Morihiro Sunset

[Clayfu]

Figured this deserved a new thread as the restaurant is a completely different concept now from the old thread.

They closed Attwater Morihiro to start a new concept in Sunset. All the same FOH and BOH with more faces to flesh out the larger and more ambitious undertaking. It is a full scale ala carte restaurant with a deep cocktail program led by Han Cho (formerly of Kato) and a robust sake list curated by their GM Tim Lin. The idea is that they will always have half of the restaurant open for walk-ins with a full bar, so patrons can come in for a few pieces of sushi and a cocktail.

In the very near future they will do a buildout inside for a premium omakase for Mori to helm, but right now they offer four seats at the far end of the bar for his omakase.

I’ve been following the buildout for the last half year and talking / brainstorming their new concept with them as it was being fleshed out. It’s quite the change from anything Mori has done so i had a million questions on their thought process behind what they were building and why. As always, Tim and Mori give a lot of thought behind everything they are doing at the restaurant and it was fun to visit for the Friends and Family night to see how those concepts ultimately played out.

As with all my reviews - Morirhiro is an Astrea Caviar client, this meal was free due to Friends and Family etc etc.

The menu is carved into three columns. On the left are small plates, appetizers, sides. Middle is all the nigiri options. Right side are cooked dishes and some rolls.

Then we get to the flip side of the menu for the very important alcohol. As previously mentioned, all the cocktails are created by Han as she is leading the cocktails. They are spirit forward, complex, beautiful drinks. Her drink profile actually reminds me a lot of Kumiko in Chicago (perhaps my favorite bar in the US) where flavors are teased out that normally would be an added ingredient but are built into the flavor profile without actually adding that ingredient.

Also very important, the suntory premium malt draft. Not sure there’s a restaurant in LA with a better suntory pour than Morihiro. It is a must order everytime.

My wife asked that i order the lychee cocktail

grey goose/st germain/sesame sochu

She was quite surprised to learn that there was no actual lychee in it. The drink presents as an essence of lychee. Fantastic and clean.

High ball

St george baller whisky, manzanilla, hojicha

Han came by as she noticed i had not finished the drink, she was worried i didn’t like it. But i was just pacing myself. It’s a classic highball presentation, aggressive bubbles, spirit forward but with the added inclusion Of the tea/rice you get a nice wheat driven flavor built into the complexity of the drink.

My wife demanded California rolls

Interesting choice on imitation crab, i asked why when they were first designing the menu and Mori said that he believes all CA rolls should be imitation crab, using real crab takes away from its general esence. Mori isn’t one to cheap out on ingredients, so i took him for his word on it.

I had one and with Mori’s rice, it is the best CA roll i’ve had.

My daughter ate all 6 tuna rolls and did not share.

Carpaccio - on a salad of greens, roast red peppers and plum. Wonderful

My favorite dish of the night

Chicken and vegetables

Sakura smoked jidori chicken oysters stir fried in celtuce. Probably the best chicken teriyaki i’ve had. I almost ate the whole thing by myself. I also love celtuce, i wish more places used it.

Steak and potato

Denver steak with an INCREDIBLE tempura sweet potato. I know when something is really good when my daughter fights us to eat it.

I got a sashimi plate- was excellent. Not pictured was the parade of Nigiri my wife and daughter ate. As always, excellent.

Chocolate mochi for dessert

dark chocolate driven which was a surprise, not too sweet!

Musk Melon Panna Cotta

This was a must order. If there’s one dish on the menu you cannot skip on, it is this one. Rich decadent cream underneath with sublt sweetness from the melon. None of my family wanted it so i ate it all gladly.

Not pictured - a fantastic vegetable tempura and market salad.

[PeonyWarrior]

Peony says she’s a “very, very big fan,” which is unusually high praise for her. I really like it too. Most dishes showed exquisite execution in some way. I agree with Clayfu on best chicken teriyaki I’ve ever had. That was my favorite dish, and Peony’s second after the buri carpaccio.

[Clayfu]

Gonna go on Saturday with my lawyer buds. Crush cocktails eat chicken teriyaki

They told me their most ordered dish right now is the eggplant!

[PeonyWarrior]

Enjoy! I’d like to try their eggplant and also their vegetable tempura, because their sweet potato tempura that came with the steak was amazingly good.

Tip: I wouldn’t order the salmon skin salad with a bunch of people. There were four-ish pieces of salmon in the salad. Delicious pieces, mind you.

