It’s trip report time yet again! Come along on my long weekend trip to Walt Disney World for the Princess Half Marathon. Today we’re discussing my final meal of the trip, lunch at Morimoto Asia. You can see all the post in this report here. Onward!
I said it before and I’ll say it again: no ADR, no problem! I didn’t have a lunch dining reservation on the last day of my recent WDW trip, but I did have the advantage of traveling solo. Once again, applying at the host stand for a seat at the bar worked like a charm.
The site of my victory? Morimoto Asia, one of the many restaurants of Iron Chef Morimoto. It was time to try some of that famous duck!
ATMOSPHERE
Morimoto Asia’s insides are, in a word, dark. To my knowledge there’s no outdoor seating; more than that, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of natural light inside. The restaurant on a whole is very beautiful with its dark woods, but I have to admit it’s not very Florida.
It’s comparatively quiet there, however, with a distinctly more grown-up vibe than a larger majority of Disney Springs restaurants… or any restaurant on property, for that matter. I think it would be a great place for a Disney date night or otherwise child-free occasion.
In particular, I found the bar area appealing – it wasn’t crowded, and everything is balanced and aesthetically pleasing. It’s the perfect place when you want a quick lunch but don’t want counter service.
MORIMOTO ASIA DOES MOCKTAILS
To be honest, I selected Morimoto Asia in part because the Disney website showed a drink on the menu of great interest to me. Unfortunately, upon arrival, it seemed that menu was out of date and the drink was nowhere to be found. Stick to the official website for the menu, that’s my advice.
Ah well – I was headed to the airport shortly after, and that’s no time to get overexcited. While I did give the regular cocktail list a quick scan, it was the mocktails that caught my attention. Ultimately I selected the Blushing Dragon: grapefruit, calpico, and club soda.
Okay, I didn’t see the bartender make it so I couldn’t say for sure. But if this is supposed to be a mixture of real grapefruit juice and club soda it comes out tasting an awful lot like grapefruit soda. I’m weirdly picky about my grapefruit cocktails (don’t even get me started on people who use grapefruit soda in their paloma recipe), and I wasn’t 100% into that flavor profile. There was nothing wrong with it per se, I just would’ve preferred something with more bite, allowing the bitterness of grapefruit to shine.
Plus one hundred for the flower garnish, of course.
Note that you can add liquor to cocktail-ify your mocktail if you want, and I rather wonder if the Blushing Dragon would be improved with a shot of tequila. Things to ponder…
MORIMOTO ASIA REEEEALLY DOES DUCK
The other reason I chose Morimoto Asia was for the duck, and happily, that delivered. Now, I wasn’t gunning for the famous whole Peking duck, although it does look super amazing. That’s meant to serve two people, and as I noted above there was only one of me.
And yet I spied something on the menu I found to be of great interest – duck ramen! The menu describes it thusly: Peking duck broth, wheat noodles, duck meat, scallion, cilantro, and a soy-marinated egg.
If you like duck AND flying* solo, this is the Peking duck solution** for you! You get a decent amount of duck meat, and it’s got all the sweet earthiness you’d expect from such a meat. I do wish the soy-marinated egg had been a tad runnier, but it definitely wasn’t overcooked. The noodles were, y’know, noodles; the surprise winner for me was the broth. Somehow it managed to eclipse the duck itself in umami flavor. If you like a meaty soup, congratulations, you found it!
* Get it? ‘Cause of the duck? Ha!
** Get it? ‘Cause of the broth? Double ha!
I would wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who finds it appealing with the caveat that, well, this is soup, and it is Florida. So keep that in mind.
IN CONCLUSION
Morimoto Asia seems to fly under the radar a bit, at least with the weekday lunch crowd. It might not be as openly seductive as sunny Homecomin,’ nor as Disney-ish as something like Jock Lindsey’s, but I’d urge you to give it a second look. After my duck ramen experience, I’m itching to give the full Peking duck experience a try – and Erika promises she’ll take the plunge with me. I knew there was a reason I kept that girl around! 😉
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