My spouse and I dined at Momofuku Seiobo at the Star Casino for dinner in late August 2012. We have dined at several of David Chang’s other restaurants in New York City, so when we learned that Chang had a restaurant in Sydney, we made it our mission to secure a reservation. We logged onto his reservation system at precisely the correct time 10 days before, and had no trouble selecting our desired time.
It is difficult to locate this restaurant in the casino - the door has no signage other than Chang’s logo of a peach. When we entered the restaurant, fortunately we were led to one of the choice seats at the bar/counter; we had not realized that this restaurant also features table seating for approximately 30+ guests, which would not have pleased us. (We love to sit at the counter and watch them work.) There were approximately 16+ seats at the chef’s counter. Although the restaurant was built to suit, it only features one small unisex restroom that you reach through the back kitchen area.
Seiobo serves an 8-course lunch on Friday and Saturday for $100, and serves a 12+ course dinner from Monday through Saturday for $175. I added the juice tasting to my degustation menu for an additional $55; however, it was not impressive because it did not feature any truly unusual juices or combinations of juices/ingredients. Our total bill at Seiobo was $510. The restaurant also has a tiny 5-seat bar that does not accept reservations; it serves a bar menu, not the tasting menu.
The food was excellent (unique ingredients and interesting presentation). Service was good, but not great. The chef’s seemed a little cold and unapproachable, even the chef de cuisine and the sous chef who had worked in David Chang’s US restaurants, where the chefs give a warm welcome and are clearly passionate about their jobs.
We particularly enjoyed the pork bun, the radish salad, and the unconventional last course (a sort of savory “dessert” that we ate with our hands). We were given an odd packet of kimchi as a take-along gift.
Overall, our meal was good, but not the outstanding experience we have come to associate with a David Chang restaurant.
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