Yahoo Lifestyle Inside the Residence of Mr. Moto, a Whimsical New Japanese Comfort Food Restaurant in N.Y.C.
Almost two years ago, the team at AYS Hospitality introduced New York to Mr. Moto, a fictional gourmand and art connoisseur. At the Office of Mr. Moto, they served up an omakase speakeasy experience that began by having you decode a cipher to get into the restaurant. Now the group has done away with the gimmicks for its second Mr. Moto concept, although the character remains as inspiration.
The Residence of Mr. Moto, which opened Monday, is a slightly more casual affair, meant to evoke Mr. Moto’s personal home, rather than his place of work. Here, the chef-partner Tomo Kubo has teamed up with the chef Ryan Nitzkowski (formerly of Zero Bond) on a menu that highlights Japanese comfort food.
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The star is kaisen-don, traditional Japanense donburi that features seafood on top of seasoned rice. The Signature Bowl spotlights tuna tartare, scallops, surf clam, yuzu tobiko, and cucumber, while the more delicate Shiro Bowl uses refined amberjack and sea bream sashimi. When you finish the seafood, you ring a bell to summon the pouring of ochazuke, a 60-hour seafood broth that goes over the remaining rice and transforms the dish.
Elsewhere, small bites range from uni shooters with ponzu and quail egg to chawanmushi, a silky egg custard served with shiitake mushrooms and fishcake. Larger plates like three-day miso-marinated cod and oyako don (marinated chicken and soy egg over rice) provide slightly heartier options. And the savory menu is rounded out by sushi sets with fish flown in from Japan’s famed Toyosu fish market. For dessert, there’s matcha tiramisu and panna cotta infused with hojicha, a type of green tea.
To drink, the Residence of Mr. Moto has a varied selection of sake, both traditional and flavored, plus beer, wine, and shochu. On top of that, the restaurant’s team has devised a short but sweet cocktail list, all inspired by fictional friends of Mr. Moto’s. Taro the Diplomat combines flavors of peach and pear with shochu; Sakura the Lady, a non-alcoholic quaff, mixes lychee, peach, and sakura (cherry blossom).
And while the new spot doesn’t go as far as the Office of Mr. Moto in terms of storytelling and interactive elements, it does retain some of the playfulness of that restaurant. The design is meant to make you feel like you’re in someone’s personal home, and the bathroom is hidden behind a sliding bookshelf. Who said fine dining can’t be fun, too?
Click here to see all the images of the Residence of Mr. Moto.
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