Whoever knew that #Momofuku would dominate in Toronto? I certainly didn’t! But when I discovered that the notorious David Chang built a 4-in-1 restaurant super-complex in the Shangri-La Hotel.. I immediately floated up to Heaven. NEXT TIME I’M STAYING IN THAT HOTEL!! 🙂 His four restaurants that can be found in this 3-story Momofuku are: Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Milk Bar, Momofuku Daisho, and Momofuku Shoto.
Momofuku Noodle Bar (1st floor): I think everyone has heard of the infamous Momofuku Noodle Bar in NYC: his delicious, clear pork ramen and pork buns that require at least a 2-3 hour wait until you can feast. Well, what if I said that in Toronto, the restaurant is much nicer, much bigger and NO wait? 🙂 Same goes for all the others!
Momofuku Milk Bar: Located on the 2nd floor of nikai, which is a bar and lounge that serves Momofuku’s cocktails and menus from Momofuku Noodle Bar. Furthermore, this is where the dessert shop is located! Founded by Christina Tosi, Momofuku Milk Bar features addicting sweet treats such as pies, cakes, cookies and cake truffles.
Momofuku Daisho (3rd floor): This features Momofuku’s take on a steakhouse (sadly, this was the only one I didn’t have time to go to). The restaurant itself is tucked away in a corner of a glass cube on the third floor, giving opportunity for beautiful city night views while you dine in the heart of downtown Toronto.
Momofuku Shoto (3rd floor): Now here is for the grand finale.. which is also what this blog is about! Shoto chefs provide a multi-course tasting menu that features the diversity of Ontario’s fresh ingredients. The amazing thing about this restaurant is that it is a bar table all around, with the show being the Shoto chefs in action! You can watch them prepare the meals right in front of you. It’s like a show in itself for all you foodies out there who love the Food Network channel and watching people cook. For me personally, I think I love eating more than cooking.. Can I just please sit here and watch you cook my food for me and eat it? 🙂 Thank you <3
But let’s get started with dining at Momofuku Shoto! 🙂
What nice Asian restaurant wouldn’t serve you warm, moist towels for you to cleanse your hands before you eat? After all, some of these dishes are meant to be eaten with your fingers!
I don’t know what Q stands for? Can anyone help me!! Haha
Course #1: pickled mussels. Normally I think mussels look ugly, but somehow in this picture and in real life, these mussels look so beautiful and appetizing! It was a very light and refreshing dish to start out; a good way to cleanse out your palate cleanser for the next course.
Course #2: garlic chive kimchi, pork jowl. This is obviously a take on the Korean dish and features the two food items they are most notorious for: pork and kimchi. It was a perfect element of salty and sour in one. Not to mention, the pork fat was very fatty!
Oh, I had to include a picture of what the plate looked like after I devoured the pork. It’s sooo cute! 🙂
Course #3: smoked mackerel fritter. The texture of this is like a soft, chewy potato ball. Ever had takoyaki? Almost like that minus all the sauces!
Some cocktails to light up our spirit! 😉
Sneak peak “behind the scenes” of their kitchen! Each Shoto chef was uniquely different and intriguing! Always cooking with class, precision and certainty. It was a fun yet honorable experience to watch them prepare my food.
Behold the penokean farm lamb and its many parts. Whaaat… we get to pick the raw form of what our main entree would be.. I chose the upper left and lower right corner meats. Forgive me, I forgot what meats they were.. but the upper right is more fatty and the lower right was more lean. 😀
Course #4: side stripe shrimp, calamansi, peas, chili, melon. In case you don’t know, calamansi stems from the calamondin hybrid and it looks like a green lime. I think this dish might be one of my top favorites!!! Can shrimp get any sweeter, any smoother, any softer, and any more refreshing than this one? You think not until you try this dish <3
Course #5: dungeness crab, madras schmaltz. You can’t tell, but the fresh crab is hidden under that garden! 😉
Course #6: dry aged tartare, radish, turnip. This was very fun to eat! To me, this was a take on those rice cake snacks I see people eat nowadays except this rice is loose and you wrap it in a shiso leaf. Another take on Korean fusion?
Eat it like this! That’s how the Koreans taught me to eat things that require wrapped in a shiso leaf <3
Course #7: chanterelle, omelette souffle, shiso. This is the first time I’ve had a savory souffle! I thought souffles were a dessert thing, especially in France? Well voila to Momofuku to fuse the French dessert cuisine with a savory egg. It is as light and as airy and fluffy as you can imagine any egg souffle can be.
Let’s take a break and eat some bread and butter! Sour dough bread with a spread of truffle butter? Yes, please 🙂
Course #8: black cod, corn, dill, blood sausage. Size can be deceptive and even though this is just a tiny piece of cod, the quality of taste more than compensates for its size. Extremely soft, smooth, and flaky. The crunchy corn contrasts in texture perfect so that when you chew each bite, you get both the smooth and the crunch.
Course #9: penokean farm lamb, mint, black vinegar, potatoes. Remember when I was provided a plate of raw parts of that lamb? This one was the fatty piece of the lamb, the upper left one. Can I confess that my favorite part of this dish was the potatoes? I LOVE POTATOES! And I love THIS potato! Very HOT and soft and a tinge of powdery on the inside while crispy and perfectly seasoned on the outside. Sorry, I’m raving about the potato more than the lamb, but the lamb was good too! Haha 😀
Some fatty ox soup on the upper right hand corner to slurp with the entree.
Course #10: welsh rarebit, 5-year-old cheddar, comte, truffle. mmMmmMmm. You pick this up with your fingers and bite into it like a hash brown. Like a cheesy, truffly crispy hash brown. 🙂
Course #11: strawberry trifle. Whoaaaaa!!! Can dessert be sooo good? We had a little presentation of layers and layers of toppings added on to this trifle.
Course #12: Happy Birthday ice cream. And can dessert get any better?! It looks simple, but it is deeply sweeter than that.
Course #13: peanut & maple, leche flan. And how can you end the meal with some perfect “restaurant-made” candy to top it off? The peanut and maple candy was so good! Like a protein ball, but nothing healthy about that at all! Except maybe the protein from the peanut butter. And the flan? Perfectly rich and dense. <3 Perfect. Parfait. Kanpeki.
This was the most casual and down-to-earth tasting experience out of all the chef’s tasting menus I’ve tried and I enjoyed it so much! Probably even more because I was able to sit at a bar table and watch the chefs cook while I eat. Don’t you loveeee watching them prepare your food? It is like food porn. Cooking porn. Nahh.. FOOD PORN 🙂 Me lovee <3
