Momofuku Noodle Bar is located on First Avenue (between 10th
and 11th Streets) in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The
restaurant contains blonde-wood low tables and stools, and two counters with barstools:
one counter serves drinks, and the other is the food prep counter; diners eat
at both spaces. The restaurant offers a coat check area, and two unisex
restrooms are located at the back of the restaurant.
David Chang is the chef/owner of the Momofuku restaurant
group, which includes Noodle Bar. Momofuku means “lucky peach”. Other NYC
restaurants include Ko (see our separate review from May 2011), Ssam Bar (see our
separate review from July 2013), Ma Peche (see our separate review from January
2011), and Booker and Dax. Chang also operates a restaurant in Sydney,
Australia called Seiobo (see our separate review from August 2012). Four
additional restaurants are located in Toronto, Canada. We are huge David Chang
admirers, and we try to dine at as many of his restaurants as possible.
We ordered two types of buns to start: al pastor (pork
shoulder accented by guacamole, pineapple, and cilantro) and brisket (served with
pickled red onions, cucumber, and horseradish mayonnaise). We then ordered the
Momofuku ramen (which contained shredded pork shoulder, a slice of pork belly,
and a poached egg), and the ginger scallion noodles (which contained no meat,
but instead, plenty of scallions, pickled shitake mushrooms, cucumbers, and
white cabbage). For dessert, we shared the sampler, which contained a cookie
called “The Ritz” (which contained a bit of everything), truffled pretzel
bites, and Milk Bar soft-serve peanut butter and strawberry ice cream. (The
pretzel bites were the best, with a salty coating, covering a moist, dense cake!)
We also ordered a spiced pear slushy to try, which we thought would
contain liquor but did not (the green tea slushy was listed on the menu
followed by an asterisk symbol, which indicated that it was non-alcoholic;
because the pear slushy did not contain the asterisk, we assumed that it
contained some type of alcohol, but it did not). No matter, it was delicious
anyway, although a size small was not large enough to share!
Service was a bit perfunctory, and we felt particularly rushed
toward the end of our meal. (It seems like the restaurant allots customers about
one hour to eat, and then they encourage them to move along.) Although we wish
that it had lasted longer, we loved our lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar, and we would
love to return!
