I went to this pricey but pretty tasty place a while ago as per many of my recent reviews. Bar Moga has some of the dishes you'd associate with Western Japanese/Yoshoku spots but the prices are notably higher and they have more unique options. The prices go along with their very interesting drink menu consisting of some very fancy Japanese whiskey flights, unique cocktails, and some seasonal cocktails. Otherwise the food is expensive and good in some cases and overpriced but tasty in other cases. The atmosphere is nice and the restaurant feels for lack of a better term classy.
To drink, I had the Dress Up For the Night for $19 made with Nikka coffee gin, lime, Sorate matcha superior, white cacao, pink peppercorn, and tonic. I believe they might have used Kettl matcha back then as Sorate wasn't open yet but I'm not sure. Anyway, this was a tasty drink with a bit of sweetness in the front likely from the cacao and gin, some bitterness and earthiness presumably from the matcha, and it ended with a slight bite from the pink peppercorn. Nice mix of complex flavors and certainly worth it for $19 and I would recommend it.
We had a bunch of appetizers to begin with. Cheapest but still tasty was the Kani Cream Croquette which comes with two pieces for $14 with snow crab, mushroom, and tartar sauce. The croquette had a lighter batter than most which I didn't mind as I could taste more easily the crab and mushroom but it did make it more dainty. The tartar sauce is almost not needed as the batter was light but still appreciated and otherwise there was a lemon and some greens. I would recommend this.
The other cheaper appetizer was the Uni Arancini also with two pieces for $16 with snow crab, bechamel, cremini mushroom, saffron rice, uni mayo, smoked gouda, and tomato sauce. Said arancini were tiny but packed with uni. However, the flavor was lost a bit due to the other rich flavors from the sauces and other accompaniments. For the price point, it's good, but I preferred the croquettes.
We also had the Hamachi Carpaccio for $26 with yellowtail, uni, garlic confit, yuzu vinaigrette, and truffle. The yellowtail was good quality with the uni flavor being much lighter while the vinaigrette had a subtle sourness. The garlic confit was unnecessary however and the truffle was basically not noticeable and was likely just to increase the price point. This was good but overly thought out and I probably would not get it again based on flavor and price.
The Omu Rice for $26 with an omelette, chicken rice, and veal based demi-glace sauce was different but tasty. The demiglace, which is my preference over the other sauce which tends to be ketchup or something similar, had a stronger black pepper flavor then I'm used to but it worked and it was nice and rich with a little bit of subtle sweetness but not too much. The egg texture was also excellent and better than most spots I've been to. I would say the weakest part was the rice itself where I really couldn't taste the chicken nor was there that much of it and it was a bit bland with a very light garlic flavor. This was still tasty with faults but I would recommend it.
The Katsu Sando for $26 with sakura pork, hatcho miso sauce, lime karashi mayo, and Japanese milk bread was good. It was cut into three thick pieces with pretty tender pork and a mix of sweet and sour sauces likely used to mimic the more common tonkatsu and kewpie sauce combo found on said sandwich/sando. For the price point, I prefer the katsu sando at J's Kitchen in the East Village as the pork is actually better there and you get a much bigger sandwich but it was good.
The Kogashi Duck Roast for $32 with double cooked duck, Brussel sprouts, and double charred soy sauce was tasty. The duck was tender though it could have been a bit crispier and the Brussel sprouts were nicely roasted with a bit of char for added flavor. The sauce was rich and tasty though perhaps tad salty and I can imagine others finding it a bit too salty.
The last dish was the Gyutan Curry for $48 with a 78 house blend spice curry sauce and simmered beef tongue. This was easily the biggest of the dishes and easily the most expensive Japanese curry I've ever had but for a group, it's probably worth it. I could name probably only a handful of the spices that were used and a couple of us tried guessing a bunch of the spices that were in there while we were eating this. The beef tongue was very tender and the rice and vegetables helped soak up the very rich and complex sauce. I kind of wish there was an option to top the Omu Rice with this sauce instead for a few bucks more as a fancy take on curry rice.
The food here is good but there's probably a bit too many faults for me to give it 4 stars. There were too many dishes that were just fine and the fact that my favorite dish was $48 and it would be barely enough to fill up one person doesn't help much. 3.3 (would be a 4.2 for drinks alone.) read more