Ruth's Chris Vs Morton's: Which Is Better?
Every doctor will always tell you to load up on as many leafy greens as you can so your body gets a substantial amount of vitamins and nutrients. It's great advice. But let's be honest: Sometimes staring at a bowl of veggies just isn't that appealing, and the only thing that will settle perfectly in your belly is a big juicy steak. The carnivore inside you wipes the floor with the herbivore, and meat is the only thing prancing through your thoughts. Luckily, it's not too difficult to track down a restaurant capable of quelling that urge to fill up to the brim on animal goodness.
Two restaurants that are known to serve up some great quality cuts of meat are Ruth's Chris Steak House and Morton's The Steakhouse. Both spots are upscale eateries that offer guests a fantastic selection of high-quality cuisine, but when that craving for a rich meaty meal strikes like lightning and you have access to both places, which one is more deserving of your hard-earned money? We're here to help guide your decision so you're able to embrace your inner carnivore in the most satisfying way possible.
Morton's has a raw bar
Having a lovely cooked seafood meal is never a bad choice. Diving fork first into a flaky cut of fish or a succulent piece of lobster hits all the right places on the palate, and it leaves you wanting more once the meal is finished. However, those who really love seafood likely also get just as excited for an array of raw ingredients, as well. This is where Morton's swoops in like a champion. The steakhouse offers a fantastic raw bar chock-full of tasty oceanic treats to accompany your red meat.
Are you the kind of person who loves shrimp cocktail? Well not only can you snag a jumbo shrimp cocktail, but Morton's also offers lobster cocktail and colossal crab cocktail. Additionally, the restaurant serves up both oysters on the half shell and grilled oysters, an ahi tuna poke for anyone who wants a little taste of that great tuna sashimi flavor, and an Ocean Platter (grand or epic sizes available) with everything from the raw bar on it. If you want a little seafood to round out your meal, Morton's has it all.
Morton's offers flights of wine and whiskey
If you're headed to a nice steakhouse, chances are you'll want to enjoy a quality beverage to complement all the food you're about to savor. Maybe it's a cold beer that helps you wash down that forkful of ribeye. Or perhaps a glass of wine to accentuate the flavor of the meat. Morton's offers diners a whole array of drinks to accompany their meal, and some of the coolest options they have are flights of wine and whiskey, so patrons can get a little taste of a few different beverages. Plus, having more than one option to enjoy is always preferable.
The whiskey flight is called the "1682 Whiskey Experience," and you get three snifters with 1 ounce of a different whiskey in each. The "1682" in the name refers to the amount of miles in between the three distilleries that provide each liquor. There are also two different wine flight options as well. Each flight comes with three glasses, each with a 3 ounce pour. Choose between the "Camped in Napa" and "Global Voyage," and enjoy some vino from great wineries.
Ruth's Chris offers a prix-fixe menu
When you go to any upscale restaurant, you can walk in trying to eat as cheaply as possible, but it's just not going to happen. You have to budget for it since the ingredients cost more due to their quality, and you're also paying for the fancy ambience provided. However, even at restaurants that tend to fall on the expensive side, if you can find yourself a solid prix-fixe option, you'll still indulge in a great meal, but likely won't spend as much as ordering a bunch of dishes à la carte. And Ruth's Chris Steak House offers guests a pretty sweet prix-fixe option.
If you're looking for an appetizer, entrée, side, and dessert in one complete package for one set price, then Ruth's Chris is the spot for you. To kick things off, diners choose between the Steak House Salad, Caesar salad, or lobster bisque. Then, they pick between two entrées: a 6-ounce filet with shrimp, or the same filet with a lobster tail. The entrées come with a side of either creamed spinach or garlic mashed potatoes. Finally, the dessert is a chef's seasonal selection, so it varies depending on when you visit.
Ruth's Chris has more appetizers
Just because you walk into a restaurant knowing you're going to savor a deliciously rich entrée doesn't mean you can't first enjoy a squadron of starters to prepare your palate for the main event that awaits. If you're headed to either Ruth's Chris Steak House or Morton's, you can rest easy that both spots offer a great selection of delicious appetizers ready to start your meal off right. However, Ruth's Chris does pull ahead in this category.
