Momofuku

I went to Momofuku Noodle Bar one Thursday around 7:30pm with a friend and it was packed. There was a bunch of people in the waiting area and even extended over into the sidewalk. I was expecting wait times just as bad as Ippudo. Thinking it was going to be a 1hr+ wait, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from the hostess that it would only be 20 minutes.

My friend and I were seated promptly. We knew straight away what we wanted. The ramen obviously! I went right to the ramen section and ordered the Momofuku Ramen that comes with pork belly, pork shoulder, and a poached egg. This is their signature ramen. If the ramen has the name of the place in it, I’d expect there would be something that sets them apart from other ramen joints.

When the bowls were brought out, I was very excited and my mouth became watery. I was staring into it and seeing the copious amount of pork in there. I never imagined so much pork in a bowl of ramen. There was the pulled pork shoulder. A nice slab of pork belly at least 3 inches long, really fatty but it's not char shu style. Right in the middle of the bowl was the perfectly poached egg. There was some side garnish like napa cabbage that didn't add much in terms of flavor. The finely chopped scallions were good but the broth was so salty that the flavor from the scallion didn't carry much in the larger scheme of things. The noodles were medium firm and perhaps a bit overcooked and not as springy as I'd like it to be.

Overall, the broth from this bowl was really salty and a lot of flavor from the pork. It also might be a little too fatty for some, but I didn't mind it so much. The ramen bowl wasn’t any different from other ramen I tasted in the past, but it's still worth trying if you're going to try every ramen joint in NYC.

Location:
171 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10003

More information at: http://www.momofuku.com/new-york/noodle-bar/