Morimoto Asia Restaurant

Every single restaurant we have eaten at in Disney Springs has been delicious, and Morimoto Asia is no exception. It is amazing to me how every restaurant in Disney Springs offers such a wonderful experience. It makes it hard to pick a favorite and to choose where to eat on each visit.

Morimoto Asia is located in The Landing at Disney Springs. This is the newer area that was added on to Downtown Disney when it expanded and ultimately came to be what we know as Disney Springs now. It is located right next door to Gideon's Bakehouse.

Morimoto Asia is Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's newest restaurant. It is the perfect spot for a date night out. The decor and open feel of the restaurant feels very upscale and classy, while the ambiance and menu give City vibes. You will feel like you're dining in the likes of Manhattan while inside this restaurant. Morimoto Asia feels more adult and intimate, and the menu is on the pricier side, so I am not sure this is the right spot to bring a family. However, I would highly recommend this restaurant for a date night with your partner or even a girls night out.

When you enter the restaurant, you are immediately greeted with high vaulted ceilings adorned with dangling, sparkling chandeliers. The restaurant is two-tiered with the main dining room and open kitchen concept on the first floor and a terrace and sushi-bar on the second floor. The terrace overlooks both the inside of the restaurant, and the outside walkways of Disney Springs, depending on where you are seated upstairs.

Once seated, on the first level, the first impression we got was our interaction with the waitress. I love when a server is knowledgeable about the menu and can give informed recommendations and advice on menu items. Our waitress gave us great recommendations based on our likes/dislikes and had lots of first hand, personal knowledge of the menu. Service like that makes a restaurant feel top-notch.

The menu itself features Pan-Asian food, which means you will be served Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dishes. I will warn you that the menu is on the pricier side, with prices you could expect to see at a mid-level steakhouse. However, after eating the food here I personally thought the prices were worth it because the food was absolutely delicious. It was explained to us by our server that each section in the kitchen is its own department, and they are experts on cooking that particular item. The food items you order do not necessarily come out at the same time, because each section is only concerned with making that item of food to the best of its ability.

We decided to order a few dishes to share "family style," which worked perfectly. K.C. and I do not care for sushi, so we skipped over that portion of the menu, However, there are extensive sushi selections offered at Morimoto Asia if you are a sushi lover.

The appetizers offered include edamame, miso soup, popcorn shrimp, lettuce wraps, dumplings, burger bao, wontons and pork egg rolls. We opted for the lemongrass chicken dumplings and they were great. They consisted of chicken, sweet corn, onion, scallion, and lemongrass served with a dumpling dipping sauce. They were very light and flavorful. I would absolutely order them again. These cost $16 for 4 dumplings.

The main menu has many different options which include orange chicken, spare ribs, mongolian filet, peking duck, lo mein, fried rice, and ramen. The restaurant is known for its peking duck which is a whole roasted duck served with tortillas, bao buns, or lettuce cups, and rice. We opted to order both the mongolian beef and the orange chicken.

The Mongolian beef entree is 10oz certified angus beef tenderloin served pre-sliced on a hot wok over scallion, bean sprout, and mushrooms. The chef pours a sweet Szechuan sauce tableside. Rice is also served with this entree. This dish is definitely large enough to be shared between 2 people and will cost you $62. It is SO good and was my favorite item we ordered at Morimoto Asia. The steak was cooked perfectly, and it was extremely tender. The flavors were perfect in this dish.

The orange chicken was also very good, but not as good as the Mongolian beef. This entree is tempura chicken tossed in a sweet Florida orange sauce served with Chinese broccoli and rice. It would only be large enough to split if you were also planning on splitting another entree. If not, it is the perfect portion for 1 person. This meal will cost you $32. The chicken was perfectly battered and fried, making is crispy and not soggy. The sauce was sweet and orangey. However, it did not have the "it" factor that the Mongolian beef entree did. I don't feel it was any better than an orange chicken you could get at PF Changs. I will note that the rice was very good at Morimoto Asia, the perfect sticky consistency.

The dessert at Morimoto Asia was my least favorite and when we go back I will probably skip this course. I had high hopes after the dinner had been so amazing, but the dessert left a lot to be desired. The dessert menu includes churro donuts, matcha mousse, gelato, and souffle cheesecake. We opted for the churro donuts, which we expected to be superb. They were a let down, with the consistency being strange and the flavors not hitting their marks. The churro donuts were covered in cinnamon sugar and served with white miso caramel, costing $14 for 3 pieces.

We also had a couple of cocktails while dining at Morimoto Asia. Like the dessert, I found the cocktails to be an expensive letdown. I tried the "East Meets West" and KC ordered the "Mai Tai." These were $19 and $18 respectively. They were strong and mine in particular had a spicy flavor which was strange and unexpected from a drink. It would be my advice to skip the cocktail at this restaurant and save yourself the $20 per drink.

While Morimoto Asia may not be the most popular restaurant in Disney Springs, it is definitely a well visited spot. Typically reservation time slots can be found at this restaurant in the weeks leading up to your visit, but prime time dinner slots will likely be grabbed up quickly. I would recommend making a dinner reservation rather than lunch at this restaurant, due to the pricing and the ambiance.

We really enjoyed our visit to Morimoto Asia and I do see us going back. The food was absolutely delicious, and that paired with the excellent service and beautiful ambiance, made this meal a really nice night out for us. If you are a fan of Asian cuisine and are looking for a nicer spot to dine on your next Disney trip, I highly encourage you to try Morimoto Asia.