Morimoto - Philadelphia, PA

Chef Morimoto is synonymous with Iron Chef. If you know Iron Chef, you know Chef Morimoto. I was surprised to hear that he had a restaurant in Philly, aptly named Morimoto. The ambiance and design of the restaurant is great. Very modern and chic yet remains to have a casual pull to it. I was checked in and seated rapidly. I let the waitress know that I would be doing the Omakase menu, and would like Iced Tea. She put the order in and within a few minutes I had my first course. I also asked if I could get a copy of the menu at the end of the meal, which she kindly said yes to. 

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Hamachi Tartare (fresh wasabi, osetra caviar)

This was a great way to start the meal. The brininess of the caviar gave a nice bite with the added wasabi providing the elevation of flavor.

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Seared Whitefish Carpaccio (seasoned with garlic, ginger mitsuba, chives, finished with yuzu - citrus soy)
Another cool in temperature dish. The accompaniments on the fish added texture and some nice balancing flavors.

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Sashimi Salad (mixed greens, so - onion vinaigrette)

My final cold dish. The vinaigrette was wonderfully seasoned with the ahi. The greens had a slight crunch to them.

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(Raspberry - lemon soda)
For the intermezzo course, this soda did a fine job of cleansing the palate. Not sweet, but full of berry flavor
 

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Hotate Chazuke - before broth (ume glazed scallop, marinated vegetables, sushi rice, chilled green tea dashi broth)

The scallop was a very unique preparation for me as it was ume glazed. The broth had a touch of salt which was needed to bring the flavors together.

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Hotate Chazuke - after broth

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Roasted peking duck breast (kimchee - white miso vegetables, scallion pancake, candied kombu)
This dish was wonderfully plated and seasoned very well. The mushrooms gave a nice earthiness to the dish.

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Chef's selection of sushi
Though not remembering every type of sushi... I remember that it was good. It was suggested that I start from left to right which I followed with ease. This sushi, as I told my waitress, was probably the closest I've been to replicating the fresh sushi I had at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.

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Peach - ginger rare cheesecake (crushed graham cracker crust)
Though it was more of an American dish than Japanese, the pastry chef still hit it out of the park. The cheesecake was very firm and delectable.





Every dish was a solid hit at Morimoto. The problem lied in the fact that no dish was a star of the menu. They were all "good" but none had that WOW factor. The service also was "fine" but nothing made it special like at Zahav. Next time, I would still go back, but try the sushi bar only instead of doing Omakase.