David Chang has many restaurants. I believe they are all in New York City, but I'm not sure. The Momofuku home page has all the info if you have a further interest.
My interest is Ramen.
Noodle Bar is David Chang's Ramen shop in the East Village, Manhattan, New York City.
Ramen and so much more.
A couple of disclaimers first.
1) This place was sofaking busy that I wasn't able to get much info about the noodles, if they make them, if not where they get them, blah blah blah. I plan to return while I'm here so that I can sit at the bar and get all of this info, and take photos of the kitchen, a beautiful open kitchen. So look for that.
2) At 7:00 pm (being a Friday night as well) the wait for 4 people was 2 hours, the wait for 2 people was more than an hour. Being as cold as it was/is outside, seemed kind of crazy to wait. But wait we did, or rather, walked around and hung out with Buttercup and a couple of his buddies for a few. Made the time pass and was good to meet some people the first day on campus.
The seating is also quite interesting, and I thought very cool. Other than the bar along the kitchen and bar area, which is obviously a single row, the dining room was more family style. Picnic type tables (very up-scale though, so maybe not picnic?) and they seat parties of 2 across from each other. So you end of being mixed in with people you don't know which encourages casual friendly conversation. I thought it was great and it allowed me to get a photo of food that we didn't end up ordering. A great community feeling, if you happen to sit next to friendly people, which I think most are. I have a dream...
And, speaking of the setting, I think it's fair to say that most people were there because this is a David Chang restaurant, not because the ramen is super duper awesome. Details about the food are coming, I promise.
Like coming RIGHT NOW!
This is:
duck sausage rice cakes – kohlrabi, mint, cabbage
The duck sausage was pretty good but the star of the show was absolutely the rice cakes, especially when they were drenched in the sauce. Very very good.
The problem was that the last fourth of this dish was difficult to eat. You are left with very small pieces that would take a year to eat, one at a time, or in small clumps. Now, I say this because we were sharing and when sharing you can't really take the bowl to your mouth and devour it, which is exactly what I'd do if I was alone. Or a few steamed buns or something so you could scoop it all up, that would have been killer. So, as a single portion it might work, and maybe that's how they designed it, so maybe I'm the problem?......nah
This lovely mouthful is:
shrimp – spicy mayo, pickled shallot, iceberg
A steamed bun with a great looking shrimp cake, yummy spicy mayo. Looks great but kinda small on the flavor, at least the flavor of the shrimp cake. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I wanted a big shrimp donkey punch right in my grill, and I didn't get it. It's almost like they could have served just the bun with the spicy mayo and it would have been just as good. But, eating just a bun with mayo on it seems a little ghetto. Might as well just have a ketchup packet on a saltine....
Now to the ramen!
This is:
momofuku ramen – pork belly, pork shoulder, poached egg
I didn't have this, the nice people next to me did. Looks pretty good, egg is a little under done for my taste, but looks OK. Taking a minute on the egg, I think it's a mistake to have the egg soo underdone. I get what they are trying to do, at least I think I know. I believe they want the egg to mix with the broth, making you feel like you are participating in making your meal, interactive if you will. But god damm you spend HOURS making a killer broth, if you know wtf you are doing. So to then mix some fucking egg yolk in????? Sounds super lame, on the brink of stupid. It is giving in to theatrics, making the ramen more of entertainment than a good bowl of noodles. I want to enjoy the egg AS the egg, the broth AS the broth, etc... you get where I'm going with this? Ughhh, frustrating.
I'm sure that people that don't know ramen, and have heard of David Chang, will come here and think this egg is great and mixing it in is cool, and what a great time it is. I just think it's lame.
This was mine, the special of the day, Pork Ramen. No egg, ha! Perfect!
Main points:
1) Noodle to broth ration seemed off. LOTS of noodles, or actually, less broth. But that's aight cause the focus is more on the noodle, which is great if they are making the noodles themselves, which I bet they aren't. GIVE ME MORE BROTH!
2) The pork belly was AWESOME!!!!! Soft, flavorful, cooked perfect, really really great.
3) Not Hot Enough! I heard this same complaint from the folks next to me that had the Momokufu Ramen. Hello, this is soup, and it's F'ing cold outside! I want this soup to light a fire! Dang! Again, I think this is another error in execution. I believe that all of the elements of the soup, other than the broth and the noodles, are cold, thus lowering the overall temp of the soup when all are combined. Ramen Yamadaya did this shit too. Are they not eating their own food? Or are they so excited about jerking themselves off about how awesome they are that they have lost sight of what the fuck they are doing? Frustrating. Makes me not even want to go back. I saw another ramen shop around the corner from this place that looked easier to get in to, maybe I'll just try them instead of this place again.....
This is:
ginger scallion noodles – pickled shiitakes, cucumber, cabbage
A veggie option, I think. Again, too busy to ask about the bowl. The broth might be pork, but likely it't not, who knows, who cares. Yeah, I'm getting sour, look out....
Flavor was good, but I wish it was hotter. Hannah enjoyed it and took half back to the room and DEVOURED it a few hours later watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of the best all time movies.
At this point I'd rather talk about movies than noodles, or David Chang.
Momofuku? Momo-who cares
Eat more ramen
DVA
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