The Place: Momofuku Nishi, David Chang’s new spot where you’ll experience a whole new
tip-free, kind of Korean, a little bit Italian world. One that’s open now in Chelsea.
We checked it out for you. Hope that’s okay. Here’s
what we found.
The Hype: There’s… been a lot of hype.
The Reality: True enough. By opening, lines were literally around the block. (Admittedly
the place is close to a corner, but still.)
The Hype: You’ll find both Korean and Italian.
The Reality: For sure. There’s a cacio e pepe made with chickpea paste instead of
pecorino romano. The pork shoulder with white kimchi is perfectly pork-shoulder-y. And the chewy noodle-like
dumplings were
Nice-Hot-Bowls-of-Soup-worthy.
The Hype: There are alcoholic slushies.
The Reality: Yep. Research standards dictated we try both the limoncello and coffee-like
amaro affogato. You won’t hate them.
The Hype: It’s one of those de rigueur no-tipping places.
The Reality: Yep. No math.
The Hype: It’ll be a scene.
The Reality: Probably. It’s a foodie crowd at the moment, and this stretch of 8th Ave has
been tough on good places recently.
But, yeah, it’s a Chang place, so yeah.
