Friday Food: Momofuku Noodle Bar

Katie, Jim and I had another one of our dinners on Wednesday, at Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village. Katie had suggested ramen for our next outing, and none of us had been to Momofuku before.

I fell in love with their dessert spinoff, Momofuku Milk Bar last winter when I ate a cup of the cereal milk soft serve for dinner, and I challenge you to find me a cookie as absurdly delicious as their corn cookie.

Not only had I never been to the noodle bar before, but I'd never tried fancy restaurant-grade ramen. I'm certainly no stranger to the 10-cent-oodles-of-noodles variety, but somehow ramen suddenly became "cool" and I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. Their menu is very limited, which I actually appreciate because I get easily overwhelmed when I have choose from a long list of options. There were four choices for the dinner noodle bowls, and I debated between the Momofuku Ramen (reasoning: you can't go wrong with a signature dish) and the Spicy Miso. I ultimately went with the Spicy Miso because it contained chicken instead of pork belly (?) or pork shoulder (??), and I like my Asian cuisine a bit on the spicy side.

When our bowls arrived they were much bigger than I had expected. The Spicy Miso was really good, and I think I definitely made the right choice. There was also cabbage, scallions, a poached egg and some sort of seaweed paper thing (???) in the bowl along with the noodles. I was worried that I would look like a complete fool trying to eat soup with chopsticks, but I don't think I embarrassed myself as much as I thought I might. It was just spicy enough to be flavorful, and surprisingly filling especially when you realize that you just basically ate a bowl of soup. I don't know if it tasted THAT much different from the 10-cent ramen, especially when you consider the drastic price difference (my bowl was $15), but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

However, I wasn't a huge fan of the actual restaurant itself — it was really crowded and incredibly loud. After half a year of of living in New York, I've gotten more or less used to the crowds, but the way the seating is designed it felt especially cramped. You sit on tiny, square wooden stools so there is essentially no where to put your coat which is a little awkward. We were in the middle of a long table, and had to get real cozy with our neighbors on the ends real quick. Definitely leave your large bags at home, or sit at the bar where there seemed to be slightly more room.

It's hard to tell how Momofuku stacks up against other ramen restaurants, since it was my first one, but I don't see myself becoming a regular there. I've heard good things about their pork buns, but those are available at the Milk Bar outposts, where I'm much more likely to be found on a (very) regular basis.