261 Leominster Rd
Sterling, MA 01564
Worcester County
Phone: (978) 422-8484
Fax: unknownWebsite: no website on fileEmail: no email on fileHours: unknown
Seamus O'Callahan's - About Us
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by Ramana L. on In Philadelphia for a couple of nights, and wanting to take advantage of the vibrant food scene, we decided to give Morimoto a try. We called up on Friday at 5pm and were given a reservation for 8 that evening. Perfect. Despite being 10 years old, the space is still fun and fresh, the only miscue in the decor being the overtly phallic table top lights. We decided on the chef's Omakase, my partner and I ordering one priced at $80 and one priced at $120- the goal being that we'd be able to try twice as much stuff in one meal. The difference between the two are primarily the main ingredients in the respective courses- hamachi vs. toro in the tartare, seabass vs. lobster, shortrib vs. duck, etc. Some preparations are similar, others diverge completely from one another. Also, the $120 version includes an 8th course; trio of kumamoto oysters, with japanese salsa, jalapeno "ceviche" and thai fish sauce. Our first course was the aforementioned tartare, both prepared in the same manner, but one with yellowtail, the other with toro. Both tartares were well executed, smooth, flavorful, the toro obviously being the richer, creamier of the two. They were both garnished with crispy shallots and caviar, which imparted a perfect amount of saltiness into the dish, and dab of wasabi on the side. However, both preparations were sitting in pools of overly salty dashi... too bad. Too much salt unfortunately marred the carpaccio course as well. Again, two types of fish (tilefish and poached octopus) "cooked" with hot oil, and drizzled with yuzu soy. The octopus was tender, the tile fish clean and fresh, a good idea gone bad with excessive salt. A third raw fish course suffered from lack of subtlety in seasoning- but only one of the preparations. The higher priced Omakase included hamachi sashimi with yuzu mayo garnished with a micro green salad, and here there was simply too much yuzu mayo smeared on the fish, the creamy citrus flavor masking the fish. The lower priced version- spanish mackeral with caramelized sweet onions and the same micro green salad- was very tasty. The quality of the fish was beyond reproach, and the onions providing a balanced sweet/salty counterpoint. So there are the low points. And to be honest, nothing was outright bad, just disappointing for such a revered institution. Cooked dishes were all very good to excellent- roasted 8 spice lobster was tender, popping with flavor, and perfectly succulent. A definite standout. Crusted, braised shortrib was tender and satisfying, paired with roasted root vegetables, wasabi cream and wasabi greens. Duo of duck with roasted breast and seared foie gras was cooked just right, with a melange of sauces and garnished- apple caramel, cherry gastrique, roasted pear with the foie gras. Poached seabass with black truffle fume was delicate yet flavorful. Finally we were presented with a course of assorted sushi, tuna, toro, hamachi, butterfish, aji, shima aji, etc. All quite good and fresh, though it seemed odd to finish the meal with sushi... perhaps this would have worked better in one of the three entree courses? Dessert was a decent though not memorable chocolate cake with some sort of novel ice cream... brown sugar maybe? Overall, it was undoubtedly a very good meal, and we had an opportunity to sample quite a variety of offerings. But the faults were very basic in their nature, and therefore very obvious. And the fact that the raw fish dishes bore the brunt of these very evident miscues was all the more confounding.
by Mila R. on After reading some reviews of this place I feel there are a lot of points brought up that I can agree with, and a lot that I disagree with. Firstly, yes, the service SUCKS. Luckily I have never attempted to order dinner here (a) vegan, b) can't afford it anyway), I'm just there for drinks and music, but I can definitely sympathize with those who have had poor service experiences. There is one server there whose name I don't know but who does an excellent job. I was there with my boyfriend recently and we decided to just sit at the bar because there were only two of us and we were just having drinks anyway. The server came by after we'd been there 20 minutes or so and offered us a table at the front. She waited on us the whole night, answered our questions, checked on us frequently, and was generally very sweet and helpful. I can't say the same of the tight-jeaned young man so many of these reviews seem to be referring to. I was there by myself once on a totally uncrowded night, and while I got a table and a menu right away, the server (tight pants man) never ONCE came by to check on me. All I wanted was a damn drink! Finally I got up to go to the bar to get my own drink. The server kept passing by me and looking at me like he saw me but absolutely didn't want to help me. The bartender was friendly and the drinks are delicious. I'm not really familiar with this whole "we refuse to serve you vodka" shpiel as my drink of choice is a gin and tonic anyway, but their drinks are super fancy and expensive so for now I stick with the cheap...I'd also like to add that the decor and the music choices here are KILLER. Going here on a weekend might be a mistake for dinner, but for drinks and music you couldn't make a better choice. Afterwards, head down the street to Rio Rita for cheaper drinks and old-time jams!
