Lawry's The Prime Rib

Nopushover said it all....just a few more notes to add:

Ellen and Melissa were both great to work with. Both were very attentive and responsive no matter how many times you call them or email them. The first time I met Ellen to go over initial details about the possiblity of having a wedding at Lawry's, she was very honest and upfront about what worked in the past and what didn't...they are clear about what you will be paying for and what you can work with. They don't have any hidden fees or charges that you only notice AFTER the fact. In fact, our reception came UNDER budget!

Also, unlike MOST venues, they only charge you for the amount of people they actually serve on the day of your wedding. However, they base the gratuity on the final headcount you give them the day before....which is fair, because they have to account for the amount of staff that have to come in early to accomodate your guest count no matter if the guests show up.

I can go on and on about how great Lawry's is...having our wedding there was the best and easiest decision we made! Not a lot of people know that Lawry's can do weddings...but based on word-of-mouth, I'm sure the secret will be out soon, so book them TODAY if you haven't decided on a venue yet.

I've been to two wedding receptions there in the last six months. Please know that if you are interested in this venue, it's available for private parties until around 3pm, which means you're going to have a luncheon. The first event I attended was my cousin's reception for about 120 people. The second occurred this past weekend, for a friend's wedding and reception at Lawry's -- I helped out as the day of coordinator for this event, and hence the main source of my opinions.

The setting is classy (doesn't need much embellishment; they have their own fresh floral arrangements in the waiting areas & bathrooms) and of course the food is excellent. At my cousin's reception there was another concurrent smaller event in a side room, which didn't effect her party in the main dining room at all. For the wedding/reception, they had the whole restaurant. They were married in a the room off the bar -- which boasts a fireplace. This room comfortably accomodates about 100-110 people, the overflow sat in the adjacent larger side room, which made for a slightly awkward seating arrangement. The bride for last weekend's wedding and reception worked with both Ellen and Melissa. Melissa was there for the actual day of the event. They were both wonderful to deal with. The entire staff is very accommodating and attentive. You have to bring in your own speakers if you want to have a slide show with music or play music of your choice during dinner. Because the tables are on the smallish side, centerpieces should also be kept small/compact. There was plenty of underground parking.

This is a good place to have a reception should you be Chinese and you want to please your Chinese guests, but you don't want to serve Chinese Banquet food. The Chinese love good prime rib!

I held my parent's anniversary dinner at Lawry's and it was fantastic. The service is superb and the food was fabulous.

We had our rehearsal dinner here and it was so good. We had a blast and the food was excellent.

I'm having the reception at Lawry's for my wedding next May and it's a fantastic bargain, the coordinator (ellen) is fabulous to work with, and everything has been going incredibly smooth!

UPDATE:
I ditto what both the previous posters have said! My fiance continues to remark: "Lawry's was the best decision ever." It doesn't hurt that many of our guests think we spent much more than we did on the meal.. In reality, I spent $4,000 less than my cousin did at a nearby venue with less tasty food and the same number of guests - freeing up more of the budget for flowers and such. Would definitely do it over again, in a heartbeat.

Lawry's reputation alone for quality food and service and professionalism speaks for itself.

Lawry's was a great choice for us. Ellen/Melissa who are the special events coordinators were very helpful from Day 1. They answered all my questions quickly and thoroughly. Best of all, the food and service on the day of was impeccable.

Lawry's + Great Food = Wedding Perfection! Serving good food at our wedding was one of the most important priorities that was decided years before the actual engagement. We learned about weddings at Lawry"s... The actual pricing for their in restaurant wedding packages were better than most (if not all) especially since you know your getting good food. We starting working with Ellen Fremaux, who was just a pleasure to work with. She was super informative during the decision process. Since Lawry's only does daytime weddings/events, Ellen recommended dimming the lights and adding candles to create the evening atmosphere. We used floral centerpieces, lots of candles and we also added up lights to create true wedding elegance. The customer service was great! The food was fantastic! The compliments from our Guests... "BEST wedding food ever!" PRICELESS! Thank you, Lawry's and Ellen Fremaux!!!~The Kim's

We worked with Ellen Fermaux and she was awesome. The food was delicious (as always) and it was just an all around great experience. The restaurant itself is so ornately decorated that we only did centerpieces. Working with Ellen and Lawry's was a breeze because everything is very well organized. What I also loved was that we only had to pay for the number of people who attended. This is very rare for a reception venue. The little touches were great- the spinning salad, ice cream and berries with the cake, and curtains for the entrances. They provide all the linens and if you choose to use different chairs, you can rent it all through them. Lawry's does not charge extra for cake cutting and they also provide the cake cutting supplies. There is a dance floor (they clear out the center tables) and you also have a ceremony option ($300). We also used their projector and screen and sound equipment (we just hooked up an ipod).Most people think that Lawry's would be extremely expensive, but their prices were definitely reasonable and the service was great!

