We headed to Lawry’s The Prime Rib for a lavish lunch to celebrate my husband Chris’ birthday!

I love the ornate old-world elegance of Lawry’s, considering the restaurant is in the middle of Orchard Road. Lofty ceilings delight me, and the glass-walled windows let in so much natural light.

We kicked off with complimentary bread rolls. I know this is a yawn-some photo, but free bread always gets me. I’m easy to please.

We ordered the kids a Minestrone soup. They destroyed it.

We were treated to their signature Lawry’s spinning salad, where a simple salad (romaine and iceberg lettuce, watercress, shredded beets, chopped eggs and croutons, tossed with Lawry’s vintage dressing) is spun in a chilled bowl on top of ice. It’s a bit gimmicky, but very cute to watch, and great entertainment for the kids.

The salad is served with chilled forks, and is delicious.

My Australian rack of lamb was gorgeous. Drenched in a rich balsamic red wine reduction, it was decorated with bright cherry tomatoes and brussel sprouts. Sadly, there were only 3 cutlets on the plate. I needed about 6 cutlets to fill me. That said, they were tender and absolutely divine.

And… their famous Prime Rib. A trolley is rolled to your table and the chef deftly cuts off a slice for you. It’s doused in a watery gravy (which is odd, I’d have preferred it a lot richer), and a dollop of mashed potatoes. It’s served with two different horseradish dips – both are a great accompaniment, and one is sharper/spicier than the other.

The thing I always look forward to at Lawry’s is their Yorkshire pudding. Baked in its own individual-sized skillet, these babies are soft in the middle but light and crisp toward the edge. They’re addictive! Our kids gobbled most of it up, so we had to get another one.

The Prime black angus fillet mignon was the star dish, IMHO. The steak was small, but so delicately and perfectly cooked that it was like butter. The meat was one of the most tender I’ve had, yet still retained a lovely bite and flavour. It was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.

The Mushroom sizzler arrived, well, sizzling! Assorted mushrooms cooked to give off a smokey flavour, and enough to share among a table of 4.

We ordered a chocolate based dessert with fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream. It made my toes curl in pleasure. The chocolate cake was dense but not too rich, and the fresh fruit brought a lovely sweetness-and-tartness to the dish. Hunter went a little wild over this one…

We also ordered a sort of chocolate mousse with bananas and strawberry ice cream. I really enjoyed the crunchy base, but the mousse didn’t do it for me (I’m not a fan of mousse).

Chris’ birthday Strawberry English Trifle was simple but well executed. The sponge cake was light and fluffy, and the strawberries sweet and juicy. I was surprised I enjoyed this one, because I normally don’t like non-chocolate or fruit-based desserts.

How old is Daddy?? Take a guess 😉

 
 
Last Bite: Lawry’s The Prime Rib serves a lavish and delicious lunch, specialising in red meat. Their Prime black angus fillet mignon was an absolute stunner!
 
Highchairs: Yes
Easy access: Yes
Change tables: Yes (in the mall)
Kids’ menu: Yes

Lawry’s The Prime Rib
333A Orchard Road
#04-01/31 Mandarin Gallery
Singapore 238897
Phone: 6836 3333
Prices: $$$$$
Hours:
Mon – Thu: 11:30 am – 10:00 pm
Fri – Sat: 11:30 am – 10:30 pm
Sun: 11:30 am – 10:00 pm
 
 

The Providore is an open-concept cafe in (relatively quiet) Mandarin Gallery on Orchard Road. I finally managed to pay it a visit last week. I love the cafe layout. They have jams, teas and coffee for sale in pretty jars and tins on one side, and a scattering of tables around the cafe.

I personally felt that the air-conditioning is pretty chilly in the mall, so I selected a seat near the glass doors with the hope that some fresh (warm) air would gust in whenever someone walked through the doors. It somewhat worked.

Their Latte was a delight. Served piping hot, it was rich and smooth and…… “LOOK! Heart!” said Hunter.

The Mocha was mixed with liquid chocolate – thumbs up. Cannot stand mocha drinks mixed with chocolate powder.

We enjoyed a quiet chat whilst waiting for our food to arrive. The open-concept layout of the cafe and laid back vibe seemed to go down well with Hunter, who was very well behaved and fun for most of our meal. He was rewarded later with some time on the iPad, and had us adults singing “Tayo tayo tayo!” loudly. AHEM.

The Grilled ham and cheese toastie ($14.50) came out looking exceedingly bland. This was also due to the fact that I asked it to be served on their “softest bread”, since it was meant for Hunter. The sandwich came out looking like… well… something I slapped together at home.

It was very dry and hard to swallow, though the flavours were good. I cut off all the crusts (which was dry and had no ingredients) and fed him the middle bit, and he did eat it – so I was relieved that at least someone enjoyed it!

The Providore have a rotating Lunch Specials menu, and one of the items there that day was Spaghettini with seared tuna ($25.50). I thought spaghettini was very very thin spaghetti, but this was regular spaghetti. Not that it’s a bad thing, but just odd that they mislabeled something like that. The pasta was good, with fresh tuna and lots of stewed tomatoes in the sauce. Hunter loved this.

I thought the Steak sandwich ($14.50) was a winner, and great value considering the woeful Ham & Cheese Toastie was the same price! It was a petite portion (especially the steak), but was beautifully executed. The bread was fluffy, soft and warm. And the steak – ohhhhh, delicious! So absolutely tender with no weird rind bits. They were a little heavy handed with the mustard (it made us reel), but we still really enjoyed this dish.

I saw the Red Velvet Cake on the menu and couldn’t resist. The cake itself was perfectly moist and just tangy enough – lovely. However, the layers of cream didn’t sit well with us – it was so sugary we had to scrape it all off (and believe me, I can take sugar!). In fact, it seemed that so much sugar was added to the cream/icing that it had reached saturation point – as we could actually detect crunchy bits of sugar through it. Ack. So, in short, superb cake, terrible icing.

Last Bite: The Providore offers a casual, open-concept approach that is great for kids. The food is average-to-nice, but what we really enjoyed here was their fantastic beverages.

Highchairs: Yes
Easy access: Yes
Change tables: Yes, in mall’s bathroom
Kids’ menu: No

The Providore
Mandarin Gallery
333A Orchard Road #02-05
Singapore 238897
Phone: 6732 1565
Prices: $$
Hours: Mon – Sun: 9:00 am – 10:30 pm