The Residence of Mr. Moto — Restaurant in New York

A cool accompaniment to the other restaurant in the Mr. Moto space. The place itself is very cool, decorated intimately as if you're stepping into the home of a stylish and cultured guy. The bathroom is tucked away behind a hidden bookcase (so gimmicky but I'm so into it) that has one of the more unique soap dispensers I've encountered.

The service was super attentive and friendly from the beginning, making you feel at home.

For food, we were a little lost but ended up grabbing two "apps" from the large dish menu, one Kaisen-don, and one sushi roll. Sweet soy glazed wings with sesame seeds: this was much more interesting than I thought it would be. I loved that they were deboned and the flavoring was more elevated than expected. And the portion size was nice. 3-day miso-marinated cod with cucumber and haijikami ginger: this may have been the highlight for me and could have eaten many more portions of this. Such a buttery few bites per piece. Kaisen-don signature bowl: I'm not so familiar with this dish. It looks somewhat small but it's packed full of seafood. We grabbed the premium which included a plate of additional fish and raddish (was it worth the extra $14 meh, I also wish it were spelled out a bit more clearly on the menu what each level of Kaisen-don means as I found this very confusing). When you're nearing the end they pour hot broth over the remaining rice/ingredients. I'll say I'm a bit more of a fan of a punchier flavor with more to say, and this dish is not that. It seemed super clean and well done for what it was supposed to be, but in the end I found it a skosh boring, which is absolutely just my bias. Spicy scallop roll: This was a miss for me. I kept thinking it was just because of (above) how simple it was but it was so forgettable, despite how much soy sauce or wasabi I put on it. Would have skipped.

In the end, it was definitely an interesting dining experience. Would I necessarily come back for the food? Probably not. Am I glad I tried...

Got to try out the lovely Residence of Mr. Moto today, which felt significantly more like home vibes for Mr. Moto. It's their first week open, and this restaurant has tremendous potential with their staff, location, and food.

When you first enter, you realize it feels like a home living room with beautiful walls, clean floors, and perfectly aligned chairs. It's bright inside with famous hits playing not too loudly with the acapella version.

Drinks: had various sake bottles here; selection is great hitochino beer is on the list (my favorite) cocktails were great; tried the lychee and tangerine drinks they have various sodas on their list; wish they had diet coke

Food: really enjoyed the scallop, soup, and tuna with peanut sauce on top monkwish was soft, tender; could add a bit of flavoring on top seared scallop (favorite dish) - very flavorful, moist, and melted in the mouth chicken wings (2nd favorite dish) were deboned cod (3rd favorite dish) was moist and flavorful; cooked perfect, just be sure to remove the bone edamame was a bit cold; could be warmed up a bit, as the cold took out some of the taste sushi roll had excellent tuna inside; the seaweed was a bit soft and uncut evenly, but the taste was excellent the main mixed bowls of rice were very unique; after understanding how to mix them, and how they provide you soup when you reach the end by hitting the bell on the wall (super fun), it made sense to us i preferred the matcha tiramisu over the panna cotta; it was packed with a ton of matcha flavor so if you like matcha, this is your dish. If not, get the panna cotta

Maggie was an excellent server. The pacing was quick at first, but eventually became quite even and consistent. Getting instructions on how to eat the rice dish and panna cotta helped a lot, which made the experience fun overall.

I highly recommend the scallop, chicken wings, and cod. Those are a must.

I see tremendous potential with this restaurant and look forward...

It was a huge disappointment. It had great atmosphere and the ambient was enjoyable enough by its decoration. However, we experienced several unpleasant surprises throughout the night.

First, the subway got delayed and we called in advance of our scheduled time to tell the host that we would be late for a couple minutes. The host was very confrontational and threatened us that we would not have time to finish our meal if we were late for over 15 minutes. And he just went on and on, really don't know why he felt the need to talk so much on a simple thing, maybe he just wanted us to cancelled our reservation? So we grabbed a cab to go there quickly and the host literally deducted the time that we were late, which was a couple minutes, from our reservation time and came to kick us out right "On time". Even if we arrived in time, they only allowed people to stay for 1 hr 45 mins, which is very stingy at the first place. If they want their place to be a fast food restaurant then they could have saved all the work to decorate their place.

Second, the host came to pour water and then spilled all over, even into our food. He left no apology and just went away without realizing the mess he created. The attitude was unbearable and hostile, and his actions were so rude that it was almost unimaginable. Didn't know why we deserve this. We were very polite and cooperative the whole time.

Third, the food was either not fresh or gone bad! We ordered their seafood don and found that the ingredient was not very fresh. Some of the fish had strong fishy taste. It was not supposed to be like that in a good Japanese place. Worst of all, they served soured tiramisu. One of our friends almost threw up at the scene. It tasted like soured yogurt and this was when we decided that we needed to talk to them. The server did take off the items from our bill but the whole experience was a horror story.

Our night was entirely ruined with hostile host, bad and unprofessional service,...