Iron Guest List: Morimoto at the Boca Raton Resort

"Peace out, New Times."

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's new restaurant in the Boca Raton Resort is exclusive.  So exclusive, in fact, that New Times can't get in.

Last week we made a call down to the resort to see if we could snag a table at the month-old sushi bar and restaurant, Morimoto. Normally, one would have to be either a member of the Boca Resort or a guest of the hotel to dine there. But we were hoping with a drop of a business card here and a wink of the eye there we'd be able to leverage our supreme press status into a couple seats at the bar. Turns out that we're not so special. A representative of the resort informed us that Morimoto doesn't need to be reviewed, nor should it be, because it's essentially not open to the public.

Naturally, our desire to dine at Morimoto and tell you all about it just shot through the roof.

It's no secret that the more exclusive some place is, the more people want to get in. And the Morimoto is indeed exclusive. One resort insider we spoke to told us there are "only 3 to 4 tables and it's booked until the next millenium." (According to the official release, there are actually 32 seats.) But we'd argue that there's still a great service to both the community and tourists in reviewing it. Since paying guests of the hotel can dine at the restaurant, a positive or negative review could definitely impact someone's decision to stay there. And while the place is expensive, the resort's website advertises room rates starting at $259 a night -- hardly a dealbreaker for a SoFla couple looking for a nice dinner date night and a room to follow.

Rest assured, readers, we will redouble our efforts to get into the resort and review Morimoto. The representative we spoke with (who was very friendly and helpful, despite the ill news) sent us over a menu for our troubles, which you can take a look at by clicking the picture to the right. A quick glance suggests nothing extraordinary except the prices: most of the items are of the ubiquitous sushi-bar ilk, and you can get toro and uni just about anywhere nowadays. My guess is that the big difference is in the quality of the ingredients, most of which are flown in from Japan (though what that means, exactly, is a little fuzzy.) Until that tuna pizza hits our lips, we'll just have to wonder.

-- John Linn