Momofuku

We sat at the bar overlooking the kitchen. So so so awesome to see them make the food we were served. No timers, no watches, constant taste testing, very impressive.

Steamed Bun. David Chang’s signature dish, believe the hype, it’s really that good.

Slow cooked (for 8hrs) Pork served AFTER dessert!

It was Christina’s B’day last week, to celebrate I took her to David Chang’s Momofuku at The Star. Reservations have to be made online, 10 days in advance. If you’re 15 minutes late to the restaurant they take your table away. If you cancel your booking on the night they take $175. All of this pre-booking stuff had me in two minds. 1) It’s probably how they roll in NYC, 2) It’s all a little bit pretentious and silly!

We were there early, and managed to walk past the restaurant twice. It’s so dark and subtle from the outside and inside (no signage) that we had to ask for directions (the lady who helped us stated that many people have a hard time finding it!). On walking in we were greeted by a chongy Chinese man wearing what looked like Chinese Pyjamas. Funny looking guy! I liked him. We sat at the bar and had a pre-dinner drink. Living Color’s “Cult of Personality” came blasting on the stereo. Impressive!

Looking around there’s a massive kitchen, and bar seating, and only very few small square tables on the floor, spaced quite far apart from each other.

We were sat at the bar, with an amazing view of the kitchen. Nearly every chef had tattoos. Momofuku serves up a 15 course degustation menu. I appreciated almost all 15 dishes but thought it was way too much food and found myself struggling after the 10th dish!

Strangely they served up slow cooked pork after dessert. No cutlery either so you had to use your hands to eat it. I asked the head chef (seen on the far right of the kitchen picture above) “What’s the deal with pork after dessert?!” and he was happy to have a chat and give us a few insights. Basically David was serving dinner to staff and staff family and friends one night, dinner was over but he had this gorgeous slow cooked pork ready to go, and David being David he thought he’d just serve it up in any case and it just stuck from there.

His steamed bun was as good as everyone makes it out to be. It’s basically like a peking duck pancake in flavour, and by the time the last little bit disappears in your mouth you want more. The menu is more diverse than you might think. Heavy rock music was belting all night, apparently some customers hate it, and ask to have the volume turned down. Personally I loved it! The attitude of the place let’s Chang’s personality shine through. I had to complement the head chef by saying I wasn’t expecting anything amazing, if anything I was bracing myself for something a little “fake” but ultimately I really enjoyed discovering the food, the atmosphere and I thought it was far from fake.