Iron Sushi - Morimoto in Las Vegas // Vegas II

Erika!

So after a while, I finally got to hang out with my friend Erika again! You may remember Erika from Get Baked Episode 2, where we went to Mr. Holmes Bakery, Tropiseuno SF, and Lemonade. Well now we're in Erika's home turf - Las Vegas, Nevada. Erika knows the area pretty well, and we decided to take some photos before hitting our main destination: Morimoto Las Vegas.

We met in the lobby of Bellagio (where I got to stay!!!) in the Conservatory, and very quickly our little photo op went awry by the way of very complex shadows landing on her face. So naturally, we moved on to the chocolate fountain. So I'll touch on this place later, but the Jean Phillip Pâtisserie has the world's largest chocolate fountain, a record that is recognized by the Guinness World Record Book. As you can see in the picture here, Erika is standing next to the chocolate fountain. The fountain actually goes up above her - probably to twice her height (which isn't very high, to be honest). This is definitely one of the hidden wonders of Las Vegas, with there being a stream of milk, dark, and even white chocolate pouring down from 8 meters above. I don't think I've seen anything like this except for a wall of chocolate falls in a gelato place near the Duomo in Florence, Italy. Anyway, on to the main event: Morimoto.

Erika and the chocolate fountain!

Chef Masaharu Morimoto is pretty well known in the cooking world - he's one of the original Iron Chefs from the actual Japanese show before there was the American spin off version. Also, he has battled several times against Bobby Flay, one of his neighbors on the Strip, in a few heated battle on Iron Chef that included some tie-breakers. Anyway, Morimoto opened another namesake restaurant in Las Vegas in the MGM Grand in October 2016, allowing the wonderful people of Las Vegas to appreciate Japanese culinary wonder.

Awesome starting package!

As we walked up to the restaurant, we were greeted by a friendly hostess who seated us right as our reservation came up. The atmosphere is pretty quiet, but also filled with a warm light from the little light on our table. They handed us the drinks menu (too young!) and gave us those sweet moist towelettes so that we didn't need to get up to wash our hands. Except these were pretty big sized towels - not your normal little disposable packaged towelette or your tiny rag - we're talking about a softer towel than your normal dishwashing one, but around the same size. Anway, I thought that was really cool. Since we were a bit budget-minded this time around, we chose to look past the $98 steak and look at the proportionally expensive maki (sushi rolls). From this menu, we ordered the negitoromaki, eel avocado roll and the shrimp tempura roll - and all were good, but the negitoromaki took the cake. So we'll save the best for last and I'll describe the other ones first.

Right before they disappeared before my eyes.

The shrimp tempura roll was probably one of the best I've ever had - as soon as your teeth slice through the top layer of seaweed, your teeth slice through amazingly tender sushi rice and hit the fried tempura, cutting through like a knife through butter. But the kicker here is definitely the green onion, which provides a satisfying crunch to the roll. Next is the eel avocado roll. I initially tried this with soy sauce, but quickly found out that it was already salty enough. And boy was I rewarded. I could taste the unagi and the sauce on top mixing together in my mouth, along with the texture of the rice, creating a killer combo that set me up perfectly for the negitoromaki. 

Pure heaven and joy in a bundle . . . . . #sushi #lasvegas #huffposttaste #tasty #food #vscofood @chef_morimoto @morimotovegas @lasvegas_lv #sushilovers #sushigeeks #idreamofsushi

A post shared by Ryan Chen (@stumpyeatsfood) on Apr 17, 2017 at 5:18pm PDT

So for those who don't know Japanese and get intimidated by this long name, it's actually quite simple if you split it up into three components: negi, toro, and maki. Negi is, as described by the internet, a type of leek that is regarded as one of the most versatile ingredients in Japanese cuisine. Toro is the fatty part of the belly of the tuna, and it was chopped up in this case. Maki is simply the form  - in this case maki means roll. So all in all, we are looking at a roll consisting of chopped fat from the the belly of the tuna and a leek. But it is so much more than that. When you cut your teeth past the seaweed and rice, you're met with a wonderfully soft toro and leek that truly elevates the experience. And the flavors that come out of it amazed me and left me wishing we could order another plate.

Erika satisfied, but wanting more

I think this post accurately sums up my thoughts about Morimoto Las Vegas - it's expensive, but well worth the money. But if you think Erika and I were done for the night, think again - next up, we're going to be lining up and chowing down at the Burger Gordan Ramsay!

You can find me on Instagram as @stumpyeatsfood and on yelp at theplumpcat.yelp.com. You can also check out more of my photos on Flickr! If you've got a restaurant recommendation or even a recipe that you think I should try, send it to me at ryanjchen2@gmail.tcom! Thank you for reading!