Lawry's The Prime Rib — Restaurant in Xinyi District

My mom loves prime rib, so I made a reservation here for Mother's Day dinner. They only offered a set menu, which was the regular set menu plus NT$200 for a glass of sparkling wine. I don't mind paying more for a special menu, but that's just a little uninspired and lazy.

The food, however, was just as good as the original on La Cienega and each course was well paced. The salad was nice, and my mom liked her scallop and truffle porcini soup. I liked the flavor of my French onion soup but they do not use gruyere or Swiss cheese. It's some kind of weird American cheese. I would ask for it with no cheese until they do it properly. My escargot were very tender but it was definitely on the salty side.

We each ordered the 10 oz. Lawry's cut and it was perfectly medium rare, juicy, and tender. The sides of mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, corn, and buttered peas were done well, and the au jus was perfect for mopping up with the Yorkshire pudding. They also serve real horseradish with the prime rib which is hard to find in Taiwan so that was a nice touch.

We finished with coffees and dessert. The options were English trifle, chocolate brownie, and the special Mother's Day strawberry, watermelon, pistachio cake. All the desserts were decent, but the truffle wasn't a trifle. There was no custard and barely any whipped cream. It was a vanilla cake with a bit of strawberry jam.

Service was very pleasant and professional. Our server overhead us speaking in English and switched over even though it wasn't necessary. The maitre d came over to ask how everything was before the prime rib was served. I told her the French onion soup cheese is weird. She told me that's how Taiwanese like it. Maybe they do, maybe they're just trying to save on costs. I also ordered a Manhattan that came out quickly and well made. Took about 2.5 hours to finish our meal, so not a place for a quick bite, but worth the...

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so disappointed by a place I’ve had nothing but the highest expectations for. A friend of mine went to the Beverly Hills location and said it was the best meal he’d ever eaten. To start our server was amazing she was sweet and genuinely seemed to care about our experience, thank you Jessie. We ordered a set menu prime rib with added on foie gras and a shrimp cocktail. We were served the famous spinning bowl salad and it was fresh and tasty, until I bit into a piece of glass or something else that was clear brittle and sharp. It stabbed me in the mouth and I immediately asked to speak to a manager. After a few minutes of being railroaded he eventually came over and asked me what the problem was. I explained what had happened and he informed me he already knew what happened?!? And told me it was a hard corn shell?!? Are you kidding me? I have eaten in the most high end and low end restaurants all over the planet, and have never felt so disrespected in my life. Instead of being apologetic and professional he downplayed it like it was no big deal. If the shard had been in my wife’s salad he would have had a much larger problem on his hands. He then brought his tone to a whisper as to not let any other patrons know the mistake they had made and to be honest made me feel like I was exaggerating the situation. I felt like he was poorly trained and didn’t handle the situation nearly to the level as expected in a high end restaurant of this caliber. I immediately requested the bill and left feeling disrespected and annoyed. I cannot emphasize enough how poorly this was dealt with and unfortunately can not recommend this location to anyone. Hopefully they can focus on retraining their staff on how to properly deal with...

As an American living in Taipei, I often find myself craving a good cut of beef. Prime rib is good and all, but even at Lawry's, the SoCal prime rib specialist, I'd rather order the 12 oz dry aged steak. Dry aged beef is few and far between in Taiwan; off the top of my head, the only other restaurants with dry aged steaks are either too expensive (Alexander's) or a little far (Sherwood, Toscana Italian). When I found out Lawry's serves dry aged steaks, I had to try it. While it's quite expensive, it's really hard to go wrong at Lawry's. Quality of food is better elsewhere, but the continental service and old-style ambience is unique in Taipei. The prime rib is always consistent and so are the sides; I recommend creamed spinach. They also serve a set menu in Taipei, including an appetizer, salad, soup, and desert which I only recommend if you're starving (it's way too much food if you order more than 6-7 oz servings). The dry aged steak I ordered was full of flavor, though a little drier than I expected (juiciness of steak is not determined by water content that is evaporated in the dry aging process; juiciness is determined by fat content and marbling). I highly recommend you order the dry aged steak if you've never had dry age before; expensive but worth it. Service at Lawry's is always good, they are very accommodating...