East Village: 163 1st Ave (between 10th and 11th St)
Rating (1-10): 8
Momofuku Ko is a fun experience for anyone who wants to do some adventurous eating. While fun doesn’t always lead to success in the dishes, Ko isn't something you come across everyday. If you like asking questions about food, being in a kitchen, and interacting with the cooks, this is your place, because you will sit right in front of the cooks and literally feel the heat off the stove. The now iconic Chef David Chang (2008 James Beard Award Best Chef for NYC) has put a lot of thought into this very intimate experience and the set multi-course menu. Prepare for ingredients you hadn’t ever heard of (pine needle oil). Be sure to peer over the counter as the cooks assemble your next dish with painstaking care and detail. Take a guess at what you think is going to be next (you’ll be wrong). Ask yourself, “who the f thinks of that?” By the end, it’s likely you’ll be pretty exhausted from a full stomach and a mental challenge. Truth be told, it’s not the kind of meal that I’d want on a regular basis, but if you’re in the mood to experiment and enter a food playground, where at least some of the things will please the palate, check it out.The Ko offerings are complex and involve ingredients you’d have to be a true expert to know. It’s one thing just to put a cool, little known ingredient on a plate, and say “Tadaaaaa!” It’s a whole other thing to use take that ingredient and use it intelligently and with purpose. In most of the dishes at Ko, there was a “wow” moment when you taste why certain ingredients are there, and how they pull the dish together – and that is impressive. The shiso leaf and the pink lemon pull together the lobster and shrimp ceviche, the best I’ve ever had. The mustard greens on top of the braised lamb belly are a great complement, and add surprisingly strong mustardy flavor. The candied nuts in the famed foie gras / lychee / Riesling gelee dish give a nice crunchy texture and add sweetness to balance out the alcohol in the gelee as well as the richness of the foie. A bit of chive on top of the raw fluke is the perfect complement to the fish and white soy - poppy sauce. The bits of coffee together with the venison are awesome. The “pretzel” flavored ice cream desert (who the f thinks of that?) works alongside the refreshing green apple puree underneath. The dishes seemed to “turn” on these ingredients.
Most of the dishes were enjoyable (and gone in a matter of seconds) – lobster and shrimp ceviche; smoked soft-boiled egg with caviar; long island fluke sashimi; mandarin orange fruit and sorbet. But a couple that were surprisingly off. Thin-sliced porchini mushroom and egg noodle with mushroom broth poured over top sounded wonderful but the broth was intolerably salty, with way too much soy sauce. Instead of subtly enhancing the flavor of the fresh porcini, the broth drowned it. And a pine needle oil that was supposedly in the dish was completely wiped out. This seemed to be an error in execution, rather than conception; if the broth were prepared well, this would have a great dish. By contrast, monkfish served below a delicious piece of uni (sea urchin), and resting in a shellfish broth, was problematic in conception as well as execution. What was most unappealing was the cold uni paired with hot fish; the contrast in temperature was a bit gross. Overall, the monkfish was rubbery and forgettable, the shellfish broth was fine, and I thought – as I often do with seared tuna – that I’d rather just have had the uni in sushi form.
Although, for the most part, I liked the courses individually, as a full meal, the experimental menu is a bit incoherent and perplexing to the stomach. Ko may be trying to take you on a adventure but the ingredients and dishes were so wide ranging that it left our party feeling strange, due to the intense variety along with a lot of heavy stuff (braised lamb, venison, fried cheese, foie gras). We were not a particularly faint of heart crew either; we tend to seek out the crazy stuff. Still, to be fair, this is what you sign up for.
What we did not sign up for, and what was most disappointing, was the service of the hostess/server. While the cooks do well at preparing the meals, conversing with guests, and entertaining simultaneously, the servers seem to be the ones dropping the ball. Or, as it were, the glasses, twice (once on my leg). They also turned off the lights in the restaurant without realizing it. But it’s not so much that they messed up – everyone does – but the only ones who really seemed to be concerned were the cooks across the counter. Throughout the night, the only truly personable service we received was from the cooks. From the “front of the house” side, the attitude was lax and nonchalant, and in addition, rude. For example, the wine menu, which we opted out of, was uncomfortably pushed on us, with a tone of expectation, rather than offering. How is that supposed to make you feel comfortable? As laid back as the Momofukus are intended to be, it’s still a high end meal and there’s a difference between being casual and being careless.
David Chang strikes me as a cook’s chef; he’s a no frills kind of guy who’s not in it for the celebrity. He understands a cook’s mentality: the perspective of the guys grinding it out in the kitchen trenches every day and night, getting paid beans, trying to develop their foundation of skills and ideas – while hoping that some day, they too will have an opportunity to run a kitchen. Chang encourages creativity and thoughtfulness in his cooks, and it seems to be his philosophy and mission to help them experiment, grow, and try to develop new culinary ideas. From what the cooks at Ko told me, they do indeed have the freedom to propose new dishes and collaborate on new menu items. In this high-end laboratory, the cooks also have the unique opportunity to get out of the “back of the house” and interact with the customers, across the quasi-sushi counter. They see the expressions of delight on your face and stand at the table with you. It strikes me as a very rare opportunity for an up and coming cook. Chang is putting a whole lot of trust in his cooks and he’s creating a style of mentorship all his own. Whether or not you like his food, I believe it’s something you have to applaud.
I’ve long thought that the numerous critics that gushed like cloned idiots over Ko without any real critique, have done this place a disservice. First, they have set expectations impossibly high. Please temper your expectations and know what you’re getting into. Second, they have sparked a general craze over this place that is borderline bizarre. They’ve made it into something that I’m not sure David Chang intended it to be: a scene. As a result, chances are against you that you’ll be able to get a reservation, at least for the time being. If you don’t get one, life has not passed you by, believe it or not. You can always go up the road to Momofuku Ssam for great David Chang food, where you’ll find dishes that are just as good if not better (pork buns – still the best). They might not be as quirky and adventurous as they are at Ko, and you won’t get to sit directly in front of the cooks when they’re making it – but I love that stuff, and even I would say, don’t go scouring Craigslist for a reservation. Go when the time is right and have fun when you do.
At the end of the day, my service experience aside, Ko is a wonderfully unique dining experience and for $100, it’s worth the money. You’ll be getting a great deal of personal attention from the professionals who make the food, high quality ingredients, and the opportunity to be a part of a kitchen lab that is pushing new culinary ideas forward. If you do have the opportunity, it’s one worth grabbing, provided you have some cash and an open mind.
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