Hawaii Restaurants~Morimoto's

One of my friends suggested that for this year, instead of exchanging Christmas presents, we double date and enjoy a dinner at the newly opened Morimoto restaurant in Waikiki.  I hadn't been keeping up with the Hawaii food scene and was excited to try out this new restaurant. I was even more excited when she texted me that Morimoto would actually be at the restaurant on the night she had made reservations.

My friend heard that Morimoto's was supposed to have outstanding ikura. She was telling me that Morimoto has this long process of cleaning the roe, soaking it in sake, and then the final result is non-fishy tasting ikura.  Mike and I gasped a little when we heard that ONE piece of ikura (salmon roe) sushi was $5.  You can see the single piece of ikua sushi in the far back of this picture.
We also ordered the soft shell crab roll and the spicy tuna roll. 

Morimoto Smoked Sushi-Seared toro, salmon, eel, tuna, hamachi and five sauces.  Isn't that pretty? I'm still learning how to eat raw fish, so the highlight of this dish for me was the five sauces in playful eye dropper like tubes.  There was a yuzu sauce, shoyu, hot sauce, an aioli (?), and a green one that was not wasabi. I think it was cilantro. 

Ishi Yaki Buri Bop-A Japanese play on the Korean stone pot bi bim bap.  The hot stone bowl arrives at the table with rice and slices of raw yellowtail tuna. The waiter then places the fish on the sides of the bowl and slightly sears the fish.  A shoyu based sauce is poured over it.

Chirashi Sushi-Assorted sashi over sushi rice.

Chef's Combination Sushi-Mike ordered this.  His sushi included a spicy tuna and an assortment of nigiri sushi. He said that the quality of the fish was close if not the same as Sushi Sasabune. 

Chocolate Peanut Bombe (I seem to have misplaced that picture).  My friend's husband tried this and I think his clean plate meant that that dessert was delicious.  This is a picture of the Sansho Pepper Roasted Pineapple. The waiter described this as a play on pineapple upside down cake. It was served with a buckwheat castella cake and toasted rice ice cream. I really enjoyed the ice cream, the pineapple cake had too much of a burnt bitter note for me.

Tofu Hot and Cold-Cheesecake, Souffle, and sour cherry sorbet. I ordred this dessert because it sounded playful and I wanted to see how it would be executed.  I was underwhelmed with this bland dessert, but the waiter had warned me that it was not one of the favorites.  The cheesecake and the souffle both had great textures, but how much can you really flavor a tofyu dessert?  The best component on the plate was the contrasting flavorful cherries and sorbet.

Really, this is just a picture of Chef Morimoto's back. We were at the restaurant for over two hours and he only left the kitchen to serve this one table near the kitchen.  Boo.  Last year, Chef Morimoto was actually at my work place for a demonstration and book signing, but I was off for work travel and missed it. 

Morimoto's
1775 Ala Moana Bld.
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808)943-5900