Sorry for the brief hiatus. I was in Vegas for a week (for an annual foosball tournament!) and then got distracted after that. And I’m about to go on another two-week trip so I wanted to squeeze in a review before I leave. I obviously did a fair amount of eating in Vegas, so it’s time for my first non-Bay Area restaurant review! David Chang’s Momofuku has been on my to-try list for a while. I always thought I’d have to wait until I went to NYC to try it, but once a location opened up in Vegas I jumped at the chance.
Buns
Since everyone raves about the buns, I had to order them. I selected 2 of the 3 options: pork belly and shrimp. Both were yummy, but I give the win to the pork belly one. Can’t resist a fatty (but not overly fatty) pork belly. I did quite like the spicy mayo with the shrimp bun though which made the contest between which one was better tighter. However, I thought the shrimp bun would be multiple cooked shrimp (like a shrimp taco) so seeing the shrimp actually be served in patty form was unexpected. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but I would’ve preferred it the other way. Consider yourself warned since the menu does not mention that it’s a patty.
Seafood
My friends and I love seafood so the salt & pepper lobster & shrimp really caught our eye. It costs a pretty penny but split 3 ways was a little less painful on our wallets (and come on we were in Vegas so money was flying out of our wallets already anyway haha). Turns out they offer multiple sizes of the dish (small, medium, and large). Small definitely does not seem worth it. Medium was perfect for a party of our size and better value than a small. Large would have definitely been too big for our group. The seafood was really good quality. The dish was also surprisingly filling but then again fried food usually has that effect. (It was not a greasy fry though.) There were also some shishito peppers and scallions too in case you want to pretend it’s a little healthy. ;o)
Noodles
Our final dish was the chilled spicy noodles with sichuan sausage, Thai basil, and candied cashews. You can also request a poached egg add-on. I wasn’t sure about chilled noodles, but I enjoyed this dish a lot. It had quite the kick to it so having the noodles be chilled might have been a good idea in contrast to how hot your mouth would feel eating it haha. There was also a lot more sausage than I thought there would be, so they definitely did not skimp there. The pesto was great, and I really enjoyed the use of candied nuts to provide a nice texture contrast and a little sweetness. Unfortunately I was so busy eating the dishes that came first that I totally forgot to take a picture!
Dessert
Technically I got my dessert at Milk Bar, but it’s associated to Momofuku (and attached to it) so I’m gonna include it in this review. I ate the famed crack pie. My friend had tried it in NYC and fell in love with it so she found the recipe and has made it a few times. I already consider her version super delicious (she’s actually made a couple of modifications to the recipe too), so I was super excited to try the inspiration. It is easily addicting. The oat cookie crust is probably my favorite feature (I’m a sucker for good pie crusts), and the dense softer filling balances the stiff crust. The pie is pretty thin/flat which is good bc I think if there were any more filling it would be overly sweet.
If you want to try to make crack pie yourself, there is a available.
Final Thoughts
While I enjoyed my meal, I don’t have a burning desire to go to Momofuku again with all the other restaurant options in Vegas. However maybe I will after I watch Ugly Delicious on Netflix since that could turn me into a David Chang devotee haha. I would however consider swinging by Milk Bar for another slice of that crack pie if I’m in The Cosmopolitan.
Rating (out of 5)
