Momoya UWS

Momoya Upper West Side: https://momoyanyc.com/

Address: 427 Amsterdam Ave, New York NY 10024

The Menu: https://momoyanyc.com/uwsmenus.html#lunchanddinner

Quick Bites

If you're looking for a restaurant that serves tasty Japanese cuisine, is a few blocks away from the Museum of Natural History, and won't break the bank (the total bill was about $100 for the both of us and we probably overate a little bit), then Momoya UWS will check all those boxes for you. It may not be a top tier Michelin star Japanese restaurant, but it's good at its price point. We were a little disappointed with the Chicken Teriyaki and Warm Chocolate Cake, but it may be our fault for ordering those anyway when the menu offers so much in terms of sushi and sashimi. The Miso Soup though was a umami flavor revelation, and we're currently trying to figure out if we can get our coffee makers to just pump out Momoya Miso Soup each morning instead.

We'd love to go back at some point and "do it right" by delving more into Momoya's sushi/sashimi options. With the Miso Soup starter too of course.

The Setting

Upon entering Momoya, we were greeted by a warm and inviting atmosphere. The restaurant had a cozy yet modern ambiance. The jenga-like walls added a nice touch to the overall décor, but also kept tempting us to pull out a piece or two. As we settled into our seats, we eagerly flipped through the menu, but in typical "us fashion" every time we decided on what we wanted to order, we saw something else on the menu that looked even more enticing!

Momoya UWS — Clean decor with cool walls

The Service

The service at Momoya was fine. No misses here. Nothing to write home about but no complaints either.

Miso Soup

When it comes to Japanese cuisine, the two of us are always excited to start things off with a refreshing and flavorful miso soup. Not every restaurant hits the mark here, but we both felt that the Miso Soup at Momoya was the most stand-out part of our meal - a true highlight that left a lasting impression. It proved to be very delicious and flavorful, rich and savory, just the right amount of salt, perfect temperature, and chunks of tofu and pieces of seaweed to provide a delightful textural contrast. It was aromatic and most of all just plain comforting, warming the soul and delighting the senses. Imagine Goldilocks with the "just right" porridge and homemade chicken noodle soup served by mom when you're sick, and then add roughly 1.21 gigawatts of flavor. Seriously a great appetizer. The only negative about the Miso Soup was that it came in a small bowl and not a giant 20 gallon bucket because it's that delicious.

Spicy Scallop, Salmon Avocado, and Spicy Yellowtail Rolls

We ordered a few rolls and a chicken teriyaki entrée (more on that later) to share. The rolls came first and were quite tasty. Of the three rolls, the spicy yellowtail was our unanimous favorite. Truly delicious. The other two rolls were pretty good, although notably we felt the salmon avocado roll leaned a little too heavily towards the avocado. Otherwise no major complaints, we gobbled these up pretty quickly.

Chicken Teriyaki

The chicken teriyaki entrée (along with an included bowl of white rice) came out when we were nearly done with the rolls. Maybe we caught the restaurant on an off day (after all we DID go at like 4:30 on a Monday afternoon for a quick post-Museum bite). But...it wasn't all that special. You know how sometimes you can eat chicken that's truly juicy and tender and full of flavor? This wasn't it. We felt it was a little dry and perhaps under seasoned. Maybe we should have stuck to sushi, but in our defense we ordered this precisely because we wanted to mix things up with the other sushi rolls we had ordered. Tell us - what's your dish of choice when you want something to balance out some delicious sushi?

Warm Chocolate Cake

We probably should have known better than to expect a 5-star chocolate cake from a sushi restaurant. That said, when we asked the waiter what the most popular dessert option was, he pointed us to the warm chocolate cake. Since we both love chocolate and cakes (both separately and combined), we went for it. The cake was nice and warm with a gooey melty inside, but it honestly didn't deliver as much chocolatey flavor as we were hoping for. The cake here felt a bit too doughy and the chocolate wasn't particularly sweet. We've had desserts at other restaurants where your first bite is just pure bliss and the next five sounds out of your mouth are "mmmmm" or "yummy." This cake felt like the restaurant just needed a few dessert options available to customers and wasn't looking to truly "wow" anyone. Which again, brings us to our first point of not expecting 5-star chocolate cake from a sushi restaurant.

At least they added a little vanilla ice cream.