Looks like a nice alternative to DTF, especially when the wait line is usually over an hour.
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I am surprised that this is the start of a nationwide restaurant expansion strategy for Momofuku, given that they spent the last few years closing most of their restaurants. It seemed like the parent organization was shifting most of its focus to CPG.
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And Century City had two! We used to be a civilized country…
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From what Chang has said, I think they always planned to open more restaurants, they’ve just been trying to figure out how to make them more sustainable, and closed those that weren’t.
david chang has long talked about his admiration for hillstone
there’s also semi-vague gesturing as to the ‘higher-level’ motivations of this in the most recent DCS podcast with alex stupak ~12:40-13:50ish and other points
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Checked the website and saw their hours listed as:
Decided to try it out and get a late lunch during our weekly Chagee run (for the wife) and got to the door and saw this:
. Shrugged it off and went to DTF instead since there’s no line on Wednesday at 3:30 pm. Meal for the wife, myself, and the 8 month old (eating 1 xiao long bao) was a solid $120. Going to use that as a metric the next time we go to Chagee and see if we can also stop by Super Peach for a quick early dinner.
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KE review up
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For KevinEats standards that is an extremely mediocre review.
Don’t think I’ll be trying this place out anytime soon. I’m not even sure what the audience is for this?
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Going this weekend with parents. And we need a lunch. So maybe lunch with the parents is the audience. Or people at the mall. Or lunch with parents at the mall.
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I’ve never see any of those restaurants busy (other than Din Tai Fung). A lot of them have closed too.
I honestly find it laughable to think they are already trying to franchise this idea when the reviews are pretty lackluster in one of the toughest places to have a restaurant. God speed!
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We walked in and ate at the bar before a movie. Looks like they were deliberately running at half capacity on a Sunday night. Told us it would be 45 min for a table, but we never saw it more than half full.
Food was big OK. Cocktails were good, glasses properly chilled and drinks tasted like the ingredients used, can’t complain.
Savory donut reminded me of a curry bun, but with Japanese curry flavor profile. However, it is more aggressively spiced (not spicy hot), more cumin forward I think? I liked it, my wife did not.
Spicy tuna kimbap did not taste at all spicy despite the description of “really spicy”. Salads were serviceable.
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Sorry guys - this restaurant is better than it needed to be. A nice option with the fam where you COULD order a main and a salad or share a bunch of plates and treat it more family style.
Some menu changes too, fried shrimp is gone and now it’s marinated prawns to make little hand rolls (great)
curry donut was very tasty for 3 to split pretty easily. Steak skewers were fatt, delicious.
Fried chicken kimbap was tasty - we had sushi last night or I would’ve gone spicy tuna. Not an amazing dish but satisfying and good for the group. Chinese chicken salad inspired one was good, sesame Cesar as well.
noodles were a highlight - the mushroom ones in particular.
is it a destination? Probably not. Is it a good option if you’re at the mall or want a leisurely lunch with a nice Duke’s martini? Yup.
Pricing was fair and we ate well for not a ton of money.
also noticed former chef from Kato at the pass (glasses and swoopy hair forgot his name) but a good person to have helming the place.
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good eye. that’s former kato cdc nick picciotto.
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Haha - Nice adjective
very surprised the cdc of Kato would go over here, must be a massive pay raise.
He’s former momofuku-verse. I think I ran into him at Kawi forever ago.
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The less michelin stars the more money.
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#CheesecakeFactory
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Went here yesterday for a late lunch with the wife and the baby; wife and I weren’t impressed with the food. The skewer, donut, and kimbap tasted like failed attempts at gussying up tried and true asian stalwarts that just made me wanting their cheaper and similar tasting counterparts. The kimbap was pretty bad in that all I could taste was just spice.
The caesar was pretty meh and the pudding was also underwhelming. Much like everyone else here, the mushroom noodles were the standout, albeit a touch too salty and the sweet potato wedges were perfect (wife and I only had 1 while the baby devoured the rest).
I tried to keep the ordering similar to DTF and South Beverly Grill (part of the Hillstone restaurant family), since this is what David Chang is aiming to replicate or compete with; the problem was, even after $133, I was still kind of hungry. In comparison, after spending $120 at the former restaurants, I was stuffed and had a better food experience.
Tl;dr: if I’m still at the mall after seeing a movie and DTF has a 3 hour wait, I’m going to grab something quick at the food court or I’ll save my pennies for Sawtelle or Koreatown instead.
Also, the coursing here was pretty terrible; although our server offered to separate the dishes, we got the kimbap, donut, and skewer dropped on our table in rapid-fire succession. We then had to wait an interminable amount of time for the salad and noodles to be dropped off, which was strange given that we were the only customers in the restaurant.
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yikes! Bad service is one thing but if the food is that bad I’ll just stick to DTF or. the food court. Thank you for the help!
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