I had just been complaining that I had been in a very long "meh" restaurant rut these days. I couldn't figure out if every place I had been to recently really was mediocre if I have just been in a bad mood these days. I even contemplated discontinuing my blog because I have been so uninspired lately. But luckily Anuja recommended Momoya and it totally brought me out of my restaurant rut. Despite the slightly chaotic wait, the food was delicious and made me excited to get back out into the restaurant scene again.
As I said, the wait is kind of crazy. It's smack dab in the middle of Chelsea and we went on a busy Thursday night but luckily our wait was no longer than 30 minutes. We opted to start with the mixed green salad ($6) and the tuna avocado ($12) and then split the Black Dynamite roll ($15), the yellowtail scallion roll ($7), the spicy scallop roll ($10), and the salmon crunchy roll ($13). The mixed salad was a notch better than other mom and pop sushi places because they used dark mixed greens instead of a bunch of iceberg lettuce and they tossed the dressing in with the greens instead of just kind of plopping it on top of the salad so it really coated each piece of green. The carrot ginger dressing was delicious and made me want to go out and buy it for my own consumption. The tuna avocado appetizer was served raw (in cubes) and then topped with more mixed green salad and it laid on top of sesame ginger soy dressing. I thought it was missing some salt or other kind of seasoning. While I do like my raw fish to be very fresh and it the cleanest state as possible, the tuna here was missing something and it kind of tasted a bit bland but it still didn't keep me and Anuja from eating the whole thing. Then came the rolls - they were nicely presented all together in a large circular plate but the one that bother me was that the waiter didn't tell us which roll was which, so we kind of had to figure that out on our own. It wasn't really difficult but that's not the point. I tried the spicy scallop first because that is my all time favorite roll of any kind and it was pretty damn good here. It's not the kind with a bunch of spicy mayo on top of it but the more chopped up kind but it really hit the spot and made me happy. The yellowtail scallion was incredibly fresh and reminded me of why I don't order more yellowtail rolls because it's a great fish. The Black Dynamite roll was one of those large cut up rolls and it had spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, cucumber and avocado. I normally don't love the big rolls because they are so hard to eat but this one was just right. Lastly the salmon crunchy roll had mango, avocado and spicy salmon with crunchy rice on the outside. I don't recall tasting any mango (and I normally don't like rolls that have fruit in it) - maybe it was because I was so intrigued by the crunchy rice on the outside since that was so different. Even after all the food, we were still a bit hungry and contemplated ordering more food - especially after I saw the table next to us order the rock shrimp tempura that looked amazing. But we opted for some dessert and got the mochi ice cream ($7). It was 3 mochi pieces cut in half - strawberry, green tea and red bean. They were all delicious but I particularly liked the red bean one.
All in all, I glad that I ended up at Momoya because it reminded me of how much I do experiencing new restaurants and enjoying good food. While it's not like Sushi Nakazawa, it's a perfect place for a more affordable fun night in Chelsea. Total bill: $44/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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