If this place weren’t located so far away from my school, it would’ve been my favorite restaurant in New York – replacing Fatty Crab. Yes, THE Fatty Crab. But it’s sooo far. Okay it’s not actually far, but it’s just not in walking distance, and I tend to get too lazy to take the subway/taxi, so.
Momofuku is a chain of restaurants, and this one is called Momofuku Noodle Bar. I’ve only been to two; the review for the other one (Momofuku Ssam Bar) is coming soon. The atmosphere of the noodle bar is really nice. I sat in front of the chefs, just like my experience at Boulevard, even though I was not as interactive with them.
I went here with my parents in the summer because we had heard good reviews about it. The restaurant serves medium to small portioned food, so you’re supposed to order basically a little bit of everything, and share it. My parents and I literally ordered EVERYTHING on the menu. This shows how much of a foodie we are (or maybe just simply hungry - or greedy. lol). How did we get to order everything, you ask? Well, the system is that we either order a set menu or several individual dishes. My mom wanted the set menu, and my dad and I wanted the individual ones, so that’s how :)
The first one served was the duck. It’s just a bite of duck meat with a sauce. It was good, but the only reason why it’s memorable was only because it was so little!
Now this one’s the best! It’s the pork steamed bun. OH MY GOD, look at the faaattttt! And the meat was soooo tender! It had cucumber, so the dish wasn’t too fatty. Not that I was complaining :)
This was the heirloom tomato. I loved it! I think it had a mix of tomatoes, watermelon, and some kind of sliced beef, which kind of added an interesting flavor to the almost all-vegetarian dish. I liked it because the watermelon was actually, I think, pickled. Really nice and interesting! Especially coming from someone who doesn’t always like vegetables, this is definitely worth the try!
The foie gras. Whenever there’s a foie gras in a menu, I always order. ALWAYS. I am a foie gras junkie. This was really interesting because instead of mixing it with bread, the chefs used cheese crumbles instead. And I loved it! How come no one ever thought of that? It also had strawberries and strawberry paste.
This was the chicken wings. It was just okay. My dad liked it, but I thought there wasn’t anything special about it. Moving on…
This was the Momofuku ramen. I’m not a soup person - I like solid food (especially the manly ones, like STEAK!) so I guess my opinion is irrelevant. But my parents, who enjoy eating soups, think that this was very delicious. The ramen had a piece of pork, just like the ones served for the steamed buns, seaweed, pork shoulder, poached egg, and some other stuff. The broth was nice too.
This was the dessert. Nothing special, just a soft-baked cookie. I just thought that it was cute, hence the picture :D
Overall, my experience at Momofuku Noodle Bar was MAGICAL! I would recommend everyone who is in New York City to try it out. I would recommend you to come during lunch time, because I went here twice (first during lunch time and second breakfast), and I feel like the chefs didn’t perform as well earlier in the day. I guess they were just warming up. But seriously, try it out!
Indita
