Momofuku Noodle Bar

Had dinner here a few times and my favorite dishes never ended up being ramen. I thought the ramen broth wasn’t as rich as I’d expected. The noodles were good though. My favorite and most crave worthy dish was actually the rice cakes, nice spicy kick without being too hot and cooked to a perfect crisp. The thing about this dish though is you need to eat it fast or else the rice cake becomes way too hard to chew comfortably. Their cereal milk soft serve is also a must try. There’s nothing like it in town and I find myself craving that flavour once in a while… Service is always good and the space is fantastic. 3.5 stars because the items I like aren’t the main event on their actual menu.

I felt compelled to write a review for this ramen shop after seeing the mediocre ratings here on Unilocal.I cannot judge for any of the meat dishes, but I do want to point a few things out that make this restaurant awesome:
1. Free wifi via Shangri-​La: Not necessarily their doing, but useful for travelers: it’s possible to get free, fast wifi from the Shangri-​La next door. You won’t be able to do a lot of work there (the restaurant gets too full with people and I wouldn’t want to hog on a seat for hours), but great to get re-​oriented.
2. Service: Fast, competent, helpful. Nothing to complain.
3. The Mushroom Ramen! I don’t know why people have complained about it, I REALLY loved it! One of the best vegan ramen I’ve ever had!!! If you hate salt, perhaps don’t get it, but for my taste it was simply beyond perfect. The broth it porcini-​based and tastes excellent and the mushrooms themselves are extremely tasty, too! I would honestly give 10 stars if I could. I am heartbroken that I only have a layover in Toronto and can’t come back.
Anyways, thumbs up for this easy-​to-​reach ramen shop!

We ordered the fried chicken in advance (2 whole chickens, one Korean and one Southern fried) and really enjoyed it. There was a lot of chicken and it fed our group of 8 comfortably. We also tried the rice cakes, cauliflower and pork buns which were awesome!

Another visit, another transcendent bowl of ramen. The Momofuku Ramen is not traditional, but it is the best in the city. Try dragging your noodles through that soft-​poached egg and telling me otherwise; it can’t be done.
For a noodle joint, Momofuku had a very solid rotating beer selection. I’ve enjoyed the house peach ale, Hitichino Nest witbier, Goose Island’s Matilda, and most recently the Side Launch Wheat Ale; all were delicious, and a good match for the ramen.

I ordered 2 dishes of noodle. One is spicy which is not spicy at all. Both dishes are too plain. The soup tasted like soy sauce and chilli oil.
Bbq pork bun is good.
Okonomiyaki is fine.
Rice cake is crispy outside which I think it is nice. But the overall taste of chilli sauce is not that impressed. Taste like Sriracha sauce.

I’m a huge believer in the power of a Unilocal review. When, I see something that’s only 3 stars, I tend to stay away. However, in this case, I decided to buck then trend and come here. Partly because I wanted to get something from the Milkbar upstairs. But, more on that one later and in another review.
We stayed at Delta Toronto which, walking with kids, seemed like 18 miles! But, it was only about ½ a mile, really. We went on a Thursday night and while we normally need reservations, we were able to get a table since we came early enough.
We got the Momofuku Ramen, Sichuan Noodle, Chicken Ramen, Pork Bao, and Chicken Bao. The Momofuku Ramen was my favorite. It had a sauce in the middle that was spicy (not too spicy), but the flavor was on point. The Sichuan Noodle was really good, too, but not exactly a filling meal. Also, it wasn’t as spicy as I was hoping for, but then again, they had another dish that was called the Extremely Spicy Noodle. The Baos were equally delicious. My favorite was the Pork, while the wife liked the Chicken one better.
Now, something a little different, if you want dessert. You can either order a milk and cereal soft serve, or you can get some desserts up the stairs to the Momofuku Milkbar (which is more like a refrigerator) and bring some down to your table. You can pay for your dessert downstairs. The soft serve was good. It had the texture of ice cream, but the flavor of actual milk and cereal. Meaning, it wasn’t overly sweet.

