Momofuku Ko & David Chang’s Flagship

David Chang is an alumni of Daniel Boulud’s kitchen and a complete celebrity now.  He has a TV series, a magazine, restaurants and voted the best IG page for foodporn from a chef.  Here are Momofuku Ko’s accolades:

• 2 Michelin star in 2014
• 2 Michelin star in 2015
• #70 on the San Pellegrino 2014 World’s Best Restaurants
• #69 on the San Pellegrino 2015 World’s Best Restaurants
• #97 on the San Pellegrino 2015 World’s Best Restaurants

Momofuku Ko is David’s Chang’s fine dining leg of his Momofuku empire. Make sense?   If not, mofo f u.  The restaurant is located on the border of Lower East Side and East Village.  It’s a fairly large restaurant but there is limited seating.  There’s a chef’s table with 12 seats around the kitchen, two tables for larger groups, a private dining room, and a bar that seats 6 people.  It’s a very modern and “new money” atmosphere.  However, people here know how to act unlike me on a Friday night

The service is pretty awesome.  My buddy and I had dinner here on a Saturday night and it was a packed house.  There were couples dressed up, another couple sitting there showing too much PDA and we were in our jeans and t-shirts looking like complete scoundrels.  The Sommelier, Wait Staff, Manager and Chefs were all fantastic.  I had a really good time dining here cause we were the only ones acting like total degenerate heathens.

It’s a really young group of people here and the whole staff had the same fun personality.  Plus, our waitress was a total cutie but my buddy was creeping on the one at the bar.  I mean he was literally undressing her with his eyes then ravaging her in his mind. I totally saw the animalistic tendencies in his eyes.  I had to tell him to wipe the saliva off his face and to put a bib on.

Anyway, the food.  Ko only serves a tasting menu and there’s a wine list with beers, sake and soju.  We decided to skip the wine pairing and get a bottle of 1995 Renaissance.  However, it didn’t last long so we moved onto beer and acted like complete scoundrels.  It’s 15 courses and heavily influenced by Asian flavors and ingredients.  Here are my favorites:

1. Vegetable Roll – The vegetable roll was presentation resembled a Vietnamese spring roll.  It included pommes soufflees, lobster paloise and layered.  It was a great dish to start the tasting menu.  The mint leaves provided a great aroma like when a gorgeous girl walks by you on the streets.  Well, let’s hope she wasn’t crop-dusting when she walked passed you.

   

2. Sawarazushi – A slice of mackerel served on top of a bed of rice and presented as a nigiri.  As I ate it, I turned to my buddy and said “Now, that’s how a nigiri is supposed to taste.”  The mackerel was slightly seared on the outside and placed on the perfect balance between vinegar and cooked rice.  It was buttery and full of flavors then gone like your wallet in the wrong side of town.

   

3. Foie Gras – The foie gras was grated and served on lychee, pine nut and riesling jelly. I really like the grated foie gras because it provided a great texture to it.  It melted in your mouth and was the perfect topping for the lychee.  The flavors had a dessert feel to it.  It shows the creative side of the Ko’s kitchen to come up with something like this.  It’s kind of like when people have all these grand ideas when they’re stone.

   

Overall, I really enjoyed my dining experience at Ko.  I personally thought it was a lot better than Daniel, Marea, and a few other Michelin 3 stars.   It wasn’t as stuffy as the other places and it was a really relaxed atmosphere. We weren’t overly stuff and the dining experience didn’t drag on for too long.  I would definitely recommend Ko over Daniel and Marea for a more relax experience.  However, don’t make your creeping too obvious.  Use your peripherals.

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