Lawry's The Prime Rib - Prime Rib Steakhouse - Beverly Hills, CA

If it wasn't for the part of my brain that thinks I should eat somewhat "healthy" (whatever that means, anyway) from time to time, I would probably be as close to a full fledged carnivore as a human can possibly get. No, not an omnivore that east everything, but a full fledged, practically meat only carnivore...well, with the exception of a side of rice or potatoes or some kind of starch to wash it all down. Being a meat-eating maniac, for some reason i've never been a big fan of prime rib. Not that I dislike prime rib or anything...it just has never been my favorite cut and I'm not exactly sure why. Prime rib to me has always been a very tender cut, but for one reason or another I have always thought that prime rib lacked some of the flavor found in some of the other cuts. That is, until I tried a proper prime rib...

Some good friends from back east were in town last week for work related training. Needing a break from their hectic training schedule, a good meat-centric dinner was in order and Lawry's seemed like the perfect place. With my wife and I in the South Bay and our friends coming from Woodland Hills, Beverly Hills seemed like an ideal meeting place...being somewhat centrally located between our two areas. Now, I must take a moment here to voice one of my gripes with the LA area...the figgin ridiculous traffic. We made the mistake of taking the 405 to the 10 to get to the restaurant, and what should have been a 25 to 30 minute drive ended up taking us almost an hour and a half. Technically, I believe it is only about 20 miles door to door so anything over an hour is absolutely ridiculous. Aaahh...now I remember why I live 2.5 non-freeway miles from work...

By the time we got to the restaurant, I was a little grumpy from the drive (if you can call sitting in traffic driving) but luckily not feeling extremely hungry. Or so I thought. When we got escorted from the lobby into the dining area that all changed...drastically. The second I stepped into the dining room, the smell of superbly cooked meat assaulted my senses and vigorously stirred the beast that lurked within. By the time we arrived at our table, I had gone from feeling moderately hungry to feeling completely famished. It's amazing how strongly the sense of smell is tied to the stomach and the desire to feed. Time to tame the beast.

Lawry's specializes in USDA certified, rock salt roasted cuts of prime rib beef. There are 5 different "cuts" available...differing only in size from one to the other. Every dinner comes with Lawry's spinning bowl salad, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, and their famous whipped cream horseradish. They also have a selection of additional sides like sauteed mushrooms and creamed corn that you can order with your dinner. After much taunting from my fellow tablemates to order the Beef Bowl cut (their largest cut), I settled on the Lawry's Cut...their original (since 1938) generously sized cut that measures approximately 10 ounces without the bone, cooked medium rare. For accompaniment, I ordered the creamed corn as well as an order of the sauteed mushrooms for the table. After a short wait, and some scintillating conversation the prime rib chef made a visit to our table with his shiny, apparently world famous, prime rib cart chock full of perfectly roasted prime rib.

Like I said previously, I ordered the Lawry's Cut. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of my dinner as I was completely and utterly distracted. What was I distracted by? No, it wasn't the insane hunger that seethed through my being. It wasn't the enjoyment of being around old friends. Instead, I was distracted by the fact that one of my tablemates ordered the Beef Bowl Cut (the pictures contained herein are of said Beef Bowl Cut). Like I mentioned earlier, the Beef Bowl Cut is the largest cut that Lawry's has on the menu. According to our waitress, it measures about 22 ounces without the bone. That, by itself, isn't distractingly amazing but then you have to take into account that the tablemate that ordered said Beef Bowl is of the feminine persuasion. Not only is she female, but she is a very small, petite female. And she finished most of it too...save for a good amount of meat surrounding the bone. Impressive. I have an appetite of legend amongst my friends and I have to admit, watching her eat that Beef Bowl kinda made me glad I didn't order it as well as I would have been forced to finish it for fear of looking like a pansy.

Anyway, everything on the menu was good. The Prime Rib....fantastically rare...just the way I like it with loads of flavor that seems to be lacking at most other prime rib places. Why is that? Could it be the special Lawry's seasoning salt? Could it be that they sprinkle crack on as a special seasoning prior to cooking? Who knows!, but whatever it is they're doing at Lawry's that's different from the other places definitely makes a difference. I'm not saying that i've been converted to prime rib as my personal favorite cut but it definitely has jumped up several notches...all thanks to Lawry's.

Lawry's The Prime Rib
100 N. La Cienega Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(310) 652-2827
http://www.lawrysonline.com