Lawry's was a wonderful, wonderful place to have a wedding. First of all, the decor is a kind of English country home look, which worked perfectly for our Steampunk-Victorian themed wedding. We couldn't have asked for a lovelier setting. And let me say this: absolutely delicious food and amazing, personalized service for a very affordable price. Lawry's was the only place we found that didn't immediately double the price of everything just because you're having a wedding instead of a corporate meeting. Ellen Fremaux is the catering manager for Lawry's, and she was a dream to work with, warm, responsive, smart, pragmatic, professional and she truly cared about how making our dream wedding come true. Ellen was just terrific to work with, as was Melissa Navarro, who also works with Lawry, and for an incredibly reasonable fee, was our Day of Coordinator. Melissa was always there to answer a question, and she handled everything down to every tiny detail. Everyone at Lawry's was totally laid back, and open to any kind of alterations and changes that we proposed. Open candles on the mantle? Sure! Pudding instead of ice cream? Sure! They were full of great suggestions, and had a wealth of experience that we mined to help us make our wedding the best it could be. And the food! Lawry's is also one of the few places we saw here in Los Angeles that didn't balk at the idea of serving more than one choice of entree to the guests. We had prime rib, chicken, fish, a vegetarian, and a vegan entree, which is apparently unheard of on LA unless you want to take out a second mortgage. Lawry's was absolutely beautiful, and all of our friends and family raved about the food, and the decor, and the service. Couldn't recommend Lawry's enough!

I am still in love with how my wedding, at Lawry's Prime Rib, turned out. I do not think I could find a better place to have it in. We did our ceremony in the Oak Room and it was so beautiful that I am still getting compliments on it. Ellen Fremaux was so helpful and was always there if I needed anything answered. I do not think I could ever thank, all of Lawry's staff enough, for making my wedding day so memorable. And the food is always delicious. I am still craving the vegetable lasagna.

Deciding to make Lawry’s our reception venue was 100% the right choice! Ellen Fremaux, the event coordinator, and Melissa Navarro, our day of coordinator, were wonderful to work with! They answer all my questions and concerns, and worked with us on running the reception smoothly. We couldn’t have asked for better coordinators that day. After the reception, my husband and I received so many fabulous comments on the food, décor and service. I highly recommend Lawry’s!!

WONDERFUL, great to work with pre-wedding, during-wedding, and even afterward! Melissa (our Catering Manager) is wonderful - along with managing the catering staff and timeline - she takes on kind of a "coordinator" role as well and makes sure that everything is running smoothly even beyond the food/beverages. Guests gave great feedback, very professional service. Food was great! They went above and beyond and made our wedding a success! Highly recommend this team :)

Lawry's was absolutely wonderful! The staff there is so helpful and really know what they are doing. I worked with Ellen and Melissa and they were so amazing! The perfect (and affordable!) place to get married!

I had my wedding back in October. Hubby and I were fans of Lawry's prior to our wedding. So, when we found out that they do wedding, we were ecstatic. Ellen was very professional and helpful since the beginning. She answered all my questions in a timely manner. We only had about 70-80 guests so the dining room was the perfect size for us. The ceremony room was however on the smaller side, making the aisle walk a little too short. But the beautiful room compensate for it. Everything went smoothly with an exception of the salad serving. We had prepared a long slideshow and planned to have guests enjoy the salad while watching, only to find out that we couldn't do that. Wish we had known this earlier. Our guests raved about the food. I especially loved the hors d'oeuvres. (Too bad they don't serve them at the restaurant). Overall, price is reasonable. Free parking underground and they don't charge cake cutting fee! You get to use the whole building since morning until about 3:30PM with no extra charge. Thank you Lawry's for making our wedding wonderful!