[raihan]

went a couple nights ago. everything was great. the highball was not as carbonated as I normally like, but it still had the right bite throughout the whole meal. my dining partner was expecting a lychee martini situation for the lychee drink, so she was a bit bummed; but all of the bevs were phenomenal(!) and I left kind of buzzed lol.

agree w @Clayfu that this is the best cali roll in LA, possibly by leaps and bounds.

[J_L]

Yes, the most “un-edomae” things on the menu here are also some of the most awesome-tasting…

[PeonyWarrior]

Annoying experience today. Sat at a table. We were offered omakase last time so we asked for it this time. They said sure, would you like $250, $300, or $350? We said $350. I was expecting it to be like the omakase they describe on their website (homemade sesame tofu, shirako, etc.). Instead it was mostly nigiri (10 pieces) and rolls.

Sure, it was tasty nigiri. But all the pieces were cold, and we needed to dip each one in soy sauce ourselves (they weren’t pre-sauced). And I totally wasn’t into the two Americanized mayo rolls.

We also got two appetizers and two desserts — all of which we ordered from the regular menu two weeks ago. Disappointing that they made no effort to avoid duplicates.

Quality is good of course. But it’s a poor omakase experience for the price (which for whatever reason ended up being more like $280 per person, before taxes, drinks, and tip). And if the table omakase is going to be drastically different from the omakase described on their website, they should tell diners that.

For what it’s worth: Peony left saying “yi xing” (one star). She was happy.

[mzonelli]

for 350 (or 280) you should give them this feedback. That is insane pricing for what you got. That’s once a year tops spending money for me and if I got that I’d be talking to em direct to understand what happened.

[PorkyBelly]

table omakase never comes with the nigiri presauced.

[coffeezeri]

I think you and many non-Japanese folks have an inherent misunderstanding of what omakase actually means.

[beam]

@PeonyWarrior

Annoying experience today

I have had friends report similar disappointing experience at the Atwater Morihiro with table omakase. We never had anything but the best from Mori-san but never tried doing it at the table. It seems that you can not get Mori-san’s best at the table.

[PeonyWarrior]

Please enlighten us.

[PeonyWarrior]

Yeah I respect Chef Morihiro a lot. He is a great chef and artist, and he seems like a great guy. I like his balance of forward-looking ideas with Japanese tradition. I admire that he is still so energetic and creative at his age.

Another thing I’ll note is that people at the bar were served the sesame tofu, shirako, etc. I don’t think they make clear on OpenTable, their website, or in person that you can’t get that at the table. That’s my primary gripe.

[mzonelli]

I have no illusions that the table isn’t nearly as good as the bar but the pricing - to me - should reflect it. That’s the only reason I was so struck by @PeonyWarrior ‘s experience - as ordering a la carte might’ve been…much less $ and probably better.

[beam]

@PeonyWarrior

his age

He is a young man!!!

[beam]

@mzonelli

much less $ and probably better

I think so - will put it to test in a few weeks

[PeonyWarrior]

Basically the table omakase is they give you their selection of regular menu items, with a focus on sushi, and charge you regular menu prices for them. The bill was itemized by menu item.

[coffeezeri]

Omakase means relinquishing decision making to another party. It’s been misconstrued over the last 10 years at higher end sushi restaurants to be synonymous with a prix fixe. Omakase, in it’s essence is not a prix fixe. A prix fixe type of situation would be either a “set menu” or “course menu”. A lower end “set menu” would be akin to a teishoku. A “course menu” specifies what dishes are included in the price point and you may see that in kaiseki (会席 banquet style) not to be confused with kaiseki 懐石, (seasonal elaborate dinner following rules of tea ceremony traditions and very specific course progressions.)

Given the changes in how Morihiro is only offering the prix fixe style omakase at the counter (and this has been pretty clear in the L.A.Times article) the same dishes tableside may be subject to availability of dishes based on prep. Some dishes cannot be made impromptu just because someone asks.

When I am a regular at an à la carte sushi restaurant and the chef is aware of my likes & dislikes, I have ordered omakase with a specific price point and communicate my “expectations.” In my case it’s usually no fucking caviar or gold leaf. No deviation from edomae. I leave the rest to my chef. As I have relinquished control and decision making, I get what I get. If sitting at the counter, I may adjust or modify by communicating with the chef making my food. Sushi in it’s best form requires interaction and communication.

If tableside AT Morihiro, I probably wouldn’t bother because “omakase" will simply imply letting the kitchen choose the dishes from what’s available from the menu. Essentially, it’s saying “You choose it for me, here’s my price range.”