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Momofuku CCDC (2015-2020), a Popular New York Pan-Asian Chain in City Center, Open for Lunch and Dinner Seven Days


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I checked out the new menu on Friday evening and enjoyed the burrata bing and beet salad.  Unfortunately at 8:30 pm they had already sold out of the only vegetarian entree, which I hope they take as a sign to add another (or make more, I suppose).  They're still serving the regular ramen off menu--too bad it's not the hozon ramen!

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I met up with an old friend for dinner here on Thursday night. We ordered the salted pimento cheese and smoked carolina trout dip bings. Both were really delicious, especially trout with roe and furikake. We probably should have ordered a third one. Clam toast came out next was another hit. Lots of middleneck clams but not so much sausage. Pork and shrimp dumplings were good but not great, especially compared to the first three dishes we had. Finally, we got the smashed fingerling potatoes, which were a disappointment. They would have been better if we had ordered a meaty entree but since we hadn't, they were just there. I would like a do over on that one. 

Overall, an enjoyable meal with some really great dishes. Momofuku has much improved over my last meal there over a year ago and am glad the place has raised its game.

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23 minutes ago, Sluggo said:

Apologies if this is not the right thread for this!  Last night I tried the Fuku stand in Capital One Arena - a new outpost of David Chang's fried chicken joints.

No worries - I'll move this (for now) to Dining in Capital One Arena.

Just had a very good Sunday brunch at Momofuku CCDC - the menu is constricted, but the food was quite good.

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The standout was the surprising Pimento Cheese Bing ($7), but the Shrimp & Grits ($17) and Smoked Carolina Trout Toast ($15) were also quite good, the Shrimp & Grits my preference between the two (a large portion of Anson Mills grits; two large head-on shrimp - the heads come right off, and I would suggest squeezing them into the grits if the possibility of a random eye in your cuisine doesn't bother you).

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Tried some $15 "dry aged" beef & lamb dumplings.  There's not much filling,  the filling itself is probably too lean, and the sauce was way too vinegary.  Mr. fancy new IPhone XS and I both agree that we could get better frozen dumplings.

The squid ink cavatelli came with tender octopus but fishy pickled mussels that we avoided after the first bite.  The dish as a whole didn't wow me.

The last dish was Prawn & Summer Truffle Noodle Soup –very light pork broth served with ramen noodles.  Yup, we just paid $62 for a 2 person portion of ramen noodles (although it was the best dish of the night).

With the soup and all the carbs, I gained 2 lbs, and I didn't really enjoy it.

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I was a bit let down by my lunch here yesterday. I tried 2 bings-the one with pimento cheese and the one with hozon. the bing bread is like a lightly oiled and griddled nan, perfectly nice but i wasn't wowed. and the pimento cheese was a good version of pimento cheese, but just that. the pickles on top didn't add much. the sunflower hozon tasted like a really good hummus, and of the two spreads i thought it was the winner (though i like pimento cheese, i think it's easier to find than hummus this good). however, ultimately the dishes were just that--warm flatbread with hummus and pimento cheese. perfectly pleasant but not amazing or special in any way. I had a bite of my friend's bibim bap bowl too and it just seemed like a typical bap bowl. nothing wrong with that of course, but since it was at momofuku (where i quite enjoyed the previous menu) and given the good reviews i overall expected more. 

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5 hours ago, sandynva said:

however, ultimately the dishes were just that--warm flatbread with hummus and pimento cheese. perfectly pleasant but not amazing or special in any way.

1 hour ago, Ericandblueboy said:

That’s very much my feeling as well.

Anyone expecting more than this from Momofuku, or believing that they're getting more than this, is either deluded, or happily ignorant (there's nothing wrong with being happily ignorant, but I can't really think of a third descriptor that works).

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 I don’t know that this is fair.    I think that the vegan Ramen on the old menu was something special- i’ve had a lot of vegetarian  noodle soups and this one was definitely one of the best, it was more savory  and  satisfying than most.   And I thought the shiitake buns  were pretty great as well 

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1 hour ago, sandynva said:

 I don’t know that this is fair.    I think that the vegan Ramen on the old menu was something special- i’ve had a lot of vegetarian  noodle soups and this one was definitely one of the best, it was more savory  and  satisfying than most.   And I thought the shiitake buns  were pretty great as well 

(I wasn't talking about you or Eric; just that the restaurant has limited aspirations, and there's nothing wrong with that.)

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From lunch today, I was excited to order the Edamame Falafel (6) served with Baba Ganoush, Radish and now served with a side of Bing.  I requested to replace the cucumbers with Sunflower Hozon.  When served, as you can see in the first and second photos, there were 5 tiny Edamame Falafel, fried black on the outside and dry inside.  The 2 smaller pieces were one Falafel cut into 2 pieces.  For comparison, the third photo is from my lunch I posted previously.  When I pointed it out to the manager, she was kind enough to ask if I wanted the kitchen to prepare the dish correctly.  I declined and she removed it from my bill.  I left to get lunch elsewhere.

