Iron Chef's spot a cut above

It was almost a dream come true.

A devoted fan of Japanese import TV hit Iron Chef, I had always been an admirer of the amazing skill of Japan's top chefs.

Masaharu Morimoto wasn't behind the sushi bar the night I made my pilgrimage to his downtown restaurant.

So while I didn't get to meet the great Iron Chef Japanese, the food itself at this Stephen Starr spot, which was nothing short of incredible, more than made up for it.

In fact, having ordered the $120 version of the Omakase -- a tasting menu that's also offered in $80 and $100 versions -- I felt like a judge in the cult TV hit.

A glass of strong, full-bodied Junmai Daiginjo Morimoto sake ($12) in hand, I embarked on the opening, cold portion of the three-hour meal. It started with a wonderful toro tartare -- a creamy cylinder of fresh ground raw tuna -- topped with caviar. It was followed by salmon and fluke sushi over scallops. The fish was tender and smooth, the scallop was almost as creamy as the tuna and the egg sauce and arugala underneath were the perfect backdrop for this innovative sushi dish.

Next was the sashimi salad -- notable not just for the hint of a smoked taste that the fish carried, but also for the chef's incorporation of usu, a sort of a cross between a lemon and a lime, into the dressing. The following dish also used usu -- this time, it helped furnish the sauce for a delectable red snapper sashimi.

Closing off the first half of the meal was a mini-dessert -- an usu sorbet that, although cold, brought with it an almost spicy edge.

With such liberal use of usu providing some unity to the meal's opening dishes, I might have expected more of the fruit in the dishes to come.

But instead, some of the more subtle touches from the first half of the Omakase found their way into the second half, giving the whole meal a kind of logical coherence. The seared kobe beef over teriyaki sauce with foie gras and yams was not only juicy and delicious, but it recalled the red snapper sashimi from earlier, in both texture and taste.

A simple plate of standard-looking, melt-in-your-mouth sushi followed. And while the (very) fatty tuna was certainly the tastiest of the five pieces, the reappearance of fluke -- the gem of the Omakase's second dish -- successfully closed out the meal's dramatic arch.

A giant dessert plate -- almost too much after the bountiful dishes that came before -- served as the chef's coda. Among the overwhelming selections were a yam cake that brought back memories of the yam from the kobe beef dish, and a painfully sweet key lime custard and kiwi wrapped in filo dough that linked the meal's close to the abundant usu.

Not only are the dishes at Morimoto spectacular beyond description, but the nuances and details that tied the meal together revealed that the vision of a higher order of chef is behind this operation at Seventh and Chestnut streets.

I only hope that next time, I'll get to meet the Iron Chef himself.

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