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Morimotos, a closer look
 Official Morimoto's Waikiki site! |
 Tara Zirker writing for Honolulu Magazine! |
 Morimoto's at the Edition from Yelp! |
Mari Taketa and Melissa Chang check out Morimoto's! |
Aloha!
12/1/10 - Is the Iron Chef for real?
After one visit and having had the pleasure of sampling no less than 12 different dishes, allow me to declare in no uncertain terms - this guy is definitely the real deal!
With a long and impressive resume of restaurants all over the world, television shows, media appearances, books, and industry-moving awards by everyone from Zagat and James Beard to Conde Naste and Julia Child, Masaharu Morimoto is a superstar chef of epic proportions. A former baseball player drafted by Japan's major leagues but whose career was prematurely ended due to a shoulder injury, he decided to turn misfortune into opportunity by training as a sushi and kaiseki chef for seven years. By the ripe-young age of 25, his first restaurant was opened in Hiroshima, Japan, and by 29, he had sold the place and traveled to America to expand his craft. Already noticed by none other than Chef Nobu Matsuhisa of Nobu's fame, Morimoto-san was then tapped as his executive chef in 1994, and by 2001, the first Morimoto's was opened in Philadelphia. The rest, as you know, is history...
Of course, we also know that these days, Morimoto-san is much too important and busy an individual to remain perched at any one shop, even at the center of the universe, Honolulu! No worries, though, as he himself has chosen and trained a protege who brings his own set of heady accolades to the table. Executive Chef of Morimoto Waikiki is Jojo Vasquez, who, among other things, has served as Chef de Cuisine at the Maui Ritz-Carlton's Banyan Tree restaurant and was also once an actual competitor on the Iron Chef show! He, along with over 120 employees, confidently man their respective stations within the restaurant, providing a seamless, fluid, and most excellent experience that unequivocably lives up to its name.
The freshly-minted Edition Hotel in Waikiki, formerly part of the Ilikai, is an appropriate location to house such a heralded eatery. Like Morimoto's, this particular chain of luxury hotels from the Marriott family carries with it a kind of modern, high-end edginess as well, nuanced with a few island touches along the way:
Parking at the hotel is valet-only, so get ready to pay a tip unless you prefer some of the cheaper pay stations in the many beach-side slots behind the building.
Once your car is whisked-away, Morimoto's is a short walk from the valet station up an easily-ascending flight of stairs. A surprisingly low-key and humble entrance awaits. So humble, in fact, that we wondered if we were even in the right place!
Upon walking in, however, we knew there was no mistake, as a trio of hostesses were immediately there to greet us. The posh, cosmopolitan scene inside was mostly mod and minimalistic, with a touch of earthiness from a smattering of plants and a prominent set of fancy coral displays. Though obviously upscale, the ambience was actually a bit more casual and relaxed than I expected. Instead of a mood-setting darkness, decorative lighting, and a hyper-chic, adultish, almost night-clubby aura, which I surmised a guy like Morimoto-san would foster, the place was brightly-lit, open, and, except for a brown hardwood floor and some trim here and there, covered with mostly glass, soft pastels, and innocent whites. On two opposing sides of the dining room stood large, shiny-enamel murals of Hawaiian orchids that pointed yet further towards an easy, yet sophisticated island feel:
The prime waterfront location will undoubtedly beckon many to take advantage of those brilliant Waikiki sunsets out-back (too bad it was a bit over-cast today!), where open, unobstructed views of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor can be very enticing. Here, several charcoal pits, simple but elegant couches, and other types of outdoor lounge furniture are positioned over an area almost as large as the main dining room itself, all spaced generously apart from eachother as to provide diners with lots of elbow-room-privacy.
Not wanting to flirt with the weather outside, we were instead thankful for a prime seat inside, directly fronting the kitchen and sushi bar. And talk about great views! With the Waikiki sunset not having one of its better days, the brand-spankin' new kitchen on the opposite side was gorgeous and lively, while the sushi bar fronting it was huge, well-stocked, and positively bristling with bright-red ahi, glistening salmon, and all manner of fresh, colorful seafoods. Much more fun and entertaining, I'd say! Don't you love how things always work out?!
We were all amazed at the number of chefs and and how busy it was back there (not necessarily in the first shot, which was taken before the rush):
And yes, it did get packed as the evening progressed!
The only minor flaw to an otherwise perfect evening was a highly impersonable woman seating us, but outside of that, our party of five were pampered for over three hours by an entire army of friendly and very accomodating staff, including other greeters, waitstaff, sake specialists, bartenders, busboys, and even general managers! Two thumbs up for impeccable service, for sure!
