Review: Morimoto Japanese Restaurant in Napa

It’s not often I eat the perfect meal at a restaurant.

Ask my wife and she’ll recount stories of me sending food back for being cold, getting shirty with waiters for not laughing at my jokes, and just general glumness – especially in the UK – at the flippin’ prices of mediocre dishes that are far from memorable.

Okay, so the 2nd story was a joke, but Morimoto in the California wine country town of Napa isn’t!

Ashley had booked the table a few weeks before – you have to as they are generally jam packed every night – and we sat in the corner with a great view of the whole, light and cavernous room.

To be honest, on 1st passing the door, it looked like no one was eating there as they have a couple of tables in the window, but once inside you hear the cacophony of conversations and satisfied stomachs as you’re lead through to the main part of the eatery.

I went for sake, which was delivered in a jug on a decorated bed of ice – nice touch – and Ashley stuck to beer.

We shared a soft shell crab roll – big, crispy, divine and perfect for 2.

Ashers was then delivered the biggest bit of braised black cod we’ve ever seen. It was cooked to perfection in a soy reduction and well worth the $23.

I plumped for “ishi yaki buri bop” to test my palate as well as the service, as it’s yellow tail cooked in a stone bowl with rice and veg at your table. The server said the bowl was heated to 400 degrees (!) so I couldn’t lick it clean if I had wanted to………..and I did. It was an awesome eating experience – great tasting and professionally prepared and delivered. It came with a secret sauce which added some intrigue to the mix.

Following up the rear was some chocolate ice cream sandwich concoction, perfect for sharing and just enough without getting sickly post some delicate flavours preceding it.

Topping it off with a slug of Glenmorangie “Lasanta” – which I had to show our server how to drink (with an equal measure of water at room temperature) as it was in danger of being ruined “on the rocks” – the bill came to less than $150 including tip!

The service was so good that when I asked for recommendations for foody blogs in the US, our waitress came back with them all written down!

Here they are: SF Eater – David Lebovitz – Chez Pim

We’ll be tucking into them with the same gusto we tucked into our meal at Morimoto.

I seriously don’t wax this lyrical about places we eat at, but this was one worth every penny. Better than Zuma in London which is twice the price!

Can’t wait to visit their sister place in NY very soon…

PS: Just discovered the owner Chef Morimoto on Twitter