Momofuku Seiōbo

7.8 Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  6     

Food - Creative, experimental, and outstanding. Was a little under the weather so went with the Juice Pairing with the food. Amusing, but the juices were also outstanding.

Ambience - Location is pretty awful, right in the casino. Two of us had a bar-style seat with an amazing view over the kitchen which very enjoyable.

Service - As to be expected, nothing over the top.

Value - Very Expensive, even for a 3 Hat restaurant, I'd say easily worthwhile as anybodies once a year celebration.

May 15, 2013 

3.8 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  4      Service  4      Value  2     

Here is the high level summary: "don't bother". We were really excited about going here. In fact, it was the dinner part of a 6 hat day and to be honest our expectations were high. The best summary I have is that we all wished we could stop the meal at about course 6, pay and just leave. It really was that unimpressive.

Most dishes were average at best. They tend to range from "lacking something" to "inedible". To be fair, there were 2-3 dishes out of the 15 that were stunning but most were average to below average. Notable mention is the pork bun, cauliflower dish and the Mandarin (seasonal) with merengue and sorbet.

Our first course was a smoked eel puree in a fried spring roll style outer skin. Totally too strong for the dishes that followed. We had a meat dish after our deserts. Big floral whites were intertwined with subtle dry white and reds. It didn't make any sense and didn't take you on a journey. It felt random and many dishes/wines were overpowered by what followed. Their wine choices didn't match the food at all. Everything was obscure wine, that was frankly pretty average. Nothing mainstream was used, even if it would have been perfect. Size of the pour was incredibly small.

Herein lies the problem. They are attempting to be cool by throwing tradition out. The only problem is they aren't doing it for sound culinary reasons. They are doing it to be simply to be different. This restaurant is the equivalent of a hipster guy dressing differently for no other reason than he wants to be different. It just looks and feels sad. Maybe because everyone in the restaurant is about 25 and are hipsters this is logical. I haven't had a less enjoyable experience in a long long time.

PS: there seems to be pretty similar views on this site, wished I'd read them before going.

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May 09, 2013 

6.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  5     

Nothing about this restaurant worked for me. Everything about it screams try-hard, from the hipster wait-staff to the mismatched K-mart crockery. Don't even get me started on the Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" on too-loud loop over the pa the whole night. Maybe if the food had been the innovative. exciting, cutting edge taste experience we'd anticipated, the too-trendy feel wouldn't have mattered, but the food was the biggest let down of all.

No-one in the kitchen looked older than 25, and it showed. The oversized baseball caps may have contributed to that impression, but with perhaps one or two exceptions, the food presented showed no flair either in the presentation or in the flavours. An odd mixture of easy street food (pork belly in steamed bun, deep fried chicken) and jarring combinations (lamb and black bean salad) didn't deliver on the promise. There were no stand-outs.

In contrast, I was lucky enough to have lunch at est this afternoon. You couldn't get two more different eating experiences. I get that Dave Chang is trying to something different, that this is supposed to be cutting edge New York cuisine, but it just doesn't have the flavour, style or presentation to pull it off. If this is the best NYC has to offer, they're welcome to it.

I'd love to sit down with Terry Durack at the SMH Good Food Guide and have him explain how this place merits the same 3 hats that he gave to est. They're simply not in the same league.

At this price point, I want the whole experience - great, memorable food, presented in an amazing way, in a restaurant that awes as soon as you walk in the door with flawless service. This had none of that.

I won't be back.

May 07, 2013 

1 Not Recommended

Service  1     

Seriously, making a booking at this restaurant for two people is harder than trying to swallow the BS that is making people prepay their whole meal in advance. I've been to all of the top Sydney restaurants, and I'm very willing to spend a lot of money, but this place will never get my business due to its incredibly anti-customer booking system.