Morton's offers up a selection of eight appetizers, which isn't too shabby, but you get to pick from 10 different meal starters at Ruth's Chris — and every single one of them sounds incredibly appealing. If you're looking to get your dip game on, you can order the goat cheese and artichoke dip. Seafood enthusiasts can bask in a whole bunch of options like crab cakes, calamari, seared ahi tuna, and spicy shrimp, which one Yelp reviewer explained was "very well liked" by the entire party.
Morton's has more side dishes
No entrée is complete without a side or two to help elevate the flavors and give you a well-rounded meal. A filet of meat needs friends to mingle with on the table, so it's your responsibility to provide it with some. Well, if you find yourself sitting in the dining room at Morton's, you'll have a larger option of sides to order so your entrées aren't left feeling even a tinge of isolation.
Diners have the opportunity to pick from 10 different side dishes, and all of them sound like they complement whatever main course you choose. Order up some thick-cut onion rings and matchstick parmesan and truffle fries if you want a couple sides that might not seem too bougie, but still pack an awesome wallop of flavor. The baked corn soufflé is one option that's super unique. One Yelper who "went with the Jumbo Grilled Asparagus and Sautéed Spinach & Mushrooms" said, "The food wasn't over-seasoned and was cooked perfectly. The natural flavors of the al-dente vegetables came through so well and were a perfect complement to my steak."
Morton's has more desserts
A thick-cut steak does an absolutely perfect job of delivering a powerfully rich punch to your palate. Your mouth becomes coated in wondrous run-down-your-chin juices, and you cannot wait for that next bite. However, once your hunk of beef is finally finished, there's nothing quite like a taste of something sweet to offset the intense savory experience you forced upon yourself. Both Ruth's Chris and Morton's offer a selection of dessert, but Morton's comes out on top with more choices to pick from.
Guests are offered nine different desserts options, and from the sound of them, you really can't go wrong with whatever you end up settling on. Treat yourself to items like bread pudding, hazelnut chocolate mousse, and Morton's Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake. One Yelper who had a great experience at Morton's wrote in a review the restaurant had "excellent key lime pie, very good crème brûlée with just the right amount of sweetness and good chocolate mousse."
Morton's offers more happy hour food options
Anyone who likes to indulge in alcohol certainly knows one thing: If you start tossing back a handful of beer or cocktails, you better have at least a little something in your stomach to soak up that booze or else your night can go awry pretty darn quickly. This is why a lot of restaurants offer a special happy hour menu with an assortment of food to accompany the drinks. The restaurant makes more money, and you get to ensure all that booze isn't going straight to your brain. And, the happy hour menu at Morton's, when compared to Ruth's Chris, has more options to choose from.
For those who join the happy hour Morton's crowd for a few rounds of drinks certainly have some unique fare to look forward to as they sip and chat. Take, for example, the shrimp Louie wedge bites. You get cocktail shrimp, chopped egg, and cherry tomatoes all dressed in a classic Louie sauce. If you ask us, that's a pretty awesome way to complement a cocktail. You can also order a braised pork belly bao bun, which is a delicate bao bun stuffed with melt-in-your-mouth pork belly, green onions, sesame seeds, and a spicy soy-pineapple caramel sauce. You can even get a whole juicy burger at a discounted price during their happy hour.
Morton's offers guests more cocktail options
At the end of a stressful day or work week, few things help you wash off the memories of your nagging boss quite like a tasty cocktail. No one wants to bring the annoyances of the week with them into the weekend, and a delicious cocktail helps you check those frustrations at the door. Now, Ruth's Chris and Morton's both have a fully stocked bar with many unique concoctions of liquors, but it is Morton's that leads the charge with a larger variety of drinks to pick from.
There's a lovely selection of flavors to enjoy, which might make the decision to pick a difficult one. But heck, snag a second or a third and change it up if you're not driving. If you're a fan of martinis, Morton's offers what they call The Mortini. Choose either vodka or gin and then welcome a few blue cheese olives to the party. You can also order up their Blooming Hibiscus with tequila, hibiscus, strawberry, lime, and club soda, or a Vespa with gin, vodka, Lillet Blanc, blackberry, mint, and lemon. Those are only a few of the 15 (or more) cocktails available. Be sure to keep an eye on the seasonal options, too.
