter" appetites, but they must have been feeding bears because this thick slab of marbled meat is nothing short of generous. The jus adds some saucy savor to the already juice-bursting, melt-in-your-mouth masterpiece, and this prime rib is so good it can stand alone. 

Except it doesn't because it came with a lobster tail, a crucial surf to the turf. Add a side of sweet creamed corn, fluffy, eggy, dip-able Yorkshire pudding and smooth mashed potatoes, and I swear heaven looks like Beverly Hills.

You think you can't possibly eat any more after this, but you'd be surprised how much room you can make for dessert, especially when faced with a fluffy English Trifle. The sponge cake soaks up just enough custard, the raspberries lighten an impossibly heavy meal, and the whipped cream slides down effortlessly.

The Chocolate Pudding didn't sound very exciting, but where I expected something resembling a reconstituted pack of jello, this pudding had a texture that was thick and rich, more like a lighter mousse.

When the bill came, I couldn't believe the deal. The restaurant week price was already giving me sticker-shock, but no amount of money could buy this ambiance, this Hollywood-in-the-time-of-Audrey-Hepburn glamour. The waitresses in maid uniforms who you address on a miss-last-name basis set a traditional scene of days gone by, back when servers knew how to serve.

This set-up would send any feminist into convulsions so maybe it's not for everyone, but it'll never be enough to keep me away. If Lawry's continues to have this kind of deal, then bring on the gender stereotypes! We'll complain about them together... Over steaming platters of surf n' turf.