I'll be the first to say that I'm generally not a huge fan of David Chang. I thought Momofuku Noodle bar (and it's fried chicken special) was overrated and I just find him generally to be over-hyped. But my friend Neel has been raving about the lunch at Momokufu Ssam and I totally trust his judgement on food, so I was willing to let go of my bias and give it a shot.
I have always been a big proponent of going to a hotspot during lunch time because it's usually less crowded and you can get the same food for a better deal. This rule clearly applies here as I have walked past this place a million times for dinner and it's always been super crowded and unmanageable. Neel and I went for lunch at exactly 11:30 and we were the 1st people there - it did start to get a bit crowded by noon but it was never jammed packed.
Apparently one of Neel's favorite dishes ever is their spicy pork sausage and rice cakes, so we decided to split that as well as the broccoli salad and of course any meal at Momofuku isn't complete without getting the steamed buns. As much as I hate to admit it, nobody except maybe Ippudo, does as good of a pork belly steamed bun as Momofuku. It really is a work of art - the bun is soft and fluffy, the pork belly deliciously fatty and meaty and then it's topped with hoisin sauce, cucumbers and scallions. It really is fantastic. Next we tried the broccoli salad which was a chilled salad with smoked bluefish vinaigrette and crispy duck skin. You could definitely taste the tang of the vinaigrette which was a very unique flavor. It was a good dish to cut the heat of the next dish which was the spicy pork sausage with rice cakes. It's a pretty generous portion so it's definitely shareable among 2 people. I could tell without even tasting it that it was going to be incredibly spicy - you can see the it dripping with red hot sichuan peppercorns. Somehow I managed to tolerate the heat and still enjoy the dish. It was a little bit oily but overall it had really strong bold hit-you-in-the-face flavors. I'm always a fan of a good rice cake and while Neel mentioned that they are usually more crispy on the outside, I still enjoyed their texture and chewiness. I could see how any extra toasted-ness on the outside would have increased the dish by a few notches but overall I was impressed with how it turned out.
While I'm still not 100% convinced that I love all things Momofuku-related now, I do have to admit that I enjoyed my meal here greatly. It might have been because it wasn't noisy and crowded and it was just an overall more pleasant experience than waiting in line for 2 hours, but the food was also pretty enjoyable too. Although Neel did mention that he felt like the place may have been getting a bit too comfortable with themselves as they used to great offer off-menu specials but they didn't have any this time around and they kind of pared the menu down to their greatest hits. In any case, their greatest hits were pretty damn great and I would say if you insist of hitting up a Momofuku establishment, lunch is definitely the way to go. Total bill: $39/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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