Morimoto Vegas Review – Not a Sushi Restaurant!
I loved watching Iron Chef Morimoto on a variety of cooking competitions and was so excited to make a reservation for 3 after Christmas to finally try his food in Vegas!.
Reservation Process
The reservation process was really simple. Pick the date and time, as well as how many and select whatever is available. They send a confirmation email and they text the day of or couple days before to confirm.
Prompt Seating
We were a bit early – around 15 mins ago, and similar to Bazaar Meats, they seat closer to actual reservation time. That means more time at the casino!
Not a Sushi Restaurant
I looked at the Morimoto Vegas menu beforehand, and thought that we would end up sharing one of the chef combination sushi or sashimi, a steak, and various appetizers. The amazing waiter talked us out of it as he mentioned that Morimoto is not a sushi restaurant and more of a Japanese steak/hot foods place. He recommended choosing items from various parts of the menu – cold appetizers, hot appetizers, entrees, and steak. He also mentioned if we still had room, then individual pieces of sushi may be a good option, but they are known for Iron Chef Morimoto’s signature dishes, and we ended up trying several of those.
Family Style!
It was recommended that we order various things to share, and that was exactly what we wanted. Family style is my favorite way of dining, unless it’s omakase.
Cold Appetizers
There were amazing choices to this menu section, including the stuff above, hamachi tacos, tuna tacos, Wagyu beef carpaccio, and market oysters. We were looking at the toro tartare, hamachi tacos, beef carpaccio, and market oysters. Our waiter talked us into the tuna pizza and whitefish carpaccio since the tuna pizza is Ironchef’s specialty and the whitefish carpaccio is one of the best on the menu. We gave in and ordered those 2 plus toro tartare since we’re always looking to enjoy some good tartare.
- Tuna Pizza – this one came out first. Looked exactly the way it was described. It was good – tuna pieces, some olives, etc. I do think my 2 friends enjoyed this quite a bit more than I did though. One mentioned this was the best things he’s tasted. I’m not a non-fatty tuna person, but did enjoy this dish… just not as much as my friends.
- Whitefish Carpaccio – same thought as the above. The salad itself was a bit oily, and the carpaccio was pretty good. Thinly cut and good texture, but too much of the greens for my taste. Again, my friends really liked this one too… like REALLY liked it.
- Toro Tartare – we all liked this one! Too bad there wasn’t more of it. The caviar complements the tartare perfectly and the flavors and textures of the other stuff gave it a lot more dimension. This tartare really stood out to us!
Hot Appetizers
Our waiter recommended the oyster foie gras and mentioned that the combination may sound weird, but it was really good. Nah, the combination sounded amazing and we were eyeing to ordering this anyways. He super recommended the sticky ribs with spicy tamarind glaze. It was mentioned that some people would love the ribs so much that they would order another one for dessert. We weren’t feeling ribs that night and stuck with the oysters. It was really good, but could use less of the teriyaki sauce. That overpowered the foie gras and uni on there. I think we would have enjoyed a raw oyster with foie gras piece and uni a bit more, but this was unique and tasty.
Entrees and Steak
OK, to be honest, we wished we ordered more appetizers or the sushi instead of recommended entrees and steak. The entrees were raved about, especially the rice bowl options. We went on the recommended ishi yaki buri bop. It came out with the rice, raw yellowtail and such and it was made table side, which was pretty cool. Good description and mixing. Sauce poured on, and extra sauce was on the side if we wanted it. The rice was really flavorful, but we prefer raw yellowtail as opposed to cooked. It wasn’t a bad rice bowl or anything, but none of us were like OMG so good. Steak options included various wagyus, including a NY strip, ribeye, and filet. We went for the NY strip since it was in the middle between fattiness and lean, and we wished we got the ribeye instead or perhaps the pricier Japanese Wagyu. The steak was just alright… didn’t really stand out and I personally wanted it to be fattier.
Dessert Time / Birthday Treat!
We decided that we were done with the food after the entree and steak. Since the food tasted pretty good for the most part, we decided to order a dessert to share. Options included a jasmine panna cotta, chilled cheesecake soufflé, and fiery chocolate tarts. We ordered the jasmine panna cotta, and when that arrived, our birthday treat arrived too! Yay!
Overall Thoughts / Worth It?
My friends did enjoy Morimoto more than I did, but overall, we had an amazing time. It’s one of the few places that we dined at together that one mentioned that we must go here again. I’m 100% down to go back soon to try their other items and the sushi. Though I might be disappointed with the sushi itself, I’d still like to give it a go. The cold appetizers and hot appetizers were pretty good so we’d get more of those next time and skip the entrees and steak. Some of it seemed very pricey for what it was, but that’s standard Vegas well-known establishments.
