Morton's The Steakhouse — Restaurant in San Jose

I wanted to do something special for my parents, on account of their upcoming anniversary. The day before our reservation, I received an email about Morton’s “Pre-fixe Menu”. Spelling aside, I shared the menu link with my family so they could look it over for our visit. Unfortunately, things went poorly very quickly when we arrived. While we were seated right away — it was at a table not properly set. The host grabbed a glass from another table and added it to ours. We were not brought menus immediately. Nor were we brought water. We sat for a few minutes before someone, not our waiter, approached us and asked if we wanted water. We said yes, and they said they would bring water. Someone else brought us menus — but they were drink-only menus. We found it a bit bizarre that we had been seated for approximately 15 minutes and still had not been brought food menus. We did finally receive water from our waiter, who did not introduce himself or give his name. He said he would bring us menus, but, again, we found ourselves sitting and waiting. It started to feel like the staff were very disorganized. There was a wait staff member who stood at the outside podium occasionally, but as far as we could tell, did nothing. He stood there; he didn’t bring us water. He didn’t bring us menus. He just sort of stood there, didn’t really seem to be paying attention to any of the diners, and went inside every now and then, but seemed to serve no purpose or help while the rest of the staff. This bizarre behavior lasted for our entire dining experience (which was over 2 hours long). Our waiter did take our drink orders after we got water — but we still didn’t have food menus. As each minute went by and we still hadn’t gotten our menus, I found myself losing confidence that this would be a good experience. It did not help when I overheard the only other table outside with us tell the waiter that something was wrong with their order. When the waiter finally brought menus, he just brought two for the women in the party. A few minutes later, he came back with two more, but it seemed bizarre to me that he couldn’t have brought four menus all at once, particularly considering how long we had already been waiting for them. On top of that, I found it odd that the waiter didn’t mention any special menus. He took my father’s order, and then I asked about any special menus or the prix fixe menu I had received an email about. He said he didn’t know anything about a special menu and went inside to ask. Another wait staff member came out and asked what we were talking about, and I said that I received an email about a Memorial Day prix fixe menu. That person also went back inside. Our waiter came out with two pieces of paper of their “Special menu”, which seemed to be a surf-n-turf thing, not the prix fixe we had seen online. They said they weren’t participating in whatever prix fixe menu I’d seen. After returning home, I checked and the Memorial Day event WAS listed on the website when I went to the specific menu for the San Jose location. Does anyone know what they are doing there? What kind of a waiter fails to tell their table about their specials? Things were not looking that great. All of us simply ordered off the regular menu. By the time the waiter returned to take the rest of our orders, 15-20 minutes had elapsed between when my father gave his order and the rest of us gave ours. Google limits review length, but suffice it to say, the food was not great and the service only continued downhill, including: Underbaked (raw in the middle) bread Salads drowning in dressing Waiter recommended “Medium-well” salmon (WTF?) “Au gratin” potatoes, instead of scalloped, were large unflavorful cubes The only time the waiter attempted to be friendly and engage us was an obvious ploy right before bringing the bill.

I would not recommend. None of us would go to any Morton's after...

This was my first visit to the new location on the ground floor of the San Jose Fairmont property. It suffers badly by comparison to the former location on the top floor of the Park Avenue venue which offered a 180 degree view of the Santa Clara Valley with wonderfully supplemented natural lighting and validated parking. No such luck here. To combat the ground floor location directly across from the homeless who frequent Cesár Chavez Plaza, the choice was made to follow a blackout theme. No outside view. The theme continues inside with the most cringe worthy trac lighting. If your smartphone camera isn't the most recent, count on ugly glare from them to spoil your pictures. With COVID-19 cutting down on traffic, street parking was readily available, keeping in mind the previously mentioned atmosphere through which one must now walk.

My memory of the non-entrée items was that they met a very high standard. No longer. Whatever sous chef prepared my lobster bisque decided to dump copious amount of pepper into it to "spice" it up, completely ruining a perfectly good base. My companion's chopped house salad got a similar treatment only with vinegar instead of pepper. Our wait staff (Shelley) kindly removed both items from our bill.

The focaccia mini loaf offered with our appetizers was perfection. The butter was spreadable at room temperature, a pleasant bonus.

My previous experience of the wait staff was that they were prompt and attentive. That was no longer the case. This was due I suspect not to COVID-19 issues but rather kitchen staff unable to properly sequence and time our order, which was given in its entirety upon arrival.

Our entrées (filet mignon and salmon) were prepared to perfection. Morton's signature giant baked potato was also perfectly prepared, although curiously no salt and pepper was present on our table, nor was any offered. The grilled asparagus side was not as fortunate. Apparently the sous chef was unaware that parboiling before grilling is necessary to avoid stringy toughness.

I was inclined to order a glass of Zinfandel but was told none was available to order by the glass. My companion is not a drinker. Another interesting menu choice.

Our dessert of crème brulée was undercooked such that the expected custard-like consistency beneath the fired crust topping was completely runny.

COVID-19 contactless payment has come a long way in the "new normal". My last experience at P. F. Chang's presented me with a QR code scannable single short piece of paper with which I could easily customize the gratuity decided upon and pay with Apple Pay. No such luck here. It was back to the old ways.

We reluctantly concluded that traveling over the hill to the Shadow Brook in Capitola would have been the wiser choice given the comparable monetary outlay, superior atmosphere and overall food quality, despite the time...

9/20/2022

917p arrival time. Greeting at 919p

The service to get your food is super slow. Be prepared to wait a while. You will get bread and butter which is tasty.

The potatoes au gratin were not good and the presentation was awful. No pride in their craft was taken.

Fillet mignon was ordered medium rare but came out over cooked significantly at medium well. I was furious. It was late so I didn’t ask for another steak but the disappointment is immense.

Lobster was average. Nothing was special. It seemed like a $15 lobster tail from Whole Foods marked up 400%

Trisha was my server. None of this was her fault. I gave her a 20% tip.

The lobster bisque is very creamy and very smooth, looks like it had some parsley on top and I was able to add some fresh ground black pepper. It is really tasty it’s really great definitely highly recommend it. But it does not contain very much lobster don’t get your hopes up.

I had a reservation for 945p I called ahead to ask if I could be seated earlier and the host said yes. I saw one host / manager upon arrival. He seated a party of 6 with no reservation before seating me, a party of one. I got there before them and had a reservation. It feels racist.

Loud but ambience is of a very fine dining experience. Entry carpet was dirty. Front window seals were also dirty and dusty. Patio was reserved so no chance to eat outside. Bar area had about 10 seats , and 5 table tops. There was a party of 6 waiting for a table but there was already a tabletop available. The host was too busy running around the restaurant to assist anyone coming in. We were abandoned at the check in area it’s now 927pm. They have a closing time of 10p.

The dress code is not enforced. I will test this another time to see if it only applies to certain people. I just saw someone with a baseball cap on. There’s another person with a bucket hat on as well.

Silverware is above average quality but below average cleanliness. The light on the table was off. Poor attention to detail by the staff.

Long Island iced tea was very weak. She offered an additional shot to strengthen it.

The bread is good but it’s overkill and probably wasteful most people would only eat about half a loaf of this. The butter was not softened but it was spreadable and came with a butter knife. Oddly enough there’s not a bread knife so you’ll have to use your steak knife for that.

It was $97 for a mediocre meal. I was not impressed. The Grill at the Alley, is much better, as...