Aug 18, 2012 Restaurants
Cnr Mills Lane & Swanson St, City. Ph 337-0506
restaurantmorita.co.nz
Lunch Monday-Friday; dinner Monday-Saturday.
Chef Masaru Morita (above) has created a unique and unlikely dining experience in what can only be described as a bunker with concrete floor and black ceiling. The best way to eat here is with the degustation menu, which showcases a remarkable level of skill and aesthetics over eight perfect courses, from amuse-bouche to dessert. The culinary parade arrives with Swiss precision as Morita presents his surprising marriage of French cordon bleu and Japanese classics. We’ve raved before about the crayfish with Americaine sauce, but there’s much more where that came from. Morita turns poorly regarded mackerel into sublime sashimi, and egg and dashi into possibly the finest chawanmushi to grace Auckland tables. At meal’s end, the chef and his team will often leave the kitchen to farewell you. It’s a lovely touch and seals the connection between the man and his cuisine.
A favourite dish: Chawanmushi topped with fish roe and kamaboko.
$$$ | FP | D what’s this?
