This Lucky Peach went to Momofuku!

I finally made it AND I can finally pronounce it! After months of reading Momofuku Noodle Bar's reviews and my passion for all cuisines Asian, the time finally arrived for me to see if it lived up to the hype.

RRR was in town for the weekend and MPV was trekking in from suburbia, so we gave it a whirl. I was a bit concerned about getting in on a Friday night to a hot no-reservation restaurant, so we had our area back ups ready just in case...

The restaurant was crowded and we were told there would be a 45 minute wait for our party of three. We decided to have some wine & cheese at Tarallucci e Vino next door and the hostess kindly offered to come by and get us when our table was ready. Less than 45 minutes later our table was ready and we wound up delaying our seating a bit; eventually abandoning what remained of our 1/3 bottle of wine to head to what we hoped was an Asian street food paradise.

We bellied up to the bar (pun intended since MPV is very pregnant at the moment!) and ordered a few items to share:

We started with two orders of steamed buns, choosing the shitake and the chicken over the pork since we were ordering a few pork items and didn't want to be over-swined. The chicken proved to be a bit dry but the shitake buns were delicious! The juicy barbeque sauce that surrounded the mushrooms and the crunch of the cucumbers that were on top was a taste explosion.

Having had my share of pork buns in Chinatown, these were really on the money! The open faced presentation of the buns added a bit of polish (and some pretension) to the dish.

Sadly, the chicken bun didn't fare as well; the mini-patty shaped chicken was crispy but slightly overcooked and dry. And the sponginess of the bun didn't help.

We then shared broccoli rabe with Berkshire pork. The pork was spicy and the broth had a hint of clove and seemed to be in a beef or other hearty stock. If we had bread, these three Italians would have been dunking away!

Then out came the "main event": the namesake Momofuku Ramen which came with a pork combo (Berkshire and something other type of pork just to be vague), a poached egg, scallions, and noodles of course. RRR & MPV were a bit grossed by the egg and I must admit it was a bit runny - bursting into my bowl before I managed to scoop out some of it to a nearby empty plate. The yolk however did add a bit more flavor and heartiness to my bowl of fun. We enjoyed sluping up the noodles and the broth had just the right amount of salt for my palate. I also enjoyed my portion of the noodles with a white ale recommended by our server.

RRR duly noted that we really don't have much of a point of comparison as far as noodle bars go but I did enjoy our Momofuku experience. It is tough for a restaurant to live up to the hype but this 'lucky peach' came pretty darn close. Not really a place to go to lounge; this is a get a bite to eat and go hang out somewhere else - but in a good way. The only thing these guys need to work on is their ventilation system... even after a double dose of Febreeze my jacket still smells like a fryer!

Happy Slurping!