ma peche

58 (5/6)

website

midtown is known for its fancy white tablecloth restaurants filled with corporate types having expensive (and likely expensed) business lunches. david chang of momofuku fame is known for his downtown east village lowkey hipster restaurants. but ma peche, the newest momofuku venture, is located in a midtown hotel and purports to serve upscale american-french-asian-ish food to the midtown professionals. Y and myself being two midtown professionals (during the week, anyway) decided to check it out, wondering how the momofuku vibe translates to "expense account" dining.

the answer? pretty well. it had some casual touches (chopsticks and sriracha sauce on the tables) mixed with more elegant additions (classy service, fancy settings) - ideal for young professionals not quite ready to completely give into the corporate culture and lifestyle. and the food? amazing. the highlights were the pork belly - perfectly crispy rich fatty melt-in-your-mouth goodness -and a tripe sausage that was phenomenal. the rice noodles and spring rolls were also good, but the meat dishes are where momofuku midtown really shines. it was pricey, so next time it would be great if we had expense accounts ... but for a young professional, it's worth the occasional splurge.