When you go somewhere like New York, you’re bound to be bombarded with recommendations of places to eat. With limited time, I’ve found that a great solution is to generate a mini food tour. Note: this works best with friends as you can split and try numerous delectables. Warning – serious deliciousness ahead may cause salivation. Have a cloth or plate of dumplings ready. (Ratings out of a max of five ?)
Ippudo – Ippudo is a chic ramen joint with a very cool vibe. Definitely the kind of spot I could see becoming a regular date spot or lunch joint. We ordered the classic and it was excellent. I love all ramen so it’s very hard for me to distinguish great and just good, but I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed with the hot bowl of deliciousness we received. ????
momofuku – This is another noodle spot – I actually confused it with a dumpling house that we wanted to hit, so when we opened the menu it was a little worrysome – given that we had just finished ramen 10 minutes before. Any regret for the mistake was quickly QUICKLY QUICKLY gone however, once we received our shiitake buns (header image). These were hands down the best thing that I ate on the entire trip. momofuku I’ll be back. ?????
BAOHAUS – The famous BAOHAUS had the unenviable task of following the shiitake buns. We ordered The Chairman (pork belly) and the Fried Chicken buns. Both were solid, the Chairman a little better, but neither blew me away. It struck me as the type of place which has seen it’s primary success due to smart marketing as opposed to transcendent food. Would go momofuku over BAOHAUS easy. ???
Morimoto – No trip would be acceptable without at least trying one local sushi spot. Morimoto, a very hip spot, was the choice for this trip. The venue itself was very cool, located on the edge of Chelsea Market near the high line. The food was, well, kind of basic. We ordered the chef’s sushi combination and got a very well presented but very uninteresting selection of nigiri. I had expected more of an Omakase style delivery on this so to get cooked shrimp and non-exotics was a little disappointing. The chu toro and hamachi were good but not memorable. Great smoky miso soup but overall not worth the price. ??
Red Egg – While we covered some serious bases with the baos at momofuku and BAOHAUS – that didn’t quell any desire for dim sum. Red Egg, home of Grubhub’s best roast pork buns, delivered delicious siu mai, hai gow and cherng fun. The XLB’s were also quite tasty and the finish of Chinese broccoli was just right. ????