May 02, 2013 

5 Average

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  7      Value  1     

We made booking after trying 11month checking website every day, but restaurant was not full at all. I didn't understand why so hard to book this place. Some plate are so good but most plates are not so good, amount of the food on each plate are so little that I was still hungry after 11 plates, we were expecting paying 550.00 so we didn't eat lunch, bad idea... maybe costing all these ingredients were less than 20.00 per person, they are giving us top quality for all plate but tiny spoon full each time, we had to eat something at home, never go back there again.

Apr 01, 2013 

6.8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  5      Service  9      Value  5     

If you want to experience something special you go here. The whole package is pretty cool! It's probably not somewhere where you would go back to, but well worth a one off trip for the experience.

We sat at the kitchen bar right in front off the head chef. To watch the kitchen (which is the cleanest and most well organised I have seen) in action is very much part of the whole experience. There is some serious OCD going on here by the head chef. The food is different and something you will probably not get anywhere else.

Recommend getting the matching wine as they all go great with the food, and once again they are varieties you wouldn't find anywhere else. The ambience is pretty ordinary for a 3 hat restaurant. If you weren't sitting watching the kitchen in action you wouldn't really enjoy your surroundings.

The playlist is surprisingly heavy. I like that kind of music but not what you expect from a restaurant like this. I wouldn't go back but I did enjoy it for the experience!

Mar 30, 2013 

5 Average

Food  3      Ambience  6      Service  10      Value  1     

I came here for my anniversary with my partner with high hopes as this restaurant has been coveted quite heavily in the media ever since its arrival in Sydney from NY.

Food - As much as I like Japanese/Asian fusion, the food here was just too adventurous for me (eg. squid ink, raw radish, and fatty roast pork to be eaten with your hands as the last dish after dessert!). Once we got to the 6th course, I was surprisingly full. By the time we got to the last dish, I didn't even want to eat it. I think you'd have to be really open minded and more willing to try new things if you want to come here.

Ambiance - Nothing too much to say here. The restaurant is quiet, so would be good to take a partner here. However, given the hype of this restaurant, I was surprised to find it situated very close to the food court within the Star complex and the fit out inside was very simple and not as elegant as something you'd find in one of Neil Perry's chain of restaurants.

Service - The service was definitely one of the best and what you would expect at a restaurant like this. They are very attentive, I didn't find them snobby though that is always a good thing.

Value - I don't normally mind paying a lot of money for great food and a great time However, as I did not enjoy the food at all, this was not worth the value of $175pp for the Tasting Menu plus drinks.

Overall - I would not recommend this restaurant unless you are an avid fan of adventurous Asian/Japanese fusion.

Nov 26, 2012 

4.8 Average

Food  4      Ambience  5      Service  6      Value  4     

I went there with a friend the weekend before it was awarded three hats and I was shocked when I heard the news. Although, we only ate at the bar, I really didn't think the food was anything special. I am hoping that the tasting menu is much better, may be I will give it another go.

Nov 06, 2012 

4.8 Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  7      Value  2     

What a disappointment. It's located next to a food court with a fairly simple mid range restaurant fit out. There were about 4 excellent dishes, most just average and a couple just plain boring. The environment is odd. Out of one side of the restaurant you are looking out to the interesting clientele who frequent the Casino whilst the backgound music, often quite loud and featuring ACDC, didn't really help you enjoy the 2.5 to 3 hour dinner.

With an average bottle of wine you won't get much change from $500 for dinner for two. Sydney has much better options at this level. I fell for the hype, don't be so gullible. This isn't the first time I have started to question the SMH hat allocation.

Oct 19, 2012 

9.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  8     

It's evident why they have received a 3 hat review off the mark. The menu is clever and execution is well done. I'm disappointed to see other reviews not give this place a higher mark, but then again Sydney is spoilt with places strong in fats, flavours and spoilt for choice.

Highly recommended for the discerning palate, with matching drinks. Pls see my blog for the latest tasting menu, it's picture rich.

Thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

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Sep 24, 2012