Momofuku Milk Bar

I've talked about Momofuku Milk Bar before. Collin Murray and I went there in the early days of our New York experience. We had their cookies and their steamed pork buns and we were less than impressed. Momofuku is a brand that has got a lot of press in the foodie community. Led by Chef David Chang, there are now several restaurants within the city that fall under the company's umbrella. It is supposed to be a great place, with really cool, hip food and inspired homey desserts -- that may be true but as far as Milk Bar is concerned, I can't say that all the desserts are delicious.

My friend Jenna and I went today for a little Momofuku Milk Bar experience and it was just so-so. She had a cookie and a cereal milk flavored soft serve. I had a cookie and a chocolate milk flavored soft serve. My soft serve was good enough, hers was too artificial tasting for me.


Cereal milk soft serve


Chocolate milk soft serve

We both had the same cookie, corn flake, marshmallow and chocolate chip flavored and it was ok, not great. It was, as she and I both said, really break-y apart-y. I liked the sweet/salty taste of it well enough but I think that my real issue with the cookies was that it tasted overly manufactured. Since the restaurant group has a number of locations, my guess is that one kitchen is doing all the baking and then shipping them around the city. The first time I went to Milk Bar, the cookies were not pre-packaged, they were taken out of a case, clearly having been freshly baked: this time, they were pre-packaged and a little but old. As I told Collin Murray, I think there is a distinct drop in quality that came with a quick expansion of business and that's just not a tasty thing.


Cookie dressed in packaging


Undressed cookie

The original Momofuku Milk Bar is located at 207 2nd Ave in the East Village. Click here for the website.