 Moto Restaurant Review: Chef Homaro Cantu breaks all the rules, blazing trails that are both uncharted and titillating for those who view dining as a theatrical, multi-sensory affair. For example, Cantu might wrap sushi rolls not in the typical seaweed, but with flavored, edible "paper." Food-based inks create colorful images. Menus (edible, too) are sometimes flavored like main course dishes, and pictures might take on sensory properties (i.e. an image of a cow smacks of steak). Truly, this minimalist spot in the ever-hopping Fulton Market District is mind-blowing, and you will pay for the experience in kind. Because Cantu respects---and readily utilizes---fresh organic products, dishes often are served raw or lightly cooked using the sous-vide technique or specialized polymer oven boxes. Herbs might entwine in Cantu's patented fork handles. Boxes filled with Pacific Ocean water could conceivably bake fish. Each evening, the chef presents a fifteen-course menu for $165, introducing guests to his post-modern cuisine. Fortunately, the servers know what they are presenting; unless explained to the diner, it can be difficult to interpret menu descriptions (crêpes, Denver omelet, cereal flakes --- as nothing is what it seems). Every aspect of the restaurant operation has been carefully planned; Cantu's three-year sous chef stint at Charlie Trotter's shows. Expect a well-researched wine list and culinary --- if often strange --- cocktails.
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