Morton's offers more seafood entrees
Chances are if you've decided to head to a steakhouse for dinner, there's only one thing floating through your head: a cut of steak. However, occasionally the drive to get your turf on can fall to the wayside when the urge to surf sails in with gale force winds and sweeps your appetite out to sea. This is especially true when the steakhouse you're going to has a great selection of seafood dishes. So, if you're looking to surf as opposed to turf, you'll find that Morton's has a larger selection of delicious items plucked right out of the ocean.
Whether it's fish you're looking for or a succulent crustacean, Morton's has you covered. You can order yourself the miso marinated sea bass or ora king salmon, if fish is what tickles your fancy. Or, travel the avenue of crustaceans and order up the shrimp scampi, jumbo lump crab cakes, filet mignon with a lobster tail (for those who want to both surf and turf), or just a cold-water lobster tail (or two). Morton's might be known for steak, but they have pretty awesome seafood selection as well.
They both offer the same amount of steak and chop options
When the word "steakhouse" is in the name of a restaurant, you can bet your bottom dollar they're filled to the brim with all sorts of cuts of meat to satiate the carnivore lurking deep inside your belly. As you can imagine, both Ruth's Chris and Morton's serve up a variety of steaks and chops, but which one should you head to if you're looking for a larger selection? As it turns out, both places have relatively the same number of options.
There is some overlap between the menus at both restaurants, which is absolutely to be expected. Both spots offer filet mignon and ribeye (also tomahawk ribeyes for those with massive appetites), as well as New York strip steak. Both spots also include lamb chops, but, at Morton's, you can snag pork chops as well. Ruth's Chris has a Porterhouse for Two available, which is a great option, and they also carry T-bone steaks. But, what Morton's does have that Ruth's Chris doesn't is the king of all steaks: the wagyu filet.
There are more Ruth's Chris Steak House locations
It's incredibly hard to not only open a restaurant, but to have it thrive to the point where you can open multiple locations around the country. Many people have tried and only a fraction of them have succeeded. The founders of both Ruth's Chris Steak House and Morton's The Steakhouse managed to figure out a winning recipe that helped them open location after location until the names started to become popular.
When it comes to the number of total open restaurants, Ruth's Chris takes the lead. This means that depending on where you live, you're probably more likely to see a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse than a Morton's Steakhouse. Today, Ruth's Chris touts more than 150 locations all over the world. That's quite a jump from when it started in 1965 in New Orleans as a small 60-seat eatery. Morton's, since opening its first doors in 1978 in Chicago, now operates over 65 locations in total.
The prices at both restaurants are similar
As fun as going out to dinner with friends or family is, it can definitely put some strain on the wallet, especially if you're the kind of person who likes to enjoy fancy cocktails and upscale cuisine. It's always nice to find a spot that allows you to leave with a belly full of great food without breaking the bank. So, between Ruth's Chris Steak House and Morton's The Steakhouse, which one will impact your funds less? As it turns out, both places are very similarly priced.
Let's look at some of the menu items that both places have in common and compare costs. If you're starting your meal out with a salad and opt for the wedge option, the difference between both is only $0.50. The difference between the pork chops is only $1. You can snag a ribeye at both places for roughly the same price (it's $66 at Morton's and $64 bucks at Ruth's Chris). At Morton's, you can add an "Oscar" style crab to any dish for $16, and at Ruth's Chris it is $19. Of course, there will be some things at each restaurant that are more or less expensive than the other, but overall, your check will likely look very similar at the end of the meal.
Which chain is better overall?
So, is your money worth spending at Ruth's Chris Steak House? Or is it wise to head over to Morton's The Steakhouse for dinner instead? Well, there are certainly some people who swear by one or the other, and they'll likely stay lifelong fans. Sometimes you can't change anyone's mind regardless of the information you show them or what they read. However, if you're someone who has little experience with either of these restaurants, you should make your way to Morton's if there's one within reasonable distance.
The reason Morton's takes the cake here is for several reasons. For anyone who wants some really fresh raw seafood as a meal itself, or to pair with a steak, nothing competes with a raw bar full of awesome ingredients. Morton's also offers more seafood entrees and side dishes to complement any entrée, as well. In terms of beverages, Morton's serves up unique flights of wine and whiskey, a larger selection of cocktails, and a more expansive happy hour menu. It also offers a larger selection of desserts.