Morimoto - New York City

As we celebrate Zelda's birthday, which will remain with no age, tonight we decided to take the train up to New York, to try Morimoto. This is somewhere that I have always wanted to try, mainly the restaurant in Philly, but since it was a nice weekend, and a birthday weekend, we took the train to the city, spent the day walking around, and hit Morimoto for dinner. We got into New York around 1PM, and did some walking around and site seeing at Chelsea Market before heading to SoHo. We had a reservation at 6:45PM, booked through OpenTable.com, and ended up there 45 minutes early, and were graciously seated then. Upon walking in, the restaurant ad very nice decor. Very industrial looking, and almost decorated to look unfinished. Regardless, it was a nice touch, with the corrugated ceiling, lots of stainless steel, and the bottle wall, hung two stories from the ceiling, containing over 10,000 plastic bottles, back lit by soft white and blue LED lights. Very nice. This can be seen at the left. We were greeted by our waiter Craig, who was a nice kid, and very knowledgeable of the menu, as he should be. Tonight we ordered a bottle of wine off the wine list, a 2005 Row Eleven pinot noir. After ordering our wine, we were brought some complimentary appetizers, which were rice balls with some sort of BBQ eel sauce. They were good, but I am not sure I would order them off the menu. I don' even know if they were on the menu quite honesty, but it was a nice surprise. For dinner, we decided to try both their entrees, as well as their sushi. For the entree, we ordered the Seafood "Toban Yaki," containing a half lobster, king crab, 3 mussels, 3 clams, 2 large diver scallops, and a red miso-saki broth. All in all, it was mediocre at best. The broth was good, but the seafood left a little to be desired. The lobster was definitely overcooked, but everything else was OK. It was a little on the bland side, but nothing that couldn't be helped by slathering it wit broth. For sushi, we ordered 2 shrimp tempura rolls, a spicy salmon roll, and a yellow tail roll. The tempura rolls were good, but they are pretty much every where. Who doesn't like something battered and fried? The salmon roll as good as well, and the salmon tasted very fresh. The yellow tail roll left a little to be desired. I have had great yellow tail rolls elsewhere, but I cannot pinpoint what it was that I didn't like about this particular roll. Maybe it was the fish. For dessert, we decided to try the caramel Cinnamon Chiboust, that was very tasty. All in all, dinner was OK, but nothing to write home about. At the prices, I don't think that I would go back to Morimoto, but it was nice to try. All said and done, $212.96, plus tip. Craig did a great job, so I felt he was compensated very well, and give him big kudos for our service. Great job Craig! Cheers