Fantastic food and bev, but love the location of this one.
The pork buns were to die for, and we didn’t have anything that wasn’t delicious.
I have been to a few of these now and I really liked this one based on the location and feel of how new it was.
Our server was fine by definitely not overly pleasant or helpful either recommendations, but nothing rude, just not stellar.
Loved the second floor bar… Wish we could’ve got the same beer on floor 1.

There is something wrong with my butt or there is something wrong with the chairs at Noodle Bar. I like you David Chang and we love you in our city. I get the concept of Noodle Bar — quick service, eat and leave, but boy those chairs are uncomfortable.
After I whined and complained about my butt and the chairs then came the pork belly buns. I think I inhaled both of them in 1 min flat. A perfect bite — I understand why they are famous and why they made the Momofuku brand famous, just EXCELLENT!!! I almost forgot about my butt and the chairs, almost…

I had been reading about this place off and on for a couple months so when we walked by and I saw the sign I knew I wanted to stop in.
We came in on a Friday night around 930 and only had to wait a couple minutes. Seating was a little odd but kind of what you expect for a busy ramen shop. We were seated on two benches by the wall, but the waiter immediately came over to take our order. We ordered the Bbq pork roll to start and it was epicly good– It came with 2 slider sized pieces and from the sticky bun to the melt in your mouth meat, it was a great dish.
We then had the momofuko ramen as well as the Bbq chicken ramen. I was happily surprised at the amount of meat in both. The chicken one had a great Bbq flavor and was some of the tastiest chicken i have had. The noodles were pretty good as well, not the best I have had, but still very good. I also want to note that the food came out in about 5 minutes. The restaurant surprisingly moved about as fast as a chipotle.
We ordered a slushie that was a mix of wheat beer, tequila and orange juice and although it was delicious the waiter forgot to bring it– then kind of brought it out at the end with a rushed apology. We ended up waiting for the bill twice as long as we waited for our food.
Overall the food was great! Creativity on the menu was simple and great at the same time, but the service needed a little more attention.

Momofuku noodle bar is cafeteria-​style restaurant with picnic tables and uncomfortable seating.
— Busy noisy setting, casual vibe
— The service mirrored this setting, they were busy/​rushing around
— Simplistic menu, nothing special. I tried their buns, ramen and desserts
Overall good ramen, but I’d prefer to go to Kinton for bigger portions/​better value.
I didn’t like the flow; it’s more of «in and out» place.

So here’s the thing.
I came into Momofuku Noodle Bar with this godly image of noodles in my head — you know, Kung Fu Panda level noodles. But really when I look back at my visit, it was the appetizer and dessert that really left an impression on me.
First, huge shoutout to the wait staff. I completely screwed up my reservation for Momofuku and only realized the morning of. Regardless of their busy lunch rush, they allocated space for my party of 5 to dine anyways. That was pretty cool of them.
What I ordered: I came in for Winterlicious and ordered the Chicken Meatball Bun, the Ginger Scallion Noodle, and the Cereal Milk Soft Serve Ice cream. My friends ordered the BBQ Pork Bun, the Smoked Chicken Ramen, and the Chilled Spicy Noodle.
Chicken Meatball Bun: hoooooooooooooooooooolyyyyyyy this was the most delicious bun I ever ate I thought I was going to cry. This is not your typical Chinese dish. The bun had a heavenly soft texture to it, the patty was cooked and marinated beautifully, and the pickles and mayonnaise really elevated the overall taste of the dish. I could honestly order five of these instead of the noodles (it was THAT good). From what I sampled (stole) from my friends, I definitely preferred this bun over the BBQ pork bun.
Ginger Scallion Noodle: this dish tasted really earthly and organic. There weren’t any spices or flavours that really stood out to me, but something about the taste was really «curious.» I can’t really describe it, but it definitely was not a blow-​me-​out-​of-​water noodle.
Chicken Ramen: I’ve definitely had better ramen — this one in particular was unnecessarily salty, mechanical, and thick. This dish was the only soup option available.
Spicy Noodle: really liked this one. If you were a fan of the Chicken Meatball Bun, this dish is definitely the one for you. There were really flavourful sausages, nuts, and the dressing of the noodle was seasoned wonderfully.
Finally, the Cereal Millk Soft Serve: so I was one of those people who went into Momofuku thinking about the mouthwatering Masterchef videos of Christina Tosi’s creations. And if you’ve ever watched the most recent season of Masterchef USA, you probably know that they relentlessly advocated for Tosi’s Milk Bar desserts over and over. When I saw Cereal Milk on the menu, I knew I had to try it — and of course, the dessert totally surpassed my expectations. The ice cream was really unique and I totally recommend everyone to try it sometime (it seriously tastes like Cereal milk).
Overall, enjoyed my experience here at Momofuku. Of course, it didn’t really change my life forever, but I could definitely see myself coming back again (but let’s give my wallet a break first). Thanks Momofuku Noodle Bar!