But enough with the lead-up. It's time for some eats. Some reeeally serious eats! At a place like this, I'm a sucker, as was our entire table, for omakase, or the chef's special-course selections. Who needs just a pupu and entree when you can get 10, 15, or even more of the chef's best dishes in one single evening? Instead of both Kumi and I having the special omakase course, however, we shared a single order so we could take a few other liberties with the menu and experience even more dishes! One of these particular extra dishes came with the name Morimoto fronting it, so you know we had to chance 'em!
This order of Morimoto sashimi was simply incredible, not only for freshness' sake, but for its sheer artistry, creativity, and presentation! From bottom to top on every stack was a layer each of flash-seared chu toro bluefin, hamachi, ahi, and salmon, followed by a tiny garnish of, from back to front, nori paste, diced sweet onion, a mellowed wasabi sauce, ikura, chopped shiitake, and some type of pickled vegetable. As you can see, the fine details on each stack were simply amazing!
On top of that, check out the fresh-grated wasabi (you won't get tubed or powdered stuff here!), sweetened Japanese mountain peach (made so popular by Nobu), and, especially, sauce containers of various flavors. Our instructions were to create a painting of our own on the plate, so I gave Kumi the honors:
The first of our actual omakase courses came with another uniquely Morimoto-like stamp, and once again, was rife with impressive detail and creativity:
Inside a bowl of ice lay a sauce of soy and a wooden panel ornately filled with toro tartare, hamachi tartare, and a colorfully-coded middle section of nori, house-made creme fraiche, grated wasabi, daikon oroshi, wasabi sauce, and bubu arare. A mini-spatula was also provided to scoop all the ingredients out. Unanimously, we all found our first course not only luxurious and tasty, but also fun, playful, and highly entertaining!
Next-up was a sweet, firm sashimi of Kona Kampachi, rolled into small tubes and bathed in a soy/oil sauce that was so good, I began dipping some of the sashimi pieces from my Morimoto sashimi platter in the extra sauce!
The third course was an interesting sight:
Called bagna cauda, it is an Italian dish similiar in execution to fondue, or even hotpot, if you will. An assortment of crisped bread and local vegetables are carefully assembled to one side, including such items as asparagus, sweet peppers, white carrot, cauliflower, and mini squash, while a slow-boiling tower of olive oil, powered by a small container of lighted chafing fuel underneath, sits in the center as a dipping station. Helping to flavor the oil is a garlic-anchovy mix that was actually a bit more mellow than you'd think anchovies would be.
A couple of our boiling towers of oil actually went out for some reason, but no worries, as there were enough lighters to go around right on our own table, a couple of our buddies being avid enthusiasts of fine cigars and all. A quick flick, and all was well once again!
As we sat in anxious and excited anticipation awaiting our remaining dishes, we all agreed that somewhere, sometime, a few special ingredients were eventually bound to present themselves. One of these, foie gras, didn't actually arrive as a whole, intact piece the way I like it best, but was instead mixed with the traditional Japanese egg custard called chawanmushi. This type of custard is not sweet like a dessert, but is hot and savory, with an infusion of dashi for taste. I've had uni (sea urchin) chawanmushi before, which currently seems to be the in-thing, but after having tried this foie gras version for the very first time, I'm a big believer that the latter is a much better fit. Though the texture and even idea of chawanmushi may paint a subtle, delicate impression in the mind, the actual flavors of steamed egg and dashi together are really quite strong, and the rich, meaty flavors of the foie gras enhance and stand-up to them much better in my opinion.
Sitting atop our kicked-up chawanmushi w/foie gras was thinly-sliced duck, another decadent and well-matched addition to an already great dish:
Another subject of banter around our chatty and increasingly boisterous table centered upon the just-mentioned ingredient of uni. At any classy Japanese restaurant or sushi house, there are a few items often separating the men from the boy'z, and uni happens to be one of them. Mostly, it's all about freshness issues, and while here locally, it's common for even sub-par shops to present incredibly fresh salmon, hamachi, ahi, bigeye ahi, and even bluefin, uni is a less-popular item with much less turnover, so freshness becomes an even more tantamount and difficult objective.
Who knows why we even had the audacity to test freshness here at Morimoto's, but before you knew it, a platter of uni sushi was sitting right before us!
Not part of the regular omakase course, it turns out that everyone was ecstatic regarding the freshness of this prickly creature's guts. Actually, they aren't guts at all, though. Many even think they are urchin roe, but much of the actual meat is also comprised of sex organs that produce the roe, which means I guess you could call them gonads!
Whatever the case, uni is often called foie gras of the sea, not because it tastes the same but because there is a luxurious richness inherent. The buttery, creamy essence melts on your tongue and is actually quite light in taste when fresh, with a subtle hint of the sea and a natural rounding of sweetness. When not fresh, however, a fishy, ocean stinkiness will become stronger and stronger until completely inedible, a fact we've experienced often over the years at many different restaurants.
