I'm a huge fan of Top Chef but I have no idea about Iron Chef, haven't seen any of the shows so don't ask me much about that. The one thing I know is everybody recommended eating at Morimoto. Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, legend of the Japanese TV reality show Iron Chef and its American spin off, born and trained in Hiroshima, moved to the USA and opened his first Morimoto in Philadelphia in 2001, 11 years later and 7 restaurants more it was a must during our trip to Napa.
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| The place |
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| Morimoto |
I apologise for the long story but I need to share what happened before we got our food at the place. We got a lot of issues to get the table/reservation at the place, we had to wait forever, at least two hours to get the table, then by some strange reason a couple guys in the restaurant bar while we were waiting started a fight with some of my friends, the manager apologise and gave us some starters on the house, finally we were seated and we wanted to have the Omakase which is the multi course chef choice, the waiter told us that it wasn't possible due to the time, they were closing the kitchen, too late to get the full multi course menu, we again called the manager stated our reason was to have the Omakase and wasn’t our fault they took more than an hour to get our table ready, after a couple minutes talking to the chef we got the green light to have the culinary journey. Sorry for the long story but I want to emphasize how traumatic was our night, having said that the food was so good that all of us agreed if we had the chance we will come back and eat at the place.
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| Kitchen |
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| The waiting time © Liliana DuBois |
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| Ready for the Omakase © Liliana DuBois |
Now the good part, first tuna pizza, crisp tortilla spicy tuna carpaccio, anchovy aioli, brilliant, then the rock shrimp tempura, spicy kochujan aioli perfection, great flavours. For drink shochu, distilled spirit from Japan, similar to vodka, the grain is converted to sugar using the mold called koji, same used for sake.
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| Shrimp |
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| Shochu |
Now for the Omakase we started with the Tuna tartare 6 sauces, wasabi, sour cream, seaweed paste, chives, avocado, and rich cracker, awesome, the wasabi sauce was the killer one. Then seared kampachi fish cilantro, light, great, perfect as a second dish, the shitake touch was great. Third course a Japanese fondue, olive oil heated with anchovies, and assorted veggies to cooked, it was great, nice spices, good heat, excellent and the presentation was superb. Next one the egg custard, a twist from the chef, foie gras custard with duck and wasabi, pretty good, the balance spot on, really nice.
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| Tuna Tartare |
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| Kampachi © Liliana DuBois |
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| Fondue |
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| Egg custard |
Next a palete cleanser, tamarind ice cream with cilantro with a small chilli, even that it was perfect, the ice cream with the cilantro sublime, a friend of mine said her palate just had sex. Then it was time for the sashimi, fresh, nice, just great. Basically I lost the count by now, so our next one was Surf and Turf, filo pastry with tuna and foie gras, half angus, and half tuna battered bread pudding with chimichurri and onion foam, the foie and tuna were awesome, the angus was exquisite, best of the night, the tuna was great, the battered, the chimichurri, and the foam, explosion of flavour just great. Finally sopa borracha, which is a Panamanian dish, nicely twist Morimoto standards, good ending.
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| Sorbet © Liliana DuBois |
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| Sashimi |
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| Surf and Turf |
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| Top of the night |
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| Sopa Borracha © Liliana DuBois |
A complicated night but great food makes you forget easily, if you have the chance just go for it you won't regret it.
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| The Bill © Liliana DuBois |
Japan reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Checks”
Kramer: Hey, well, this was downstairs for you
Jerry: Oh no, not more checks. They're coming faster than I can sign them
George: What checks?
Kramer: Oh, you didn't hear? Jerry's a big star in Japan
Jerry: I don't know why. There's a one-second clip of me in the opening credits of some Japanese comedy show
Kramer: Yeah, the Super Terrific Happy Hour
Jerry: They run it all the time, and now I'm starting to get all these royalty checks
George: Look at all of those! You're rich!
Jerry: No. Each one is for like twelve cents. It's barely worth the pain in my hand to sign them
Morimoto
T: +1 707 252 1600
Japanese Cuisine
Approx Damage: $120 (Omakase mulit course)
Area: Napa Valley
Napa
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