The Lawry's staff did an impeccable job of providing us with high quality service, treated us with a high level of professionalism, and offered an outstanding value vs. the cost. They were incredibly helpful throughout the planning process, as well as on the day of our wedding.The only criticism we have is that we were switched from working with the Marketing/Sales Director to the Sales Assistant in the last few weeks leading up to the wedding, which lead to some missed/changed details about our originally requested set-up, which were not discovered until the day of the event. These details were small enough to make very little difference in the overall quality of the event.

Ellen (the catering manager) is fabulous to work with! She would totally work with you and helping you in getting what you want without costing you a fortune! It's very clear that they don't want to just make money out of you, she will tell you out front whether something is worth it or not. Their customer service is excellent. And their food - everyone who came into my reception told me that the food was really good. Off course they're famous with their prime rib, but their other selection was also very tasty.

Very yummy food! I'll admit that I haven't been there for a wedding ceremony/reception site, but I would imagine if you could rent out the room, it'd be really nice. The downside is that valet parking is the only parking available, but their prime rib is by far the best!

Quality of Service: Some of my guests did not have the proper table settings. i.e. drank a sip of champagne out of a wine glass. Some did not get salad. We didn't get bread til after our salad. My sister did not get her food until almost everyone was done. Responsiveness: Responsiveness to email is quick. Professionalism: Talk is professional, action is not.Value for Cost: No charge for cake cutting, no extra cost aside from the food, drinks and 20% gratuity, unless you want to use another room set up for the ceremony. We paid $300 for set up fee. Not bad.Flexibility: They're flexible.

I had my ceremony & reception here. If I could do it over, I would have chosen elsewhere.

Meeting with Ellen was great. We explained how we were having a small, intimate wedding and we were on a low budget. She said Lawry's was 'WONDERFUL' for low budget weddings and showed us how we can save by doing both ceremony & reception there. She answered my emails promptly and promised to accomodate our needs. I.E. "Would you usher our guests from the main room to the oak room?" "Absolutely. I would love to."

But when it came down to it, we didn't even know where she was after the ceremony, and my sister had to announce everyone to move to the oak room. When I finally found her, I had to yell across the hallway and asked her to move everyone in the oak room. This is only the beginning of their horrible service.

I'm not one to complain much about service. I think I'm pretty forgiving since I know how hard serving can be because I was a server for 10 years. Here are things that were not right:

Drinks: A lot of people did not get served drinks. Not even water. All my father-in-law had until half way through his meal was champagne we had for toast. The groom got up 3 times to ask for drinks. Oh, and one of our friends didn't have champagne and as the groomsmen was about to give the toast, *he* noticed and had to ask for another glass. One of my girlfriends didn't get a champagne flute. But that's okay. Lawry's didn't care. They just poured into the wine glass instead. Such class.

Food: The groom and I didn't get bread so my mom shared hers with us. Some people never got salad. Ever. There was such a long time in between the salad and the main dish that people started to come up to our table for photos. It was taking so long that I asked Ellen, the event coordinator, when the main dish was coming. She replies, "Oh, we didn't want to interrupt your photos." (o.O) ......WOW!!!! I didn't object because I was just shocked that she actually said that. And then a server comes to my table and asks, "What would you like to have?" Even though I already told Ellen that I've marked the placecards with what they want to eat, which SHE asked me to do. So I explained again to the servers what each mark meant on the placecards. I felt like the floor manager. And then my guest noticed me instructing and said, "Wow. American brides need to work on their wedding day." My sister didn't even get served until everyone was almost done, and Ellen's response: "You probably weren't in your seat."

Cake: They don't charge a cutting fee which is great. One star for that. And they'll serve the cake you bring in a la mode with fresh berries. However, I told them we only need a slice to save, (you know how you're supposed to eat it a year later? for that) but they decide to ignore that instruction and saved the whole top tier, and served our guests one cm slices.

To her defense, though, our wedding was very small, and we didn't have to spend that much money compared to the average $27,000. Maybe that's why they downgraded their service as well. I don't know why everyone else has such high reviews of this place but I hope Lawry's reads this and reevaluate their service for the sake of future brides.

One of my favorite venues. Lawry's is charming, personal, and the staff are the best to work with.

You may not think of Lawry's when your picking your location, but you should. It's a beautiful location. Not your typical "banquet room".

A wonderful restaurant to host a wedding or even for off-site catering to any location.