Motomachi, an original Japanese restaurant is now open in Dubai Festival City! This entirely new concept takes Japanese dining in Dubai to a whole new level by providing its guests with a completely authentic experience. You will be delighted upon trying one of their numerous sushi dishes, all of which manage to leave you satisfied while being light and refreshing. We ordered a sampler tray of sushi to try a couple of each and we were blown away by how delicious their sushi is. My personal favorite is and always will be the California Roll, and Motomachi managed to stay true to what I was accustomed to having while somehow having it leave me more refreshed than usual.
Aside from sushi, their menu is chock-full of dishes often unheard of but completely worth trying. One of my favorites was the Gyu Don, a beef and onion mixture placed atop a heaping pile of rice. The onions have a caramelized taste and that blends perfectly with the beef. If you can manage to leave the dish untouched for a minute before eating, the juices slowly seep down into the rice bowl which further intensifies the flavor packed in each bite.
The next dish we had was their version of crab salad. The plate was absolutely delicious, I almost forgot to take a picture before digging in because of how much I look forward to having crab salad.I love how at this restaurant they mix in a hint of authentic tasting Japanese wasabi giving it a subtle kick that is lacking in other iterations of this dish. Order it as a side or as light main course, but whatever you do, you better be using chopsticks!
Next up comes the Kaisen Yakisoba, which is a heaping bowl of seafood stir fried noodles. This dish tasted absolutely heavenly! We downed this order in a whopping two minutes because of how delicious it was. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the shrimp on top was piping hot, creating a perfect mix in my mouth. A couple of other dishes that also deserve notable mentions are the Chicken Katsu, and Kara Age. Both of these dishes are fried chicken plates but each one has its own flavor. The Chicken Katso is a flat piece of chicken fillet fried with an egg based batter and served with Katsu sauce. The chicken, despite being fried, is so tender and practically falls apart while eating it. The Kara Age on the other hand are thick breaded pieces of chicken fried to perfection. I loved dipping them in soy sauce which gave them an extra hit of flavor.
The restaurant also doubles as a Japanese bakery, which really sets it apart from other similar restaurants. A must try dessert item is the Taiyaki, which is a fish shaped pastry that can be filled with Nutella, custard, or even Anko (a sweet bean paste). They also have a dessert cooler full of delicious freshly made sweets. They make these desserts daily so your visit will never be ruined with stale or old desserts. Visiting Motomachi also allows you to have some delicious coffee which is supplied by The Raw Company, which is fair trade 100% organic coffee!
I loved my visit and will definitely be stopping by again to cross off more items on their menu! The visit went perfectly, every dish came out fresh and hot and full of flavor. The staff were all incredibly kind and would constantly apologize if our order took even a second longer to arrive than they wanted it to. The decor was perfectly fitting for the restaurant and really has its way of distracting you from the outside world. I definitely wish the entire team behind Motomachi the best of luck and know they will achieve great things.