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Momofuku Ko
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Restaurant
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New York
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Open:
Dinner Wed - Mon
Price:
Moderate
Score (/20):
17
Reviewed By
Sue Dyson and Roger McShane
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Phone Number:
No phone
Address:
163 First Avenue
New York, New York, 10003
Country:
United States
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Momofuku Ko is a bright, new, shining star on the New York dining scene. The food here is inventive and interesting but grounded in the finest produce. The dining experience is enjoyable with only twelve diners seated at the bar in front of the three relaxed chefs, each one serving four diners. We thought that the whole experience was exceptional! The only problem is getting a booking!Ko (as it is called by insiders) has no phone bookings and takes no walk ins. Instead, at exactly 10am New York time each day, the seats for the day that's seven days ahead are released, and they can only be reserved online. A second or two later it's all over - all the newly available seats (well stools actually) have vanished. The system has been designed to level the playing field and to ensure those with influence such as film stars, politicians and hotel concierges can't pull rank to get to the front of the queue.However it does, incidentally, favour New York residents with high speed Internet connections.However, there is a way. There are often cancellations and because you're charged $150 if you don't turn up, there's plenty of incentive to cancel rather than be a no show. So all you need to do is check the Ko site several times a day to see if anyone has cancelled and then swoop!It is all worth it. From the moment we took out first sip of the limited production Joel Falmet champagne to the final delicious mouthful of mandarin sorbet the experience was faultless.We ate something like 14 dishes. A square of snail sausage was matched with intensely flavoured chicken skin and pecorino. A poached smoked egg was teamed with fingerling potato chips, onion soubise and caviar - grown up comfort food. Roasted monkfish came with ethereal sea urchin roe. We were blown away by the much-hyped grated frozen foie gras, served over Riesling gelée and hazelnut brittle, which as it melts becomes sublimely rich. Matched with Angerhof Tschida Sämling Beerenauslese 2006, it was definitely in memorable dishes territory. Meltingly tender beef cheeks were paired with hen of the woods and cauliflower mushrooms, thin shreds of cippolini onions and a paste made from pickled and charred jalapeno chillis. And finally, mandarin sorbet was lined up with bitter orange segments and juniper berries.We reluctantly left Momofuku Ko knowing that we had just had a memorable dining experience!Read the fascinating account of how David Chang arrived at his current destination in the book below:
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