Over the years and lots of $$$ later, I’ve come to lose faith in fine dining but rather develop a heartwarming passion for hole-in-the-walls with fantastic food. Essentially, this is what Foodies are all about; hole-in-the-wall findings. However, this past weekend for Connie’s birthday, my girlfriends and I went to Morimoto for dinner and Extra Virgin for brunch. It’s been a long time since I raved on about a trendy and top new restaurant but Morimoto especially surprised me and I ended up leaving happy, full, and satisfied.
Morimoto
The décor is fantastic, very chic and modern, including the ceramic chopsticks and mini wooden box used as a hot towel holder. Immediately upon sitting, a hot towel is brought to you by the server and we were served a complimentary tasting of a tomato dish topped with pickled onions. Fantastic and a great start. Instead of ordering entrees, we opted for several appetizers to share amongst us four. As for drinks, we each ordered a cocktail – mine being Orange Blossom. It wasn’t amazing but I also decided to not order wine during dinners especially when specialty cocktails are available, so there’s that. Here are the appetizers we ordered:
Toro Tartar
The presentation alone was enough to make us gasp and stare at the beauty in amazement. Each person is given a mini flat scooper of sort to scrape the toro from the flat pan it is served in. Alongside, it is served with five different garnishes to complement the toro, which included wasabi, chopped scallions, sour cream (we think), melted seaweed paste, and little crunchy things (we have no idea). You can choose to mix it all together along with toro or use each garnish per bite. The first turned out to be better. As for the wasabi, we’ve noticed that it wasn’t as spicy as the normal wasabi that you might be used to but the texture and the taste is smoother, still with a kick. I’m sure there’s an explanation to this, though I did hear that the natural wasabi tends to be less spicy than the more commercial ones.
Spicy King Crabs
They are served pre-cut (obviously. Can you imagine sitting there trying to peel off each leg and then scraping the meat out of it?! HAH) and the crabmeat is coated with a delicious spicy sauce (tobanjan aioli), which seemed to be a fabrication of the spicy mayo served in your sushi restaurants. It was mixed with masago and layered just enough to enjoy the spice, however, not overwhelming to the point where it seemed mayo-filled. It was topped with cilantro, which Connie and I scraped off prior to eating. Connie = allergic; Jasmine = hates. I think this was one of my favorite appetizers out of the ones we’ve tried!
Tuna Pizza
We couldn’t figure out what the crust is made of but it tasted like a mixture of crackers and matzo. It was layered with fresh cut tuna sashimi and topped with white mayo-like mystery sauce (anchovy aioli), cilantro, olives, and jalapeno. Gihee and Angela loved it but I thought it was mediocre. I appreciated the concept more than the taste itself or maybe it was because the cilantro seemed a bit overpowering for me to fully enjoy the taste.
Wagyu Beef Carpaccio & Steamed Scallop
Wagyu Beef Carpaccio is thinly sliced beef with yuzu soy, ginger, and sweet garlic sauce that seemed to just melt in your mouth upon entering. It was delicious, however, in comparison to all the other dishes’ creative presentation, there wasn’t anything amazing about the dish other than the quality of the meat itself, which for some people would be the ultimate reason why they’d enjoy this dish. Steamed Scallop is self-explanatory and the meat itself was super tender and juicy but again, there wasn’t anything special about this dish; so much that we actually forgot about it until I looked up the menu to write this entry and realized we had it too.
Tempura Calamari Salad
Given the high quality and profile of the restaurant, this salad surprised me because there was absolutely nothing special about it. The taste was average, the dressing was your everyday white miso dressing, and the insertion of the tempura calamari into a fresh green salad seemed a bit like an oxymoron, only because the greens and the dressing tasted too fresh and the calamari tasted too not. I hope I’m making sense? We ate it for the sake of eating it and it was good at the time but thinking back on it and reevaluating all the other dishes, this wasn’t nearly up to par.
Morimoto Sashimi
By far my favorite dish at Morimoto. The concept, the presentation, the quality, and even the portion is simply excellent The sashimi is served in blocks as you can see at the image below and each layer of the block is of a different fish: seared toro, salmon, eel, tuna, and hamachi. Five different sauces are served on the site using a pipette tube and you squirt the sauces onto a plate and dip the sashimi into it. I can’t remember what each sauce was sadly but eel sauce was definitely one of them. I can’t possibly describe the freshness of the fish because we felt like we literally went fishing and ate it immediately. Excellent Chef Morimoto, Excellent.
Because Angela & Connie’s cousin knew the manager, we received complimentary entrée and desserts. Entrée was a beef dish that tasted similar to galbi jjim and underneath the meat was candied sweet potatoes. It was such a peculiar and amazing combination! For dessert, we had the Warm Chocolate Cake with whiskey caramel, tobacco crème, and popcorn ice cream and Coconut Panna Cotta, which was a passion fruit kuzukiri (they’re similar to lychee jelly, only long like a worm) served with basil sorbet.
Will I go again? Most definitely
Anytime soon? Most definitely not
Why? I have no money.
Extra Virgin
One of my favorite brunch spots in the city, though I hardly end up going due to inconvenient location especially when it involves weekend parking. Weekend parking in SoHo on Saturday = death. This is where I first fell in love with Bloody Mary’s which ‘till this day serves as a staple for all of my brunches. Their Bloddy Mary is chunkier than others with lots of horseradish bits and spice, but because it is, it’s my absolute favorite. We ordered the Roasted Artichoke Provencal, Baked Eggs, Pistachio Crusted Goat Cheese Salad, Omelette of the Day, and Fries with Gorgonzola Fondue. They were all so excellent with such richness in flavor and generous portions! I can’t go into all the detailed description as I did with Morimoto but it’s definitely a place you must try, especially their French Fries!! Enjoy the pics y’all!