And speaking of sushi, our fifth course was none other than an individual platter of nigiri sushi, as should be expected from Chef Morimoto-san!
Front and center was another item I like testing for freshness issues, scallop, and the two thin slices of bi-valve on this first piece were as excellent as the uni. In fact, the same goes for the chu toro, hirame, aji, and kinme-dai, or golden snapper, which I will always order anytime I know it's available. Like hamachi, it carries a fatty-white flesh full of sweetness, but is a bit firmer and pinker in color.
And speaking of rice, where's the rice wine? Actually, sake is about as strong as wine, but is more like beer in that there is brewing involved instead of a straighter fermentation process. Morimoto-san actually has his own line of sake, and since just one of our five omakase orders cost $110 each, we decided to try the least (cheapest) of his personal brews, a junmai simply called Morimoto Junmai. It's supposed to carry hints of honeyed walnuts and a soft, sweet finish. Personally, while I did find it a touch nutty, I noticed more of the sweet fruitiness of apple or pear, and also a kind of thick, full-flavored mouthfeel that was bold and appealing.
To make matters either better or worse, depending on your preference, this particularly giant, 1.8 litre bottle did not come with the normal 14-16 percent of alcohol sake and wine usually consists of, but a noticeable 18 percent! And yes, we did finish the entire bottle!
Morimoto's carries their own friendly sake specialist, who frequently stopped-by to chat, inform us, and pour glasses. With the huge bottle kept safe in the back, she had to return often while re-filling the two iced flasks provided on our table to keep the sake perfectly chilled:
Right about now, it was getting high-time for the heavier, meatier elements of the meal, and there was nothin' like our earlier set of traditional nigiri pieces, along with a good sake, to provide balance and a good base from which to enjoy the rest of the evening. Before our remaining omakase courses, however, let's take a look at my other choice (remember that I was the only diner on our table not ordering omakase, although I did taste each of them from Kumi's plates!):
This masterpiece is called a spicy king crab, and is described as coming with tobanjan aioli, tobiko, and micro cilantro. Behind sits a bed of fries covered with the same spicy sauce.
Though I've never experienced anything I'd consider better than melted butter with any good batch of crab legs, I wouldn't rule-out ordering this particular representation once in a while, just to mix things up a bit. Tobanjan is actually a Chinese fermented bean paste with heat, but if I didn't know better, I'd probably have thought the baked sauce was simply a Sriracha'd spicy aioli with tobiko. In the end, the sauce was great and all, but as any good crab dish will tell you - it's all about the crab!
Giant pieces of pure, sweet king crab meat, fancy tobanjan aioli or not, were sweet, tender, and easily pried from the already-split shells without getting your fingers dirty at all! They were absolutely flawless, and as fresh and well-prepared as you can get here in Hawaii!
Getting back to the omakase courses, there is a sixth and final pre-dessert dish. However, since it is comprised of three different items on a single plate, it should actually be considered the sixth, seventh, and eighth courses. Here they are, one at a time:
This first item was a ginger pork, accompanied by an Asian pear marmalade and mix of assorted vegetables. As soft, tender, and juicy as a tenderloin, these delectable slices of fatty pork were also ever-so-lightly covered with a crispy coating, then drenched in a sweet, soy-based sauce and sprinkled with crunchy bits of peanut.
Next to it lay an interestingly-presented section of lobster claw alongside a trio of skinned asparagus tip, mushroom, and cauliflower:
Another excellent course. Roasted in a Chinese five-spice mix for an earthy, spiced taste, the generous sections of sweet lobster were pried loose from their shell as effortlessly as our king crab shown earlier.
As for the final number of our surf 'n turf trio, beef, I actually forgot to note what type of cow and what type of cut it actually came from. One of my buddies thought he remembered it being described as a tenderloin, but I think this may have been a Wagyu of some type, as I've never had a tenderloin that was quite this tough. Whaaat??? Are you saying Wagyu is tough, and inferior to tenderloin? Well, maybe, and maybe not - Wagyu is a Japanese cow, and tenderloin is the most expensive cut on a cow, any cow, so you can't really compare the two, anyway!
