My Life in Meals

Momofuku Fried Chicken Dinner

Two years ago I read this article on my favorite blog Serious Eats - and I have been chasing a reservation for the exclusive Momofuku Fried Chicken Dinner ever since. This is no ordinary fried chicken dinner - you will have to battle with the Momofuku online reservation lottery system to secure a seat for you and 7 of your closest foodie friends. They say your best bet is to login to the system around 10:00am when they release the new reservations and re-open cancellations from the previous day, but who really knows what the secret is? I think it’s just sheer luck and determination!

Although most people recommend not to get any appetizers or food off the regular Momofuku Noodle Bar menu when your doing the fried chicken dinner, we still decided to share some pork buns. We tried all three: shrimp buns with spicy mayo, pickled shallot and iceberg, pork/shiitake buns with hoisin, scallion and cucumber, and the oyster buns with old bay, pickled celery and iceberg. They were all delicious, but I thought the fatty pork belly was amazingly cooked, and precisely exemplified the food that chef David Chang is so famous for. To drink we tried the Momofuku Soju Slushies in both the lychee and yuzu palmer flavors (which kind of tasted like a Japanese twist on a frozen margarita) and the Orion Premium Draft, a Japanese beer similar to Sapporo which was really great as well.

So what do you actually get with the famous fried chicken meal? Your server first delivers steamy Asian style pancakes, a bowl of fresh vegetables, and four sauces (hoisin, ginger-scallion, jalapeño-garlic, and bibim). The chicken arrives in a heaping tower, containing half “Southern” style and half “Korean” style. I preferred the southern style as it was extremely crispy on the outside and was so moist on the inside that the juices literally oozed out when you take your first bite. But the rest of my party had mixed reviews, some preferred the spicy Korean style better. You can eat it just plain, or roll up some chicken, veggies, and sauces in the pancakes for a tasty little burrito.

We followed up dinner, although stuffed to the brim, down the street at the Momofuku Milk Bar, Chang’s dessert arm of the Momofuku empire. Although I have read amazing reviews, I wasn’t overly impressed. The only flavor ice cream they had that day was “Milk and Cereal”. I stepped outside to ask two girls eating the strange concoction if it was good, and one replied “if this is your first time eating it, your not going to like it. But, it’s addictive every time after!”. Whatever that means? We ordered it anyway, and she was right - it was weird and nobody was a big fan. We also tried the crack pie and the birthday cake truffles. Both were sweet to extreme levels, making them not so enjoyable.

All in all the Fried Chicken Dinner lived up to the hype and I would highly recommend it! Next time, I have to come back and try the famous noodle soups that looked oh-so good!

Momofuku Noodle Bar
163 1st Ave
New York, NY 10003
(212) 500-0831
Website
Price: $$$

Momofuku Milk Bar
251 E 13th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 254-3500
Website
Price:$$