Momofuku Ssam

One of my goals was to knock out some popular Momofuku establishments. SSAM was one of them. The SSAM Bar is on the San Pellegrino world’s 50 best restaurants list at the time of this writing. The service style is basically family style, so there are a lot of sharing plates. Portions are small for large groups probably, but decent sized for small groups 2-4. The decor has a very modern feel to it.

Food

Royal Miyagi Oysters, kombu mignonette. These oysters were pretty good. As with most oysters served at good restaurants, they were sweet especially with whatever sauce they created for it.

Lobster Roll, sour cream fries and iceberg lettuce. This was also pretty good although salty. It’s Momofuku’s take on a lobster roll. The fries actually tasted similar to BBQ chips, so it was probably the cause for the saltiness. The lobster was mashed together with sour cream and some other sauces. I thought I also tasted some sage in it, but I’m not sure. The bread was toasted warm and was soft.

Steamed Buns, pork belly with hoisin, cucumbers, and scallions. Everyone who goes here recommends this. I was trying to avoid this because the ingredients sounded too similar to Chinese dishes that involve peking duck or pork fat. The pork belly was mighty tasty, but that is because I love bacon and pork fat. Overall, nothing innovative or special about this assuming you have had something equivalent at a Chinese restaurant. If you haven’t eaten something similar, then I would say this is a must-try.

Bev Eggleston’s Pork Shoulder Steak with blue cheese, persimmon, and shishito peppers. The pork shoulder steak is actually sitting on a blue cheese sauce with blue cheese crumbs. The vegetables and persimmon to the north were grilled. This particular dish to me was kind of bland. The pork steak tasted ok with the blue cheese. It was a nice contrast, but then again the pork steak wasn’t seasoned very much. The vegetables at the north I felt didn’t complement the pork steak as much. All in all, it was kind of whatever for me.

Lamb Sausage and Ribs with bulgur, romesco, and egg yolk. This was the best dish of the night. The lamb sausage was very good. Not too much game flavor, but at the same time enough such that you knew it was lamb. The sausage was tender and reminded me of Brazilian churrasco sausages. The lamb rib was also good. The meat fell off the rib like a baby back pork rib, and the meat wasn’t overly gamey. I wasn’t sure of the sauces as they were both somewhat sweet. Underneath the rib and sausage was a nice medley of garnish including pomegranate seeds and (if I remember correctly) sauteed green onions and basil.

Final Verdict

All in all, Momofuku SSAM did not live too much to my expectations. I felt the food was rather plain, and that Ko was still my favorite establishment of the Momofuku chain of stores. There was nothing unique or special of these dishes, but perhaps my palette is becoming very picky. If I had to rate this on Yelp, I’d probably give it a 3.5 stars. It certainly wasn’t terrible, but it’s no where near what I would expect to be a “top restaurant” in the world.

Revisions

1. Dec 10, 2012 - Initial revision.