Cafe MoZU with Chef Hidemasa Yamamoto

[brioboy]

Lunched today with a couple of friends at Cafe Mozu and found myself chuckling all the (long) way back to downtown. I know that they are new, but wow.

I really didn't mind that they lost my reservation. I had called on the hotel reservations line and - hey - they're new and so maybe the handoff of the information didn't work. I thought I had been transferred to the restaurant when I called, but so what? They had a table for us.

When I asked the waitress what their "signature dish" was I got a slightly terrified blank stare. But so what? I'm a pretentious git who wears a pocket square and spends too much on food. She pointed us to some good dishes once my colleague translated for her.

This is good food even if some of it feels out of place in this opulent setting. Gorgeous light pouring in from the water, the lobby is simultaneously massive and airy - it's cool and doesn't leave you feeling like your business is an apendage to the real mission of the place as when other hotel restaurants force you to walk through the lobby (sorry - a pet peeve - I told you I was pretentious git).

What do I mean by out of place? Shrimp tempura. Solid spicing, pretty good batter. Still feels like food from a street fair. A bento box (that turns out to be the signature dish at lunch) that incorporates kobe beef and "chinese vermicelli" (a.k.a. noodles), red pepper soup, green salad with bits of crispy pancetta and more. Gussied up sushi bar food. But hell, at $16 well priced for a white linen tablecloth restaurant with entertaining architecture.

My Japanese red snapper with buckwheat risotto was slightly more mysterious - a perfectly cooked piece of fish - really really nice showing off the the red cross hatching on the skin - sitting in a puddle of broth with a few bits of diced, err, buckwheat I guess.

We ordered a half bottle of Pinot Gris and she bought Reisling instead. We tried to tell her it was wrong. She tried to tell us that we were wrong. She bought the wine list back and we ascertained that Number 861 on the wine list was indeed Pinot Gris.

Charmingly, instead of asking us to choose something else she came back with a full bottle of Gris. Ah, I said, a full bottle! No, she said, this is a half bottle. She then wrestled with the corkscrew and failed to open the bottle until, mercifully, someone at the wait station it or her. Then it sat there for several more minutes.

By now we were wondering what was next. Would we get the wine while we were eating? Would they allow us to drink half the bottle and then take it away from us?

But they let us have the full bottle and only charged us for half, which I thought was very decent.

Dessert was babah rhum, presented beautifully but somewhat bland.

This place, when it gets its act together, despite being in outer nowhereseville, is going to rock. Even the slapdash service was excused by the lack of self-importance that this place could so easily take on. The food is good good good and the light, the architecture and the setting all felt like somewhere other than DC. I felt like I had taken a quick trip to somewhere expensive in California - a perception that will no doubt be enhanced by the arrival of the French Laundry dude later this summer.

Viva Mozu! Next week I'm putting on my pocket square and goin' back for their high tea.

[morela]

Fattening the thread...

Sietsema

[brioboy]

I was misinformed; Eric Ziebold (Vidalia, Spago Los Angeles, then with Keller at the French Laundry as chef de cuisine and assisted with the opening of Per Se) will open the (new) formal restaurant at Madarin in August. Hide Yamamoto will continue to run Café Mozu.

[georgetowngourmet]

Brioboy's lenghty report made me curious and so we went a couple days ago to see what all the buzz is about. Yes, the place seems way off right now but coming from Georgetown you can conveniently take Rock Creek parkway and you are right there, avoiding all the downtown traffic. Watch out: In a couple of years that place will be the center of the city's waterfront development. The hotel is certainly ahead of its time - and not just for the location.

The hotel is georgeous, no question. DC has not seen something quite like that. It's elegant, airy, with an Asian touch. Staff is everywhere from the moment you arrive. We stopped in the Lobby (they call it the Empress Lounge) for a martini and people watching. What a beautiful lounge and you should see the glassware they are using. It's Venetian crystal and I remember seing that glasware in a lifestyle magazine for about $100.00 a pop!

After our drink we were heading to Cafe Mozu. I couldn't agree more with Brioboy: The restaurant feels not like DC. For us it felt more like the latest hot spot in New York, trendy, hip, cool. We were lucky to get a table by the window with a breathtaking view of the Jefferson memorial (there's only four window tables so don't count on one). Tabletops are simple yet stylish with a Bernardaud butter plate and great quality linen.

