While walking around the Chelsea neighborhood this weekend and shopping for some new home decor, I stopped by the Motel Morris for a late brunch and discovered the “Breakfast Fried Rice.” Check out this review of the food and my experience outdoor dining at Motel Morris (not a motel).

The Deets

Motel Morris is not actually a motel, in case you were wondering. But from what I gather from the retro interior design, it was probably meant to be an 90’s motel themed restaurant pre-COVID. This American restaurant is located on the corner of 18th Street and 7th Avenue. Lucky for us, Motel Morris always offered outdoor dining before the quarantine and is still able to now.

Apparently, Motel Morris was created by Chef Bill McDaniel and the same team behind The Commons Chelsea, which is basically right next door. I was wondering how the two venues were connected, when I saw wait staff serving the tables in front of The Commons Chelsea. The chef designs seasonal menus with cultural influences from all over the globe.

COVID-19 Safety Guidelines

The restaurant offers hand sanitizer upon entering and there were also two other anti-bacterial dispensers inside the venue that I noticed on my way to the restroom. All staff wore masks the entire time and customers were required to wear masks whenever they were not seated at their table, which is typically just when walking to and from their table or going inside to use the restroom.

And of course, paperless menus are available via the QR codes all over the tables. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because so many restaurants have been pushing this digital option to avoid the spread of germs on menus. As usual during the days of the Rona, I recommend you either take a look at the menu in advance or just make sure you’re phone is charged before heading out to eat.

Getting really specific here, but the restaurant served food on the usual ceramic plates and drinks in normal glassware. If the type of serverware a restaurant uses is a concern for you, you can ask them for plastic utensils and disposable containers to eat with. I only bring this up because I noticed someone at the next table who made this special request and the waitress was more than happy to accommodate that patron.

Reservations

Brunch is served from 11:00 AM to 3:30 PM on Fridays and 10:00 AM to 3.30PM on weekends. It was pretty busy when we walked over, around 2:30 PM or so on Sunday. There was about a ten to fifteen minute wait, which isn’t a big deal, but I would recommend making a reservation to avoid the wait. Make a reservation with your preferred app below.

Food

The Breakfast Fried Rice was everything! It’s my first time seeing this item on a menu, so I was pretty stoked. This bowl of deliciousness had kimchi, bacon, peas, garlic, sunny egg, and sriracha. Anyone who knows me personally, knows how much I love Sriracha hot sauce and anything spicy. My only pitfall here is that I should have added a protein, like chicken or shrimp. My plus one added shrimp to his fried rice dish, which pictured on the right below. That is such a good call if you’re starving. Check out the Brunch Menu for more options.

And on my wish list for next time is the Curry Marinated Salmon or the Sautéed Shrimp Pappardelle from the dinner menu. I’ve also heard that the Mad Morris Burger is a customer favorite. Stay tuned for an updated post!

Drinks

The menu had a great cocktail list that I will have to return for some detailed sampling of. I’m a sucker for a cocktail menu with catchy names. And most of the cocktails were either $15 or $16, which is pretty standard for NYC, and pretty good for the Chelsea neighborhood. Here are the drinks on my wish list for my next visit: Shake Shake Shake Señora; It’s Clever, But Is It Art?; Out of Office; Sweater Weather; and Original Sin. I also noticed the Blood Orange Grove — a zero-proof cocktail, which I love when a cocktail menu has one, so I can swap an alcoholic beverage out for in between courses. Plus One ordered a beverage from the “On Draught” section of the menu — SAISON Stillwater “Extra Dry” for $8, which is just as reasonably priced as the rest of the drinks.

The Tea

We ordered two different items on the menu that they ran out of. I wanted some of the Pilot kombucha that was on tap, but they ran out. I was kinda disappointed because I was looking forward to trying kombucha in the lavender-peach flavor. Then, my dining partner ordered Chicken Thigh to be added to his fried rice dish, which was also sold out. So, that’s annoying. I understand that many restaurants are struggling to carry-on with a skeleton crew and limited resources, but it just seems odd to run out of food items from such a select menu in the middle of a weekend.

The total after tax, but before the tip, came to $77.30. This is fairly standard for a NYC brunch out at a restaurant in the Chelsea area as mentioned earlier. At first I thought the price for adding shrimp to our fried rice dish was ridiculous, but I was pleased to see the portion of shrimp that came with it.

The Interior

The Exterior

Originally posted on September 28, 2020. Refreshed this blog post on July 1, 2021.

Brunch some more!