I was here during Winterlicious. It’s one of those communal seating places, which is cool. It gives you the whole cafeteria lunch feel. There’s also hooks under the tables for your things! I had the chicken bao (which was so effing delicious totes can’t wait to go eat more of it) and the squash tsukemen (which is a great vegetarian option. The broth is warm and the noodles are cold). For dessert I ordered the soft serve which comes from the Milk Bar. Honestly, I really enjoyed my meal, except for the dessert. I found the flavour to be similar to Ovaltine (which is disgusting). But the rest of the meal was delicious and it’s one of the cheaper lunch menus for Winterlicious. My friends also really enjoyed their meals minus the desserts (we also tried the cookie, which was on the dry and boring side). I think this place is a great lunch spot or after work snack spot!

I don’t come to Toronto often, but when I do it’s all about Momofuku. Well that’s almost true. Two out of the last three times I’ve been able to drop in to the Noodle Bar. Since my first visit last summer, when I with the Momofuku Ramen and the pork buns, I really haven’t stopped raving about that meal. An original take on a classic meal and fresh fresh fresh ingredients. Every bite was heavenly. This past week-​end I tried the chicken ramen. Overall it was still tantalizing, the chicken was perfect, but I did prefer the house specialty.
As others have pointed out, it’s more of a fusion bowl of ramen than Japanese style, but there’s nothing wrong with that. As a group of five (that became six), we were accommodated well, didn’t wait long (3 – 4 minutes), and the service was great. It was a fun place to start the night, have a few drinks and eat a mouth watering bowl of Ramen.
Good for a date, as was the case for many of Momofuku’s patrons, or predrinks with friends alike, which was my experience on Saturday. Can’t wait to go back.

I have a feeling that some of these reviews are for the other Momofuku sections (milk bar, Nikai, Daisho, Shoto) and are not about the Noodle Bar specifically. My review pertains just to the noodle bar.
I’ve been avoiding the noodle bar ever since it opened because of the terrible reviews I’ve heard from friends. Tonight, I decided to just go and try it myself because I was having a particular craving for the cereal milk soft serve (which they didn’t end up having anyway), and unfortunately, my friends were right. Considering the price I paid ($ 65 for 2 sets of buns and 2 ramen bowls), it could possibly be the worst ramen I’ve ever had.
I think the main problem with their dishes is that the meats are not marinated or marinated long enough. The pork belly just tastes like a steamed pork belly with no seasoning. There isn’t much flavour in the broth either, and so every dish tasted bland. I ordered the Momofuku ramen, and my friend ordered the chicken miso ramen and they were both equally bland. The buns weren’t much better either — very underwhelming compared to the buns from Ippudo.
I would just walk down to Sansotei for a much better ramen experience. I give it 2 stars for the nice décor and the efficient service, but the food was abysmal.

This review is based on my Winterlicious lunch experience.
This restaurant was super busy during Winterlicious, so reservations was a must. I had some doubts coming into the restaurant due to the mixed reviews here, but we had a decent experience.
It took awhile to get the attention of a server to take our order, but once we placed our order, the service really sped up. The buns came in less than 5 minutes, and our noodles arrived shortly after that.
We ordered:
— BBQ pork bun & chicken meatball bun — both flavourful and delicious
— Smoked chicken ramen — the chicken was cooked really well with a nice smoky flavour, and it complemented well with the ramen
— Squash tsukemen — loved this one! The dipping broth was coconut based with chunks of squash, and was topped off with some chili oil. It tasted like a curry — yum!
— Milk Bar soft serve — cereal milk flavour and crack pie flavour — I was actually not a fan of either flavours but the texture was very creamy
Overall, we had a good meal here and Winterlicious gave us a good value for our lunch.

