Momofuku Milk Bar

Update: Momofuku Milk Bar now has six locations. 

If you were the type of kid who did not feel conflicted at all about drinking milk left over from your bowl of Frosted Flakes, a cup of cereal milk ($4) at Momofuku Milk Bar should be a sweet dose of nostalgia. I never liked sugary milk even as a kid, but there is plenty of other intriguing fusion snack food on this menu to keep me coming back. 

Like the top-notch cookies ($1.75 each, but they’re huge). The conflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip cookie puts the breakfast staple to good use, adding buttery crunch to its edges, whith a gooey marshmallow krispie treat center. It’s better than its vaguely saltier cousin, the compost cookie, which fuses chocolate and butterscotch chips with potato chips and pretzels. The corn cookie and blueberry cookies are both delicious, like the butter-soaked caps of muffins, but I’d skip the comparatively unexciting peanut butter cookie. Soft serve ($4) in unusual flavors, including sour gummy and red licorice, is another speciality here, and every customer is entitled to a tiny free sample–fireball (which really does taste like gobstoppers) was the one that won me over. Individually-unwrapped ground-up gumballs add a touch of dimestore cinnamon, tempered by cool ice cream. Their website announces some new flavors, like rosemary and apricot, available starting June 17th.

The cakes ($5/piece) are a little more hit-or-miss. I found the dulce de leche cake and the tea-jelly-and-lemon Arnold Palmer cake overly sweet. But both the banana cream-and-hazlenut crunch cake and simple pecan-based “crack” pie were almost worth the caloric sacrifice.

(photo by gothambill)

And then of course there’s the pork buns ($9/two buns) made famous from David Chang’s other hotspots, Momofuku and Ssam Bar. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Momofuku so it’s hard to remember how the Milk Bar’s buns stack up. But most certainly, these tender, fatty slabs of pork belly folded on sweet, spongy steamed buns with pickled cucumber and hoisin sauce are the best things on the menu.

If you’re planning to visit, prepare for weekend lines and standing-only tables. The best time to visit is early evening, but check their website since they are sometimes closed for private parties.

Momofuku Milk Bar
207 Second Ave (entrance on 13th Street)
Mon-Fri 8am-12am, Sat-Sun 9am-12am