Má Pêche of Momofuku in NYC – An Unfortunate Incident

I met up with a friend from The Hun School of Princeton at Momofuku’s Má Pêche in midtown Manhattan for dinner. Since Brad and I have not seen each other since our first year in college, the dinner was filled with nostalgia and the fascinating tales of our lives. Má Pêche’s dim sum style food service, blending American and Asian cuisines, provided a much needed interruptions to our intense conversation.

Pork Bun. They recommend that we pair the pork bun with sake, which Brad did. As far as the pork bun goes, it was ok. The flavor was not as intense as those I could get from the street vendors in Taipei. I will be sure to blog about those street vendors this summer when I return.

Lobster Rice. This was delicious. Not exactly the Asian flavor profile because I believe there was some cream mixed into the rice. The lobster was succulent. The banana leaf steamed method kept all the moisture in and made the rice a bit sticky.

Pickled Shiitakes, with baby bok choy and crispy fried onions. I am happy to report that this is authentically Asian with soy sauce and sesame oil as the base. Stir-fried soft baby bok choy contrasted nicely with the meaty shiitakes. There is no funny business with this dish, nothing fusion.

Cod Fritters. These were not good. Too salty. The outside is not crispy and the inside was mushy.

Arctic Char Toast. The toast was pumpernickel; it was very hard to chew. The seaweed wrapped around the pumpernickel was just weird. The texture was off. Imagine eating a piece of cardboard wrapped with a soft rubber band. No redeeming quality.

Honestly, I do not remember what these two desserts are. Toward the end of the meal, I was feeling a little sick.

Overall, the food was acceptable. Some were even good. However, I became sick immediately after we left the restaurant. This was the first time I had such a strong reaction. So perhaps this is a biased review. Perhaps I needed to focus on the hygiene of the restaurant instead.

This experience took place at

Má Pêche | Momofuku
Chambers New York Hotel
15 W 56th St,
New York, NY 10019
(212) 757-5878