Herein lies the biggest mistake I think people make with Wagyu, or even Kobe, steak. Oftentimes, once a person hears any of the two terms, and especially upon discovering the exorbitantly higher price tags, they think it automatically means a soft, fatty, tender steak. Not so fast there, trigger! First of all, it could be an inferior sirloin or London broil of Wagyu, hardly the most optimal representations of these fine breeds, and furthermore, you never know the skills lurking in some kitchens, where even the finest of ingredients can be abused (not to say that'll ever happen here!). Besides that, I'll state once again what regular readers have probably heard me say many times before - never order thick cuts of premium Japanese beef! After having tried it so many times, and always at high-end spots, I'll never know why the best chefs even bother with thick pieces of Wagyu, and I say this despite the great and very real risk of me being banished forever for making such a heretic statement! Nevertheless, in my opinion, though the flavor is always undoubtedly great, there's always a kind of chewiness involved, as the delicate fats aren't of the highly-noticeable variety found in normal steaks. No, these fats are so refined and fragile that they melt into thin air when exposed to heat for the longer periods of time it takes to cook thicker pieces, defeating the purpose of fatty beef in the first place. Thin cuts, done yakiniku-style and cooked in seconds, are the best means of preparation, but when going thick, I'll take a sturdier, much cheaper USDA Prime ribeye or tenderloin over Wagyu every time!
Whatever the cut of beef here at Morimoto's on this fine evening, it was nicely char-grilled, smokey, and absolutely bursting with beefy goodness, but, as in so many Wagyu portions I've had before, came with the same type of chewiness.
All told, the three different courses within a single course was the tip of an impressive crescendo, and a great way to enter into the dessert portion of the meal. Here's one last look at all three together before moving on:
The first dessert reaching our table was gold. And I do mean that literally!
Yep, that's a real piece of gold floating atop our Okinawan black sugar flan, which was, btw, fantastic with or without gold! As creamy-good as it was, however, the real star of dessert here at Morimoto's came from part two of our sweet portions. We found the combinations of textures, tastes, and appearances in this next dish unique and delicious in its choice of traditional Japanese elements, all done without cheating (ok, maybe too strong a word!) with chocolates, caramels, strong syrups, and other slam-dunk ingredients.
The smeared, purple mixture was an Okinawa sweet potato mousse, while a sweet potato ice cream was dolloped on the side as well. Both were great, but not something we haven't really seen before. In combination with the two kabocha pumpkin diversions, however, the dish as a whole really began catching our attention. First of all, the little cake was a bit denser than normal cake and came with a soft, sweet, white-bean surprise inside. Underneath and barely visible were super-thin, sweet, crunchy cuts of kabocha, its outer layer of dark-green revealing just how thin they were. One of the classic training tests of a Japanese chef is to cut an entire daikon, going round and round, in a single, giant, paper-thin piece. No doubt, some of those skills are brought to bear with this particular peeling, as well! The representations of sweet potato and pumpkin were masterful and unique, and I couldn't help but think Chef Morimoto-san must have competed with both of these ingredients during a past Iron Chef show!
After a grand total of 10 separate courses and 2 other major dishes on the side, we were definitely 5 happy campers, extremely satisfied with an evening filled with some of life's greatest pleasures - good food, strong drink, and great company! Doesn't get any better, for sure!
Somewhere in-between all the action, I guess our very cool neighbors to one side noticed how busy I was with the camera, and were nice enough to momentarily present their gyoza dish as a picture offering! And an interesting gyoza it was, a thin, crispy layer of crust binding the pieces together for a version different from any I'd ever seen before! No, I politely refused sampling a piece, but with our new friends being from Oregon, my former home for six months many moons ago, it was nice sharing at least a bit of comaraderie in briefly conversing.
Three magical hours melted into the night like a gripping movie, all of us captivated and transfixed by the whole show and aghast at how quickly time had flown! At least for a single, enchanted evening, we were all kings and queens for a time, being served the finest of delicacies by a well-trained staff of sooo many different servers, all coming from sooo many different angles. Aside from our super-cool main waitress and our knowledgeable sake pourer, the many faces and hands milling about while re-filling drinks, presenting dishes, drawing warm towels, and making sure everything was just right quickly became all but a blur (and not just because of the sake!) amidst such pampering. These, I tell you - these are the kinds of experiences foodies yearn for, when all cylinders are firing and everything seems to click. Yes, Morimoto's Waikiki is definitely the whole package. As I sit here writing several days later, the buzz from such a wonderful experience still lingers on!
But even with the bittersweetness of one chapter ending, another epic moment sits in waiting, begging to be unfolded and revealed! And guess what? I'll be there to capture that moment, as well!
Hey, hope you're all having a great and wonderful week!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
Comments:
Kyo H (12/27/10): Excellent review! Reviews by others were negative because they had unrealistic hope of dining like actual Iron Chef judges. Your review, however, was much more realistic and much more thorough. Can't wait to try it myself!
Aku (12/28/10): Thanks Kyo. You know, it's almost like movie reviews. You get a million different views, and anything from a gushing 10 stars to a negative 10 stars. Everyone's different, and you never know until you try it yourself. We had a great time there - I guess the planets were in alignment that night, not to mention the good company and sake flowing freely!
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