I took Eastman out for his birthday (2/6) and being the foodie that he is, I thought he might enjoy the likes of Moto. It’s one of those interesting, posh, metropolitan restaurants you might see on tv (i.e. expensive, trendy, food looks too nice to eat?). Actually, I did see it on a review show and on Food Network, too. So, three weeks before his birthday I called and made reservations. I missed a phone call on my cell phone the day of our dinner. They were going to customize a dinner menu with his name on it. Just heard the voice mail today (almost a week after). Oops. We arrived at the restaurant to be greeted by all the wait staff, everyone dressed in black sleek suits.
You have a choice of two menus: 10-course (2 to 2-1/2 hours) or 20-course (4 to 4-1/2 hours). We chose the 10-course. Service was impeccable and all the servers were fun to talk to. Ambience? Artsy, you might say. Modern, minimalist, sort of? Music was great. Eastman asked about their playlist for me. They pipe in satellite radio! XM, lounge/chill. Love that!
What do they serve there? See for yourself. Sorry the pics are a little dark, some are slightly blurry. No flash photography, which is totally understandable. The only picture I didn’t take was of the menu which was printed with edible ink on a corn tortilla chip served with a little guacamole and salsa. It was cool! Wish I had written sooner. I’m sure I’m missing some details.
First course: San Francisco bay scallop served tableside with this lemon dust frozen in liquid nitrogen. The server spooned out the dust from a little pot smoking over from the liquid nitrogen. Neat presentation, and it only gets weirder.
Second course: French onion soup. Carmelized onions in a pile with an onion chip and cheese dollop. Hot soup was poured into the bowl tableside.
Third course: Buffalo chicken flavored edible paper and quail. The paper really tasted like chicken?! Served with homemade tabasco sauce.
Fourth course: Breakfast! The “egg white” was yogurt that set up, and the “yolk” was a curry custard, but it actually behaved like a yolk… we had pita toasts (shaped like mini-bread, so cute!) that you could dip into the “egg”. We also had falafel tater tots with homemade ketchup. Tasty!
Here’s the birthday boy with course #5. “Cuban cigar”. This was one of my favorites. A cuban sandwich shaped like a cigar and served in an ash tray! Pulled pork wrapped with white bread wrapped with a green and edible paper to look like a cigar band… dipped in crushed black and white sesame seeds.
Had to drink with dinner. I started with a cocktail. Sazerac, the quintessential New Orleans drink. It was strrrong! This is the Martini Library. Drinks served in pipettes. So pretty, and yummy.
Course six had the biggest black beans I’ve ever seen. You might have thought they were lumps of meat. There was braised beef and a side of “cold” slaw, as opposed to cole slaw. Again, there was use of liquid nitrogen to keep the slaw nice and crunchy cold.
Course seven had to be one of the most interesting interpretations… duck “roadkill”. They drew the center divider line with a puree, the “blood” was another sauce. The duck, though pulled, mushed up, and completely unappetizing to look at, was really delicious!
First Dessert! The beach with pineapple “dust” and a fried rice noodle that looked like coral, complete with a starfish (or in Eastman’s case, a seahorse) made of fruit puree-gelatin. All under a little paper parasol. Cute.
Second dessert. This homemade caramel ice cream was soooo good! Isn’t it cute how it looks like a crab? It was accompanied by apple cake with souffle and apple crispies on top.
Last dessert was very interesting with a frozen cherry that burst in your mouth and tasted like cherry coke. And an “inside-out” pumpkin pie. That might be my favorite dessert… The cold pumpkin outer shell contained liquid graham cracker crust. Toasted pumpkin seeds garnished the little pie dollop and it sat on lightly torched marshmallow meringue. It was a nice end to a very different dinner experience.
