Momofoku Noodle Bar - Japanese - East Village

Food: 8/10
Everything Else: 7/10
We'd travel a dozen stops on the L for Momofoku.

More Japanese? That's right. We explored the most laid-back and wallet-friendly of the savory Momofoku empire, the Noodle Bar on First Avenue this week. Open-kitchen and airy, the space is pleasing and clean.

A brief wait had us seated at the bar, and we, of course, immediately jumped on the soju slushies, mildly alcoholic frozen drinks that knock any boilerplate cocktail out of the water. The lychee and yuzu palmer were both flavorful and refreshing; the lychee was creamy and sweet almost like a milkshake, while the yuzu palmer was more of a traditional slushie - great yuzu flavor at first followed by a sweet tea aftertaste.

We like to be as adventurous as possible, so of course we had to start with the roasted pigtail special. The meat was tight around the bone, so separating the two was nigh impossible. We're not generally a fan of eating bones, but they were so soft and the meat was so delicious that we didn't mind it so much. The meat itself was tender and fatty; the sauce was delicious alongside the chopped scallions. The pigtails were served with a bowl of pickled pears which sounded strange but ended up being a great flavor combination.

A theme of Momofuku seemed to be the creativity in each dish. The pork buns, however, were pretty standard in format, if exceptional in taste and quality. If you're a fan of pork buns you know exactly what you're getting - but expect the best version of it: maddeningly juicy slabs of pork on sweet buns with all the accoutrements.

It is hard for either of us to eat at a restaurant and not order its chicken wings. Let's go out on a limb and say we've collectively eaten a lot of these things. Consistent with Momofuku's creativity, the wings had a very unique flavor simply because they were smoked. We didn't find them to match the quality of the rest of the meal, but that smoky flavor was a fascinating innovation and gave the meat a great texture.

Our analysis of the ramen is similar to that of the pork buns. Lacking the creativity that the rest of the menu seemed to offer, the Momofuku ramen is in content like any ramen you would find elsewhere -- but probably better. The noodles were perfect, the broth was flavorful, and the pork was deliciously fatty and tender. A very good dish.

The least popular dish of the night, which isn't to say it was bad: the smoked brisket noodles. Overall we found the dish to be too peppery; each bite had a distinct taste of black pepper. The brisket was served over a bed of noodles, fried garlic, scallions, and other accompaniments, though, each ingredient fresh and tasty. While the dish was good, it didn't hit us over the head with great flavors the way the others did.

TLDR: A creative culinary environment deliciously tackles fatty, meaty food.