There are two menus fo dinner: the regular one and a special promotion with all Kobe Beef itmes. Our appetizers included oysters with six different toppings and tuna tartar, both well prepared and tasty. The oysters were a bit small, however, and the tuna tartar chopped too small for my taste. Then we ordered our entrees from the Kobe Beef menu: grilled ribeye with a succulent gourmandise sauce and a tenderloin served with a foie gras vinaigrette and summer truffles. It was exquisite. The meat was cooked perfectly medium-rare and melts on your tongue. We skipped dessert and went for a glass of Chateau d'Yquem 1991 which is offered by the glass - where else can you get that! Service was on the ball that night, efficient, well informed and attentive.

When we left we were held up at the hotel entrance by police and secret service as they whisked away a head of state or so in a motorcade. It's certainly the place to be in town!!!

[JennyUptown]

Tea at Cafe MoZu

[wmsmurray]

I just made a reservation for next week. Has anyone been recently? Have some of the issues mentioned previously been worked out? What are people's favorite dishes?

[radioactivedeer]

On a related note, their entire menu is available for Restaurant Week - even the Kobe beef - with no surcharge. Needless to say, I will be spending an evening there.

[mdt]

On a related note, their entire menu is available for Restaurant Week - even the Kobe beef - with no surcharge.  Needless to say, I will be spending an evening there.

←

Wow! Now I am really glad that I have a reservation for next week!

[wmsmurray]

My wife and I went here last night and really enjoyed the place. As soon as we drove up I was reminded of why the Mandarin Oriental is one of the, if not the top-rated chain in the world: friendly, helpful staff; elegant decor - only wish we could afford to stay a night in the rooms there.

I'll start with the few, minor quibbles we had with Cafe Mozu. The noise level-we had 8 pm reservations and the place was not full but was pretty full and it was hard to talk to and hear my wife with less than 2 feet between us. It did quite down by the time we left though. The service, while attentive and not intrusive was not as polished as it could be. Nothing specific - just seemed a little disjointed. But these were all minor to us and would not stop us from coming again.

Everything else was great. While they didn't have their entire menu for RW, they did have a good portion available. My wife started with a beet and goat cheese, while I started with the spring rolls. Both were fantastic. The spring rolls were crispy but not greasy and came with a tasty dipping sauce and a small condiment dish of diced melon - an interesting combo but it worked. The wine list I loved. My wife and I almost always order by the glass so that we can each get something different and each try it and, if we are having multiple courses and not driving, different wines to complement each course. The list here was great. The champagnes/sparkling wines by the glass alone was incredible. It was not your usual lower-end Moet, cava, etc. Cafe Mozu offered Veuve Cliquot Yellow Lable, Nicolas Feuillatte Rose, Krug NV (I think or something just as good), a Prosecco and one other. My wife has the Nicolas Feuillatte Rose and I ordered a Cabernet Sauvignon (unfortunately the name escapes me). For our entrees, my wife had the risotto with asparagus and crispy fried tofu. This was done very well - the tofu was great (I haven't found too many places in the States that can do it well) and risotto was perfectly al dente. The taste, while not bad, was not for me. It had a sake vinaigrette that was a little sweet for my taste but it was well done and the flavors complemented each other nicely. I couldn't pass up the Kobe Ribeye with goat cheese polenta and citrus soy sauce. It was fantastic. I ordered it medium-rare and it was like butter. I barely even needed my knife and the flavor was amazing. Surprisingly (I was a little leery) the goat cheese polenta and citrus soy sauce worked well with the beef. I knew one or the other would but wasn't sure about both together. For dessert I had the black and white shake in a martini glass that was very nice. It was vanilla bean ice cream surrounding a light chocolate moose with caramel crisps and the bottom of the glass a richer chocolate moose type thing in it. Very good as I love me some chocolate. My wife, who never met an apple dessert she didn't like, had theirs. I didn't try it and don't remember it exactly except that it had cream cheese ice cream (I did have a bit of this and it was decadent), part of a poached apple on top of what looked like a puff pastry crust. It certainly looked good. I finished with some tea and Cafe Mozu lived up to my expectations there. Instead of the wooden box of tea bags that is usually brought out, it was a box of loose leaf teas that tell you the name of the tea (I had the Dragon Well), the type of tea (black, green), a short description and how much caffeine it had. Good stuff. I didn't pay as much attention to my surroundings except that it was gorgeous - a modern take on Pan-Asian with elements of China, SE Asia and lots of light and dark wood and A gorgeous view of the Potomac.

All in all a great experience - one that we hope to repeat. On a value note the RW menu was an amazing value. Most of the appetizers were $8-$12, most entrees in the high $20s (the Kobe steak was $32) and desserts around $10 I think.