Majordomo - Chinatown

I literally couldn’t understand half of the comments under KE’s review…

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I’ve learned to ignore the comments on KE’s reviews. They’re worse than Eater comments.

I’m looking at the photos and am not liking the pot in which the sliced ribs are served. They should plate them on the cutting board. And is that cheese on the fried rice? If so, that’s disgusting.

From reading the caption, it sounds like it’s fresh horseradish and orange zest (not cheese) topping the rice

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It’s in a heated le creuset casserole dish to keep it warm.

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bing, chickpea hozon, hokkaido uni
The hokkaido 'nads in a box were excellent, sweet, creamy and briny.
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(new) rice & peas - smoked pork neck, morels, mint
This was chang’s version of an italian risi e bisi but using pieces of crispy, crunchy scorched rice/nurungji/socarrat instead. The texture combined with the smokiness from the pork, the sweet pea-ness from the peas and the fresh bright spring-y flavors was fucking ugly delicious.
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Nice portion of uni there. How much was that?

Awww… @PorkyBelly found his new favorite restaurant. :slight_smile:

I’m so glad they have specials.

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$44 for the uni

Really cool new take on the pork neck. When we went on Tuesday it was a four thick (maybe 1.5inch) slabs of pork neck. Served with veggies in one plate and pickled fried onion rings on the other. Think I like your version more!

Can’t say I’ve seen a restaurant tweak their menu as much as Major Domo does and it always seems to be for the better.

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I think Chang has always followed the continuous improvement model. I suspect the plan is for Majordomo to be one of those places where the menu changes daily based on what ingredients are best and what new ideas the chefs come up with.

they’re now open Mondays.

starting at 18:54, dc talks about majordomo, la, how uncool boiled chicken is, and apl

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seems to me that having just a set menu could lead to some thinking “been there done that” whereas a continuously evolving menu would prompt more return visits.

hm…

the whole plate short rib, a massive cut rubbed with spices, slapped into a smoker for the better part of a day, carved into elegant slices tableside, and served with enough fermented Korean sauces, herbs and wrappers to feed four starving carnivores.

this is one of my favorite jgold reviews to date

If you were going to put a name to Chang’s aesthetic, which seems to be ruling the food world at the moment, it could be something like Cracked Perfection: the way of the shokunin, a Japanese craftsman whose bliss comes through the search for mastery, tempered with an all-American restlessness that keeps that mastery from being achieved. Chang’s style is a vividly flavored and willfully eclectic mash-up of traditional Asian cooking, modern European fine dining, and touches of bling, with flaws so evident that they announce themselves more as features than as bugs.

Also, for the last several months I have been furious at the chef for dismantling Lucky Peach, a splendid food magazine created by him and Peter Meehan that I truly loved and wrote for. As I’ve said, it’s complicated — I’m not sure whether I’m here to praise Caesar or to bury him.

It’s always hard to read J Gold, but I read this as a pretty harsh review.

Majordomo’s galbi jjim isn’t terrible — it would probably sneak into any list of the top five restaurant versions in town — but it isn’t transcendent either; the meat too tough and the braised daikon too soft, the flavor slightly muddy and indistinct.

So, it’s pretty awful, but still a top five restaurant version. That’s just plain rude to all the other places serving this. :joy::joy::joy: J. Gold, he be crazy.

There also are really only 10 or so places serving it worth mentioning, so a top 5 is not a particularly great compliment. I think what he is signaling there is, it’s not on the level of Sun Nong Dan or Soban.

I wonder if JGold is being harsher in his criticism to (over)compensate for any potential appearance of positive bias, since, as he disclosed, he was on Ugly Delicious and has shared other meals with Chang.

BTW - I did not like that skate fried rice at all, not worth the $41 (though I see on the menu online, supposedly updated just 2 days ago that it’s $38 now), and the batter of the fish just overtook everything. Also didn’t like the bossam at $125. Could have gotten five of the Crispy Pork Belly at $22 each (or gotten 2-3 of them and other $60-$80 worth of other dishes). None of the noodle dishes were that good.

I do like the Snap Peas, and the Kakigori desserts, but my favorite thing was probably the Rare Strip Loin that reminded me of really good sukiyaki.

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