May 22, 2017

Morimoto – Las Vegas, NV

Morimoto Las Vegas Review – Masaharu Morimoto is a marketing genius as much as he is a great chef and entrepreneur. He is one of the three most well-known celebrity Japanese/American chefs in the US alongside Nobu Matsuhisa and Masa Takayama and uses that recognition to his advantage growing his Morimoto restaurant empire worldwide. The Las Vegas location of Morimoto didn’t fail to impress regarding decor, food, and service for the most part, and wasn’t too bad either in terms of value.

Decor

Morimoto is located in the former space that was occupied by Shibuya, my (former) favorite sushi joint on the strip. I was quite disappointed when I decided to drop by for some sushi at the bar last year to find Shibuya sporting an ‘Under Construction’ sign, but then I found some happiness seeing another sign next to it saying ‘Morimoto Coming Soon’! I decided I had to try it the next time I was in Vegas. Regarding decor, the restaurant layout from Shibuya seemed to have gone largely unchanged, with most of the visible changes being in the artwork and design. Having spent nearly $1M on renovations, either there were a lot of back of the house changes, or the designer overcharged. I have to say I loved the backdrop of the sushi bar – my favorite part of the restaurant.

Food

My overall impression with the quality of the food at Morimoto was that the overall concept was excellent, the quality was great, but there were some misses as much as there were some hits and home runs. As per our modus operandi trying a new (to us) Japanese restaurant, we asked for the Morimoto Omakase – the omakase is usually the chef-designed, best-available, and personalized meal delivered to impress the individual diner. Morimoto’s omakase consisted of seven courses with a sake/wine pairing that we added on.

The omakase started off with the Morimoto Toro Tartare. This dish hit my ‘ten best things I’ve ever eaten in my life’ list upon my first bite. The competing and complementary flavors of the accoutrements of the toro set off this mind-blowing flavor explosion. Then came the Wagyu carpaccio with white truffle – melt in your mouth amazingness. The next dish was the broiled oysters with uni and foie gras, another quick add to my top ten list. After the first three crazy delicious courses, things turned quite standard, sadly.

The rest of the dishes, including the sushi, were good at best. The quality of sushi was ok, not any better than what you would find at a good local sushi joint in a strip mall. Even the selection of sushi for the omakase was about as vanilla/boring as they come – tuna, snapper, salmon, yellowtail, bass, maki.

The main course of lobster and wagyu filet was a disappointment. The lobster was overseasoned, and the filet was tough and chewy, consistency akin to being defrosted in a microwave or sitting under a heat lamp way too long (which neither I hope would be the case here). Some parts of the meal were confusing too: an Italian-inspired shabu-shabu/fondue? The dessert was also an over-the-top flaming chocolate creation that was great but seemed out of place for the omakase. The richness of the chocolate overwhelmed the rest of the meal preceding. I love chocolate, but I would have enjoyed more of a lighter, fruit-based dessert matching the spring season.

The overall wine and sake pairings were good but were not presented professionally nor in a knowledgeable fashion. We felt that either the sommelier didn’t think we had an appreciation for good wine pairings nor was she as attentive as one should be for pairing a tasting menu. I love wines from varied regions, and equally love how each varietal, region, and vintage complement different dishes. I wanted to hear how the sommelier’s selection for each course made that course better with the pairing, but I was left hanging and disappointed.

Service & Value

Having made reservations months in advance, seating was immediate and near the sushi bar as we wanted. I just wanted to make sure I had a good backdrop of the bar for my selfie, and it worked! Service overall was great, with some disappointments in the sommelier service, but the server and support staff (bus, food runner, etc.) were on point. The value was somewhat questionable, as I wasn’t sure if our experience was really worth $300 per person (Morimoto omakase plus wine/sake pairing and tip.) Maybe without the pairings and having just the omakase with cocktails would have held greater value to us.