My New Life Goal...To Get A Reservation at Momofuku Ko
As I was skimming through the archived articled of the New York Times' Dining & Wine section, I came across a restaurant that seemed a little out of the ordinary. This restaurant is called Momofuku Ko and is located on 1st ave. and E 10th street in the East Village of New York. According to the NY Times, you had to make reservations 6 days in advance and exactly at 10 AM in order to get a table at one of the time slots provided (the whole point of the restaurant is to sample a 2 hour tasting menu, so they have reservations for only certain times, such as, you can't make a reservation for 8 PM but instead you can make it for 9:10 PM or 7:40 PM). Now, I found this a bit absurd so I checked their website and attempted to make a reservation. I thought making reservations for Tao was difficult, but this is a whole different game. You need to make an account with them and provide credit card info and things like that. But when you do make your account and begin making the reservation, you can only make a reservation for a party of 1,2 or 4...no more, no less or nothing in between. Once you pick your party size, you are shown a time table containing the next 6 days and the possible times. Now, if you didn't make your reservation on Sunday at 10 AM, you will find all these slots filled with Xs (occupied) rather than checks (available). So basically, you have 60 seconds on one day of the week to make your reservation. But apparently this is worth the hastle. The NY Times gives it 3 stars, which is pretty rare and New York Magazine gives it 4/5 stars. But if you are dying to try one of Momofuku's restaurants, but can't get into Ko, try Momofuku Ssäm Bar (located on 2nd ave and E 13th st). Ko's 2 hour tasting menu is $100 a person and Ssäm Bar is a pre-fixe menu (but prices aren't posted on Momofuku's website). Good Luck!