momiji

birthday dinner. went to check out the new momiji restaurant for my husband's birthday. beautifulplace, loved the japanese style garden in the middle but the food fell short of my expectation. cilantro and onions in my chirashi? really?. miso shiru with hardly any taste at all and served with a chinese soup spoon? $12.00 for a glass of wine...should i keep going.? not what i expect for a japanese restaurant in any price range. as a japanese person, i was very disappointed that these kinds of dishes are being passed off as "japanese" food.

great sushi on the hill!. great first experience. everything was delish and the service great. i can't wait to go back and so thrilled thisplaceis on the hill!

insanely fresh fish!!. i've eaten at countless japanese restaurants, but thisplacetruly stands out. i ordered a $50 omakase for myself and ended up ordering a few more nigiris a la carte...i just could not stop eating!

i had horse mackerel, albacore tuna, medium fatty tuna aka chu-toro (sadly i did not have o-toro), sockeye salmon, yellowtail and many other types of fish. i cannot praise thisplaceenough for how amazingly fresh the sushi was. spectacular. it was an expensive meal, but luckily the cuts were of generous size.

the service was outstanding as well. i sat at the sushi bar and had some small talk with the head sushi chef, a very skilled and friendly japanese man. several servers regularly checked up on me throughout the meal.

i loved the interior decor of this restaurant. in the center is a japanese garden and it's surrounded by glass walls. the tables are setup around this centerpiece so that you can admire the garden. a great and unique layout.

do not order steak rolls!. made the mistake of trying the steak rolls. disgusting. i know they were trying to be innovative, but it was just gross. everything else was tasty. the zen rock garden is lovely - a greatplaceto take someone to "wow" them. the service was fantastic.

decent new japanese place. in the end, this was a pretty decent restaurant, a nice mix of cooked/izakaya style japanese food and lots of crazy sushi rolls. we had a couple of dishes from their seasonal kaiseki menu, a "008" roll and various other dishes. at first i was a little put off by the high prices since i was expecting tiny plates/portions, in the end, we actually ordered slightly too much food (always a good thing). the highlights were the hamachi jalapeno sashimi with ponzu sauce, the sauted mushrooms, the spicy tofu. the enormous roll (hence the high price) easily double most typical rolls were ok, it would be better if the rice wasn't so mushy.

cat didn't like the chawan-mushi as much, and the kakuni was not so good, not soft enough, not enough of the fatty pork shoulder.

i would try thisplaceagain, happy we tried this tonight. the restaurant is surprisingly large.