I made my first trip to New York in many, many years this January.  Besides confirming I’ve turned into a soft, squishy Californian who isn’t built of bitter east coast winters.  I explored Manhattan and Brooklyn, eating everything I could find. Plus, it was warm in the restaurants. First up: Momofuko Ssam Bar.

After all of the hype regarding David Chang and the Momofuko restaurants over the last few years. maybe it’s to be expected that they can’t possibly live up to expectations.  I went in looking to really see the difference between New York City and San Francisco dining.  What I found was a good restaurant – with some great dishes, some I was less impressed with. Maybe it’s a matter of the influence of Momofuko spreading well beyond its own doors in the ensuing years, what the restaurant I found could easily be at home in San Francisco, and be a popular neighborhood spot.

First a beer: Pretty Thing’s Saint Botolph’s Town.  Malty with a great yeasty twang.  Outstanding.

Special Pork Bun with Crispy Belly, avocado and smoked mayo.

Pickle plate.  Quite possibly the highlight of the meal.  Simply Outstanding.

Benton’s Country Ham, Served with red-eye gravy.  The Benton’s ham as just as aggressively smokey as it is back home.  The Red Eye gravy was an inspired touch.

Veal sweetbreads with almond, sauerkraut, thai chili.  Good, but unremarkable.

Roasted duck with cashew, plum, endive.  Also good, but someone what disjointed, and it turns out, lentils are very hard to eat with chopsticks.

The terrine, while smooth in texture, was surprisingly springy and dense.

After we completed the savory portion of the meal, we headed next door for crack pie at the Milk Bar.

The crack pie was great.  Insanely rich, with something akin to the texture of a lemon bar, but with butter flavor instead.

Tags: momofuko, nyc

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 at 11:56 am and is filed under Reviews, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.