I’ve been here a few times either for lunch or dinner, and also came here for Winterlicious 2016. For regular meals (non-​winterlicious), the service is fine, and food is okay. My go-​to is usually the pork bun. As for their ramen, well, I mean there’s lots of competition these days with other specialized ramen stores in the area. So compared to the specialized stores, Momofuku is «A-​OK». I only come to this restaurant for the ambiance, Milk bar (blueberry and cream flavour), and pork bun.
Regarding my experience here for Winterlicious, it was not as pleasant as the other times I came for regular dining. Service was rushed, food was served out of order (apps came before entrees, and for others, entrees came before apps), and the ramen (Mushroom Dan Dan Mien) was waaaaaaay too salty. I also didn’t like the fact that the menu’s dessert stating «milk bar cookie» wouldn’t let me choose which flavour cookie. Isn’t the milk bar upstairs always stocked?
All in all, with the regular dining experiences I would rank it a solid 3. However, the most recent Winterlicious experience brings it down a 0.5 notch (if only half star ratings were available).

The best thing on the menu — WATER.
Came here for Winterlicious on a whim.
We tried out: the BBQ pork bun, chickpea fritter bun, mushroom dan dan mian for the both of us, and the Milk Bar soft serve.
Let’s begin with the «highlight of the day» — Mushroom Dan Dan Mian. I feel like a camel while eating this because it seemed like salt didn’t cost anything and I probably ingested a week’s worth of sodium. Definitely PACKED with some salty flavours. Desperate times call for desperate measures and my friend asked for hot water in hopes of diluting the sauce. Response from our waiter: We don’t serve hot water. Are you kidding me…
We thought we could end things on a better note with our soft serve because how can you mess up ice cream right? For some reason, our first reaction when we tasted the ice cream was: BAMBOO? Except pandas probably have tasted better bamboo. After a while it started to taste like milk that has been drenched in corn flakes cereal. To each their own but not really up my alley.
However, the BBQ pork bun and chickpea fritter bun saved themselves two stars. I think I was just relieved it wasn’t packed with salt, but they weren’t bad. A busy and hyped up place in my opinion. Nice décor though, pretty modern and industrial but damn those chairs are heavy.

I was struggling if I should rate this place 3* or 2*.
Overall, food is great– I came here for the lunch winterlicious menu and the portions are acceptable. It’s basically a three course meal and you can add $ 3 for extra noodle.
Why 3* you may ask. The service was shitty. People who works here give you an attitude. The moment I walked in I felt unwelcome. They make you feel unimportant and they don’t seem to care about having you as a customer or not.
If you don’t mind the attitude, come for the food!
.

I’ve been here on several occasions and have decidedly to share a variety of the dishes. #1 key to reduce wait times is to make a reservation in advance. The first time I came here, I tried the:
Momofuku ramen (pork belly & shoulder, fish cake, egg) — ~$ 15 my favourite ramen so far. the soup has a distinct clear flavour to it. The best part of it was the red sauce in the middle of the bowl that really tied everything together. It was slightly tangy and spicy from what I believe was umami-​infused (since that’s what the restaurant is known for). I especially like how the soup-​base isn’t extremely oily
Winterlicious 2015 $ 25
Pork buns (hoisin, scallion, cucumber) — one of the more popular dishes. pork belly is succulent but not overwhelming. very refreshing and a must-​try!
Winter ramen (smoked chicken, squash, kale, egg) — has a very neutral, warm taste, and is not as good as the momofuku ramen.
soft serve (cereal milk & cinnamon apple flavour) — honestly, both flavours taste so amazing and no where else has anything like this. i went to dessert heaven after trying this dipped in their corn flakes.