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Came here for brunch last Saturday around 2pm. The place was still packed, with walk-ins patiently waiting. Service was understandably slow as a result. We started with the cultured butter bing, which was nice and soft, though not as greasy as i had hoped for. The bing is undersized relative to the amount of dip they provide. There will inevitably be leftovers. Make sure to ask your server to leave the dip (they'll try to clear it; both my table and the table next to me had to intervene). To be honest, I would pay $7 instead of $5 if they would provide additional bing. 

The carolina smoked trout toast was delicious and full of smoky goodness. The porchetta po' boy, not so much. The meat to bread radio on this sandwich was way off. You're basically getting 4 slices of soft bacon and some veggies, but you end up tasting nothing but bread and picked veggies. I observed other diners eating this as an open faced sandwich due to the excessive imbalance.

Overall brunch impressions? Meh...  

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Loved the restaurant week branzino, apple salad and whipped sesame/hummas type stuff with fat bread. ($22). No, I'm not trying that hard on this review for some very simple reasons. 1. I expected a menu with lots of dairy-free options but instead, almost everything had dairy on it. Ok, that's the only reason. I'm mad at Momofuku for some reason. Maybe I need restaurant therapy. 

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If chicken liver mousse is still on the winter menu, stop in to feed your benefit of a doubt.  When served with steaming hot flatbread, as per two of my three visits in Nov/Dec, this dish is a warming and savory revelation.

/why, yes, that is me dining solo

//with three different tasty beverages

///what are you looking at?

LiverAsReligion.jpg

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I went here on Jan 4 for dinner, and it was intensely mediocre.

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This is one of the worst, most egregiously priced drinks lists in the city - we had a beer.

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The best thing, by far, was the naan. In order, these are the mousse, stew, wings, and noodles:

Mousse.jpgStew.jpgIMG_4333.jpgNoodles.jpg

Closed or not, this was almost surely my final visit here.

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Well, not to disagree with Rocks, but I always enjoyed it. It was never in the top echelon of DC restaurants, but I never had a bad meal there, and had many very good and memorable meals there. It was really good for lunch and was a go to spot when meeting somebody closer to downtown than my Capitol Hill office. They did interesting things. I had a couple of very memorable meals there, including one of my best friend's bachelor party dinner for ten of us. I liked it, I'm glad it was there. And I'm sad it's not. In part because it's part of the host of restaurants who won't make it through to the other side. If I had to pick like 10, 20, 30 restaurants that I would protect to survive if I could would it be on there? Of course not. But so many spots will close, and having a place that was good close makes me sad. 

It also makes me concerned because I had dinner at the original Momofuku in the East Village relatively soon after it opened. It was one of the most memorable and eye opening meals of my life. I ate things there that I had never tasted, and it really opened my mind. Some of this stuff, like ramen, is now commonplace, but it wasn't then. And Ssam Bar, when it first opened, was also a mind-expanding experience. Stuff like ramen and bao that I now take for granted were not part of my life before then. I know he didn't invent them, but he introduced me to them. We had dinner at Ko in the original Noodle Bar location shortly after it opened. I think David Chang has been a real force for good in the American dining scene, and I'm sorry to see him in what he has described as crisis. 

I hope things in American dining aren't as bad as I fear, but no matter what I'm sorry to see this restaurant close. 

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Is it time to start looking at other places that may be on the brink? With the phase 1 reopening in most of Maryland on Friday, we might start getting a clearer picture of what approaches will work in our new reality.

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18 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I went here on Jan 4 for dinner, and it was intensely mediocre.

Menu.jpg

This is one of the worst, most egregiously priced drinks lists in the city - we had a beer.

Drinks1.jpgDrinks2.jpgDrinks3.jpgDrinks4.jpgDrinks5.jpg

The pet nat sparkling Birichino Malvasia Bianco wholesales for $12.67 {2018 vintage, they listed 2017} and they were selling it for 68. 5 times + markup?

My last meal at Ssam bar was so disappointing & so ridiculously expensive it was my last meal at any Momofuku restaurant. My first at Ssam Bar was revelatory even though it was ridiculously expensive. 

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On ‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2020 at 10:14 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

CCDC always felt like a dumbed down version of a Chang restaurant.  I wanted to go there at first, but after awhile, I'd rather it just went away.

Great news!  You got your wish!!!  Let's break out the champagne.

Sorry to be a snarky dickhead, but your last sentence really offended me.  Maybe wait until the body is cold before dancing on the grave.

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On ‎5‎/‎15‎/‎2020 at 10:08 AM, Keithstg said:

I loved Nishi. Sad to see it go. Dave Chang commented on both CCDC and Nishi in his most recent podcast and his sadness was palpable.

That was a great, touching, and moving discussion.   I was particularly struck by the rage in his voice when he ranted (in a good way) on how "I will never let my employees ever be this exposed again"

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1 hour ago, Bart said:

That was a great, touching, and moving discussion.   I was particularly struck be the rage in his voice when he ranted (in a good way) on how "I will never let my employees ever be this exposed again"

Dave is a good guy who genuinely cares for his people. I know it's cool to hate out of town chefs (unless they sell ice cream), but the derision that Dave inspires is truly misplaced - especially since he's from VA.

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