Restaurant Week at Morimoto - the place to be but maybe not for me

Morimoto is an experience, to say the least. It's something of a spectacle. It's situated in a part of the meatpacking district that is home to more fantastic restaurants in a 5 block square radius than most whole towns and it is located directly across the street from my recently discovered house of gastronomical worship, Del Posto. So in that area, there's stiff competition and Morimoto, as we know, is a fierce competitor. So his restaurant, not unlike the persona we've come to know from television, kind of says, "bring it!"

The facade of the restaurant is draped in dramatic red cloth with Japanese writing on it. You enter through automatically sliding glass doors into one of NYC's hippest, trendiest atmospheres. It's gorgeous and there is absolutely nothing traditional or classic about the place. It screams trendy at the top of its lungs. From the art installation of a wall to the a-bit-louder-than-background music, to the late 20/early 30-somethings sitting next to us (who were very obviously on one of their first few dates) both dressed completely in black on a 100 degree day. Trendy with a capital HIP. 

I dined with my friend, Carmelo, and he remarked, "I can appreciate a more modern design but I don't like when the decor is so minimalist that you have a hard time finding the handle to the bathroom door." It's a good summary. They do what they do very well at Morimoto and I think what they do just isn't for me. Not now, anyway.

And I'm not sure they should participate in restaurant week. Or at least if you are really into having the Morimoto "experience", I don't think restaurant week quite accomplishes that, whereas I feel like I have gotten that at other places, even during restaurant week and even during lunch.

The restaurant week options were scant. There was a choice of three bento boxes: black cod, wagyu beef and I forgot the third (sorry!) but I think it was either a vegetarian or a sushi option. I chose the black cod and Carmelo chose the wagyu beef. All three of the boxes came with miso soup, some tempura, mixed greens, some sushi and a tropical fruit panna cotta for dessert.   

  I didn't take a picture of Carmelo's bento box because it looked exactly like mine, except with a very small bowl with two pieces of beef in the lower right hand corner instead of my very small bowl of black cod.

Everything was delicious. Small but delicious. I take that back. Upon reflection, really only the black cod was small. And the dessert. But they were the two things that were most interesting and most delicious so their small-ness felt big.

The miso soup was excellent. The tofu was soft and for those who are used to seaweed in your miso, you won't find any in this bowl. The flavor was distinctly miso though, as opposed to salt with a hint of miso, which is very nice and one of the many things that reminds you that you're sampling from experts.

My tempura was a little soggier than I expected. The green onion (I believe) tempura had a lovely flavor. I had another piece that was white in the middle and had the texture of a root vegetable but was mild in flavor. That's being generous, actually. It didn't taste like anything enough for me to identify that piece. The tempura did come in an interesting (good interesting) dipping sauce that had a chalky (in a good way) texture. I would guess that it was a miso based dipping sauce. And that was nice.

The sushi was fresh and good. The pieces were the usual suspects for a bento box: one piece of tuna, one salmon, one yellowtail and three pieces of a spicy tuna roll. All good. Not much else to say about that.

There's also not much to say about a bowl of mixed greens. Actually, I could probably write quite a bit about a bowl of mixed greens but that would be for another time and another purpose. Lightly and nicely dressed  fresh mixed greens.

The black cod was a treat. It's sweet and delicate with a slightly thick, slightly syrupy sauce, garnished with scallions and there was far too little of it on my plate. Or maybe it just felt that way because it was so good. I ate it in four bites so you decide. If I ever go back to Morimoto, it would be difficult for me to order something new instead of a whole plate of that black cod. That was most certainly the highlight of the meal. The star of the show, so to speak. Carmelo said the wagyu beef was too salty but I didn't taste it so I can't personally attest to that. The cod was wonderful, no matter how small.

Also unfortunately small, was our tropical fruit panna cotta for dessert. It was delicious. And tiny. I deliberately took the picture with the spoon beside it to give you an idea of how mini this little dessert was. Perfect texture, lovely, powerful flavor, fun detail in the little white chocolate straw garnish, and it's gone before you know it. So sad.

I've never left a restaurant of this caliber feeling like I could use a bit more food. Typically after one of these lunches, I'm pretty satisfied and wind up wanting nothing more than a nice salad for dinner. Though the miso soup and the cod and the panna cotta were all very tasty, I ate quite a bit more than salad for dinner after having lunch at Morimoto.