The interior itself is cute - a little bit chic, a little bit homey, it's modern New York Japanese but much less pretentious than I expected based on my skewed knowledge of the cozy eatery. The counter stretches a significant length of the restaurant, with the close end seating patrons on both sides. Sitting down, we spied four churning machines behind the counter containing various soju slushies. I tried the "Yuzu Palmer", which was delicious, though I could have done with a bit more soju.
Our server behind the counter was super-friendly and seemed quite knowledgeable of her craft despite her young age.
The menu is brief and eclectic, and for a noodle bar there is a rather limited selection of noodles (a scant three). But as the adage goes, quality over quantity. To start we ordered two small items. First came the roast pork buns, which quite literally oozed porky goodness. Sorry, Ippudo, but Momofuku has your buns spanked. The fatty meat was of a melt-in-your-mouth consistency, and a welcome textural component included thin slices of cucumber.
Next to be served were roast pig tails. As the server described, they possessed a rib quality, only in smaller bites (riblets?). The meat was crispy on the outside, stringy and tender inside, dripping with flavor. Accompanying the morsels was a pickled Asian pear salad which was just heavenly. As first time pig tail eaters, we were a bit turned off by the tiny vertebrae bones, but for the flavor that's something I am perfectly willing to overlook.
Our noodle dishes came next: Chilled Spicy Noodles for me and Momofuku Ramen for my date. We each sampled the others' entree - the ramen was great, packed with a very heady piggy essence and more dissolvingly tender pork belly. My noodles, as the server warned, were searingly spicy, almost beyond my personal ability to tolerate, and let's face it - if you are reading this blog you know that is saying something. Overall I feel a bit perplexed by my dish. It felt a bit like a lazy night's dinner at home - "hmm what to eat? How about I throw some of this spicy sauce on those leftover noodles? What else...oooh there's some leftover sausage, and I need something healthy so I'll toss in this bag of baby spinach. Oh and I've been meaning to eat these candied cashews. What the hell, everyone in the pool!" Make no mistake, I liked it, but it was just confusing. Next time I would probably opt for the ramen, or one of the non-noodle mains, which sounded interesting. They also offer a 4 course prix fixe for $30, which is totally acceptable in my book.
I must return here for the fried chicken feast...
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