Restaurant Review: Morimoto, Philadelphia PA

Our anniversary was earlier this month (six years! Holy crap!) and we celebrated by ditching the kids and getting loaded. We did other things, too, like visit the Please Touch Museum, and take Zo to a friend's house to watch the Kipona fireworks, but the centerpiece was the part where we took the train into downtown Philly and ate fantastic food and drank amazing wine, secure in the knowledge that our girls were in the very capable hands of Daryl's aunt & uncle and their three girls.

We went to Morimoto for our anniversary last year, too, and it was great. The only bummer was that Daryl was pregnant -- not a bummer in itself, of course, but it precluded her from eating raw fish or drinking alcohol, which meant her Morimoto experience was severely curtailed. So we decided to go back so we could do it right this time.

Morimoto

I continue to be impressed by the space the restaurant is in. After walking through the frosted front doors off the mean streets of Philly, you quickly feel like you've entered a different world. The dining room is a single, open room with a sushi bar at the back of it. The ceiling is light wood slats, and it isn't flat, it has a bit of an undulation in it. The walls are covered with what looks like cast fiberglass, also in a wave/abstract art pattern. All the lighting is recessed and/or behind the fiberglass panels, so it's all indirect. The tables (the 4- & 6-tops in the middle of the room) are separated by Lucite dividers with lights in them that slowly change color over the course of the evening. The overall effect is one of being underwater, but in a good way. The bar, by the way, is upstairs at one end, and you can sit and look out over the entire floor while you enjoy your pre-dinner drink.

We didn't do that this year, since we were running a little late (what else is new?), so we immediately sat down, ordered martinis, and checked out the menu. We didn't look for long, though, because we had pretty much decided to go with the omakase, which is the Japanese word for "entrust" and is basically Morimoto's "let us feed you" option. The only choice we had to make was which price level to go with, and we went the Goldilocks route, opting not for the cheapest or the most expensive but trusting that the one in the middle would be just right, and it was. For good measure (and due to the fact that we were taking the train home) we went for the mid-range wine omakase as well -- a glass of wine or sake matched to each course.

The meal started with a little amuse bouche. Since Daryl got the same thing I got when we were there last year, I'll just re-print what I wrote then:

The first course was a hamachi tartare, with bits of crunchy onion mixed into it, served with Osetra caviar, mirin, and wasabi, with a yamamomo (tiny red fruit). It was AMAZING -- creamy, a little crunchy, salty, sweet, a perfect combination.

My first course was a small glass of gazpacho with fresh horseradish and an oyster. I think that in this day & age it takes a pretty damn good soup to rise above the cliche of "chilled soup served in a cocktail glass for first course," and this one did. Both our dishes came with a glass of Moet & Chandon White Star NV champagne.

Daryl's second course was very similar to what I had had last year -- last year our server called it the "hot oil" course, but if I remember correctly he was sort of a tool, so let's call it a crudo of hamachi, served on microgreens with fresh cilantro and chili oil. Very tasty, as was my diced scallop, liberally seasoned with black pepper, topped with parmesan cheese, and grilled. Fish and dairy is a tough combo to pull off, but this was excellent.

The wines with this course were fascinating. My 2006 Chateau de la Vielle Tour Bordeaux Blanc was a bit boring in the glass but absolutely came alive when paired with the scallop. Daryl was served a 2006 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, and when the sommelier brought it, he warned her to expect "notes of green pepper and jalapeno." We had never heard a wine described this way and we were skeptical, but she drank it and damned if it didn't have notes of green pepper and jalapeno! Unsurprisngly it worked very well with her dish. Hats off to the sommelier for that pairing.

Third course is where they appeared to have made the largest adjustment over the last year, and it paid off. Daryl's yellowtail looked and tasted great -- the only thing I remember about it (the wines were starting to take their toll) was that it had some bonito flake on it; Daryl's notes refer to it as "fancy yellowtail," which sounds about right, and it was paired with a 1999 Domaine Joseph Matrot Meursault. My dish was Japanese tilefish in a brown butter sauce with green peppers with a fantastic glass of 2006 Keller Estates "Oro de Plata" Chardonnay. This is about the point in the meal where I started to run out of new ways to say "delicious" or "perfect."

On to fourth course: halibut with crab and seaweed and a 2005 Michel Picard Vouvray Chenin Blanc for her; king salmon cooked on a cedar plank with a side of oshitashi for me, along with a cup of Morimoto's own Junmai Daiginjo sake.

Finally we got to the main course. I still remember the Kobe beef and Japanese sweet potato dies I got last year, and was hoping one of us would get that this year. We didn't, but what we got instead was no disappointment. Daryl got lamb in a molasses reduction. All her notes say is "LAMB!" probably due to a combination of the food and an evening's worth of wine. Speaking of which, she got a 2004 Estancia Syrah; pretty impressive for an American wine to be the match for this dish.

My dish was Peking duck done two ways. I had Peking duck in Peking (OK, Beijing) a few years ago and even putting aside that I didn't have sliced liver on my plate this time, and was not expected to drink the liquor that smelled like old socks, Morimot's was way better. It was minimalist duck, just two small pieces, but the slice of breat had all the flavor of the entire breast, and the same was true to the dark meat. It was accompanied by a glass of 2005 Wildekrans Pinotage, which was simply one of the best glasses of wine I have ever had in my life. It was full-bodied, with huge lingering fruit notes. I can envision this becoming a regular in our wine rotation, if I could only find a place to buy it! If you get a chance you should definitely pick it up.

The meal wrapped up with a sushi course (accompanied by a Fukumiysuya Junmai sake) and a dessert (with a Grahams' 10 Year Tawny Port) but truth be told I don't even remember much about them. This meal was all about the main courses and for the second year in a row we were blown away by the food (and this year the service was much, much better as well). I don't know if we'll go back again next year -- we might try to branch out a bit -- but everything served to us makes me want to eat there as often as our bank account allows (which is almost never) and also to recommend Morimoto to anyone in Philly who wants a fantastic seafood-based dining experience.