We came here for one of my Unilocal BFF Monica F’s birthday.
To start off my disclaimer is that I’m rating this place on the food and service and not on the prices. I know it’s something that I usually hold in high regard namely value or «bang for the buck» but this place as far as I am concerned will be an exception and I will explain why.
This is not your ordinary type of establishment as far as the Toronto food scene goes. Yes we have a lot of places to eat, we have a lot of Asian restaurants and yes we have our fair share of upscale establishments.
Momofuku’s roots are from NYC which is arguably the hardest place to thrive as far as competition goes for restaurants but as the song goes if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Anywhere else in this case would only be Sydney and Toronto. Take into consideration that this multi-​level restaurant complex in Toronto is the only one of its kind of all the Momofuku eateries. Because this is a completely different experience you simply won’t find just anywhere, you can expect things such as the prices and expectations to be different than just any other place in TO.
I had reserved for 4 and pre-​ordered the large format fried chicken for 4 – 8 people and this reservation was done online. I made this reservation 5 weeks in advance for a Friday and the time slots were only 6pm or 9pm. If I wanted a 7pm slot I would have had to make it a Wednesday or some other day. I can only assume it’s because a reservation for 4 requires a table, not a bar and not a short counter along the wall considering it’s a family style meal for sharing. The reservation required me to make the booking with my credit card and was notified if we cancelled too late or no showed it would be automatically charged. The large format fried chicken dinner for 4 – 8 people is 125 dollars.
Visually the Noodle Bar is not spacious and community seating is normal here. We didn’t have our own table and it seemed tight. There is a coat rack near the front and the stool type seating prevents you from using your chair to hold your coat. There’s not much room and the platter of fried chicken will take up most of your space but it’s still doable
Now, I’ve had my share of fried chicken all over the continent in a variety of different places and as of late I think I’m getting a good taste of Asian fried chicken particularly of the Korean variety and I’d have to say that Momofuku’s version of fried chicken is pretty Momofuku’ing AMAZING.
We started off with the pork buns which I consider a death row last meal kind of snack. These little tiny buns are filled with melt in your mouth pork balanced in such a way you feel like you are eating something from heaven wrapped in a cloud.
The fried chicken comes with a whole lot of things on the side to suit taste but the mains are baby bib lettuce and scallion pancakes to act as a wrap. The chicken is served in 2 ways; American style which is dry on the outside (no sauce) and the Korean style CRISPY coating and skin sauced with a sweet and spicy sauce. The sauce, batter and skin of the KFC version is divine. It is as much as I remember the type of skin on Turntable’s KFC in NYC to be very CRISPY but with more sauce and much more crunch to the point that the coating is almost «candied». The skin is so crispy and becomes an extra layer of coating that you must bite through and with the candied type sweet and hot it creates a whole different flavor and texture experience.
The scallion pancakes are a perfect density which are strong enough to hold and have a wonderful texture and consistency to be able to provide a healthy bite through when stuffed. When adding a bib leaf and some of the sides to flavor the end result is a completely wonderful mix of taste and textures that balance so beautifully to the point of being seduced into not caring how much this meal will cost.
This fried chicken meal made me forget a bit what it was like to have that KFC at Turntable on 5^th Avenue on June 12^th, 2015. That is NOT a small feat.
Sparkling water was «Q» water in a decanter and they charged 2.50 a person. The pork buns are 5 bucks and we each had one. The Milk Bar that is available at this location is essentially a self serve glass room refrigerator where you can help yourself to any goodies you’d like and have them charged to your table. My wife picked up a cookie and a Crack Pie to take home.
For dessert they also have a version of soft serve ice cream in 2 flavors but I only ordered one which was the «cereal milk» flavor. Imagine this if you will, when you have a bowl of cereal and you are left with the milk what does it taste like? That’s what this ice cream tastes like. You can add corn flake crisps to this cup of ice cream which is stuck on the side but some will fall off. Their soft serve is more solidified than say Dairy Queen and more of a gelato density.
All in all this is the best meal I’ve had in Toronto in a long time.