Noodle Bar @ Momofuku

As of late last year, Momofuku reigned its presence among the Toronto food scene – creating a widespread hype across town for months. Located in the heart of the financial district, Momofuku is situated at the newly built Shangri-La Hotel on University Ave. Owner and chef, David Chang is highly recognized and believed to be a notorious legend for his culinary creations. Thus he opened 4 restaurants at once in Toronto, which includes:  noodle bar, nikai, daisho, noto.

Contrary to the beliefs and expectations of most Torontorians before Momofuku opened, majority of the crowd seem to be somewhat disappointed with the foods. Many say it doesn’t live up to the hype while others could easily find better & cheaper alternatives just a few streets away.

For whatever reason it may be, perhaps the more curious side of me, still intrigued me to visit.

The noodlebar is a wooden themed -high ceiling restaurant with natural lighting pouring inside the eatery. We were happily seated at the kitchen bar.

Slushies 4oz tumbler ($5)

• Seven Spice Sour – Sake, Togarashi, Yuzu, Lime
• These cute little slushies were very citrus(y) & tasty. This refreshing drink went down very quickly.

pork buns (kunan farm, on) ($10.00)

• hoisin, scallion, cucumber
• perhaps because there were only 2 served on a plate, these little pork buns felt very delicate.
• The fatty pork slices were tender and soft. I enjoyed the pork slices but rather not a huge fan of buns in general. The pork buns were good but nothing out of the ordinary.

ginger scallion noodles ($12.00)

• shiitake, cucumber, cabbage
• my friend and I decided to order their signature noodles & another bowl of “something different” we wouldn’t usually find on menus.
• so this was the bowl of “something different” we opted and sadly my friend ended up finishing it for the both of us. It’s served without a soup base – which I can totally appreciate. Perhaps this way, the taste of the main ingredients of the dish would be more apparent.
• My main concern were the noodles that were served cold & drenched in oil. It honestly didn’t sit well in my stomach plus, the noodles itself didn’t really have any ginger scallion sauce to it. My mouth felt very greasy afterwards.

A closer shot:

fried chicken (12 pc) ($12.00)

• korean bbq, sesame, scallion
• I’m always down for a bowl of hearty wings. Each of these wings were marinated consistently with the korean bbq sauce which ended with a good kick of spiciness to it. Wasn’t salty – it was seasoned well with different flavours balanced well
• YUMS!

momofuku ramen (kunan farm, on) ($15.00)

• pork belly & shoulder, fish cake, egg
• We ended off the meal with their signature momofuku ramen! The broth here are on the light side – its not as rich or intense (like the other ramen joints) though it didn’t seem like a pork reduction
• Portions were honestly quite small for the price.
• In terms of the delicate noodles, they were a bit overdone, a little mushy.

The 2 of us were quite full from sharing the above.

Final thoughts? To be fair, this meal wasn’t ALL bad though it wasn’t anything extraordinary. Leaving the momofuku name out of this for a second, I thought it was overall a pricey meal with nothing wow to it. I would hesitate to come back because there are indeed better and cheaper alternatives down the street. Sadly, I expected more from Toronto’s Momofuku after hearing amazing things about their New York location, though this does make me want to visit the New York’s Momofuku even more. Perhaps its a completely different story over there!