New York’s massive variety of food excites my tastebuds like no other. Every corner you turn there are exciting restaurants, bakery, delis ect….from the bog-standard bagel & hotdog stand to classic pattiserie and even a congee bar in Chinatown.

One of the places that I was extremely excited to try out was one of the momofuku (meaning lucky peach) chain of ethnically diverse melting pot cuisine. Too cool for school, none of their restaurants/bars are advertised on the outside – I missed the noodle bar and had to walk past it a few times before I realise it was there. Located in the East Village, chef & restauraner David Chang really hit the point with four unique, diverse and critically acclaimed eateries that dances on your tastebuds.

I decided to visit the more casual noodle bar instead of the 12-seater ko, who only took reservations online. This was the first in the small empire that David Chang build, and I had to just taste for myself the to-die-for pork buns & udons. Heavy Korean and Japanese influences pepper the menu on all four momofukus, but they are most definately not typically ‘asian’.

The utilitarian communal benches

momofuku is just ‘one of those restaurants’ that menu du jour really IS menu du jour. The choices are not repeated like for like and varies from lunch to dinner. Some restaurants serves the same daily specials day in day out, taking away all the excitement and point of having a daily special.

So this was what we had – pork brisket buns, miso ramen and chocolate chip cake truffles.

The fabulous thing about momofuku is the fact that they were entirely okay with us ordering a set between the two of us. It was 3.30pm, and we had already eaten lunch, but my eyes were obviously bigger than my stomach. Alot of restaurants out there would push and push for us to order two meals or a bunch of drinks….or served us with a fucked-up expression on their faces. Ugh. I never return – irregardless of how good their food might have been.

Bacon had other ideas on this sharing thing, and the slurpee-like machines behind the bar amused him. He ordered a lychee flavoured soju (Korean rice wine) frozen cocktail.

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We sat at the bar, and I simply love how we looked directly into the open kitchen.

I love suprises (of the good kind only) and our barman/waiter served us some hor d’oeurves that the chef had cooked up that day – pork pate with mustard pickle on toast. Yums.

Before long, our pork buns arrived. Bear in mind that this was supposed to be a prixe fixed menu for one,therefore we only got one bun

Like wow. I had never had brisket so tender in my life-literally melt in your mouth. It went exceedingly well with the pickled slaw and cucumber. The dough of the bun was warm and soft, just perfect. Very impressive.

Next came the miso udon. Bearing in mind that bacon hates miso, he loved this dish. And certainly it did not taste like any miso-out-of-a-packet that I consume on a regular basis. Creamily savoury (what sort of magic miso IS that??!) with a swirl of chilli oil, it coated the home made noodles (it was more like the Malaysian-styled pan mee (flour noodles) rather than fat round udons) very well and imparted a savoury flavour to the otherwise plain noodles. Toppings of ramp (wild garlic), scallions, naruto maki, oyster mushrooms and toasted nori (seaweed) completes this hearty and tasty bowl.

I had to move the seaweed aside – yes, bacon hates seaweed as well.

Food over, it was time for desserts. I most definately was not going to have the soft serve ice cream, so chocolate chip cake truffles it was then. Served in a large asian teacup, we had three large truffle which was a cross between crumbly chocolate cake and chocolate coated in white chocolate crumb. Truthfully speaking, it could’ve been better, and if there was one area where momofuku had been let down, it was the dessert.

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Momofuku Noodle Bar
171 1st Avenue
East Village
New York, NY 10003

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