Trippin': New York City - Morimoto

88 10th Ave,
New York, NY 10011

Here we go again with the eights. Asians consider either eight or nine to be the lucky number. Crazy numerology beliefs. But in any case, our one expensive dinner was had at the one and only Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's NYC restaurant, Morimoto. It's located near the Meatpacking District and the entrance really stands out with the red drapery. The design of the restaurant is very modern. There's like a bar and lounge downstairs where they scoot you off to since your table probably won't be ready when it's supposed to. So of course we headed downstairs and treated ourselves to some super expensive drinks. One thing that impressed me was that the hostess's there remembers everyone who has checked in with them. When our table was ready, the girl came down the stairs and walked right up to us and asked us to follow her. No roll call like your typical restaurant. AND, the bartender automatically transferred our tab to our table. Clockwork! While reading up on the place on yelp, most people said that they weren't allowed to order the omakase unless everyone at the table ordered it. Well, we were lucky enough to be the exception for some reason. So we ordered only one omakase ($120) and a smattering of other items. Maybe that's why Morimoto didn't stop by our table. YES! He was indeed there that night. And we asked our waiter to ask him if he could stop by our table so that we could get a foto with him. But NOPE. The guy never came by. Boo! It's okay Mr. Morimoto, I blame our crappy waiter who was too good looking for his own good. The food was DELISH! I can't believe it was that expensive but you could tell they spend a lot of time and work in making sure each dish is perfect.

Toro tartare. We actually ended having two of these cos I didn't know that one would come with the omakase so I had ordered another one. The toro tartare is smeared onto the slab of bamboo and there were these scraping utensils that you use to pick up some tuna and dress it with one of the six sides. There were chives, wasabi, creme fraiche, dashi-soy, osetra caviar and these corn nut looking things.

Morimoto sashimi. Layers of seared toro, salmon, eel, tuna and hamachi with a side of five sauces in little plastic transfer pipettes.

Morimoto has his own beer! Actually, it's an ale.

I forgot what this was. But it's some type of fish. I can't even remember if it was raw or not.

Pork gyoza with garlic chives, tomato and creme fraiche. The actual pork gyoza's are underneath that layer of pan-fried rice paper looking thing.

Wagyu beef carpaccio in yuzu soy, ginger and sweet garlic. Everyone loved this, except for me of course.

I forgot what this was.

I also can't remember what this was, but I do remember that the sauce was very Vietnamese. Almost like the sauce in ca kho tho.

The assortment of sushi. I hate that all omakase's have to come with the sushi. Not worth it!

Salmon and toro sashimi and a spicy tuna roll.

This is a shot of something that is supposed to help cleanse the palate before eating the next dish.

I think this was the whole roasted lobster epice in garam masala and lemon creme fraiche.

The desserts. Sorry, memory lapse once again and nothing on the menu looks familiar. I didn't particularly like either of the desserts but I do love a nicely sculptured canal.

I managed to get a foto of the back of Morimoto as he stood and chatted with this one table for a LOOOONG time. So jealous. I like how he's in shorts. That's awesome. Haha. The women's restroom is all white except for the infinity mirror decorated with sakuras behind the toilet.