This is how I feel, as well. Some of my biggest splurges have also been Korean, and I still miss the Seoul Jung that used to be in the old Wilshire Grand. That place certainly didn’t have amazing QPR, but I quite liked it for the superior service they provided as well as for a few personal, sentimental reasons.
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I mean honestly keep parsing this discussion all you want, but don’t hesitate to try the restaurant and formulate your opinion based on an actual experience there. It’s a tough table right now, but it won’t be that way forever. I’m going back next week and plan to go fairly regularly to see if it’s worth the cash. Will report afterwards.
I’m still scratching my head on how poorly I ordered at Ssam 
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When I went to Ssam Bar it was $35 for a three course lunch, and it was awesome. But that was like ten years ago lol
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FYI, I pay for my meals, though this was for a preview. Going forward I anticipate paying for every meal at Majordomo. Eater’s ethics policy is laid out clearly on the site: we don’t take comps or ask for comps.
Good to know! Was there special pricing for this preview event?
If you did indeed pay out-of-pocket for your meal here, then that would certainly explain why you bristled so hard at the opinions that Majordōmo might be over-priced.
EDIT: Just saw your reply.
No it was a friends and family invite, and I was invited very last minute. We just left a tip. I have a reservation for next week, and plan to walk in regularly at the bar. It’s a large restaurant but I hear they’ve been limited reservations to make sure service doesn’t have too many issues. I think eventually they’ll be able to handle over 300 covers a night with the space they have.
I just think value on a menu doesn’t translate to actual experience. Try it first then tell me if you think it’s worth it/not worth it. I felt similarly about Cassia until I went and ate it. Sure, it’s pricey but I felt like it was justified after eating it. Menus don’t tell the whole story, neither do photos really.
Do you think this will be like Pok Pok LA? Why/why not?
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That is a fair point. To that end, if the consensus on this board shifts I’ll be happy to reconsider my present position. As it is, there are certain price points above which I simply feel I cannot (responsibly) take a chance on by myself.
That’s how they got me. Truffle this, large format that, salt and pepper shrimp, bo ssam, next thing you know you’ve lost more money eating than you did gambling at the Cosmo. But big game hunting isn’t the only game in town… there are lots of interesting, less backbreaking dishes at Majordomo that are absolutely worth ordering!
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Still can’t get myself to pay the prices at Cassia. I’m familiar with their cuisine and didn’t enjoy their first restaurant; prices were reasonable but food just OK, hated the laksa. So haven’t been compelled to explore the new place even though reliable friend’s have raved about it and I’m a fan of Loeb & Nathan.
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My wife wanted some rice & the only option was uni rice… Sucker ingredients: Uni, truffle, foie, caviar, wagyu
Do you think this will be like Pok Pok LA? Why/why not?
Legit had this conversation with Matty Ice the other day. I think the reasoning I settled with was that Pok Pok just wasn’t as good as Night + Market. Say what you want about Pok Pok’s location, price points, etc., N+M Song had all those problems and then some (parking on that stretch of Sunset is just d–k-breaking) and that place had Bill Chait standing outside freezing his ass off with me waiting for a table on a Wednesday. I also don’t think Ricker did himself any favors when he went the “woe is me, ethnic food is seen as cheap commodity stuff” route in that Playboy interview as I was using my fork to break up $15 tamales at Broken Spanish. I soured on him pretty hard after that.
This is much closer to N+M than Pok Pok. Dave actually comes off as a pretty genuine guy who doesn’t suffer from the “outwardly troubled brilliance” stereotype that hardcore creatives can sometimes fall into.
That’s saying a lot for a thought leader in this space, and his ideas are things people can get behind. Who hasn’t once thought that food should be #UglyDelicious as a backlash to the current Instagram-food craze? Who didn’t love Lucky Peach, and who wasn’t sad to see that thing go?
Even with all this success in New York, Chang’s first LA effort is a departure from his comfort zone. He’s bringing a bunch of menu items you probably haven’t seen before because he doesn’t want LA to be another analogous derivative of his NY restaurants. He says “this is the first new menu concept I’ve done in 5 years,” and is wringing his hands and sweating ballsack as he comes over to our table, he looks so goddamned nervous, like a schoolboy who stayed up all night working on a class project and is waiting to find out if he gets the “A”. The love, the care it’s all very palpable and genuine coming from him.
So yeah, all due respect to PDX and Andy Ricker, I’ll bet on Dave to gut it out and succeed over Pok Pok.
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Really??? Have you had laksa in Singapore, and, if so, was it really that much better? I could eat and drink Bryant’s laksa all day long, so I can’t imagine what a better version could be like!
@boogiebaby: I also imagine the rent must be adding a TON to that price but I don’t recall it being NEARLY that expensive at Spice Table.
At this point it’s not very useful to talk about people being willing to pay top dollar for Asian food in general. It’s clear most foodies are willing to pay top dollar for the best sushi they can afford and Cantonese seafood is probably the next on the list. Not all Asian cuisines have made it out of the price ghetto, however.
There’s also the knee-jerk foodie suspicion of perceived fusion (a term applied broadly), which to be fair seems to come more from a well-founded suspicion of restaurants pandering to diners unwilling to eat less familiar flavours and dishes than from a resistance to the idea of a cuisine evolving (though I’m sure there’s that element too).
And then there’s a resistance to celebrity chefs, especially those from another city.
This restaurant seems to have hit the trifecta.
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It seems like 2 maybe 3 people on this thread have actually eaten at Majordomo. You can certainly critique the QPR by looking at the pictures of the serving size and menu prices but at the end of the day QPR is just 1 component of why we all eat out. Otherwise we’d all be at Golden Corral or Hometown Buffet all the time.
If the food is made with top quality ingredients and tastes really f-ing good then I’d probably try it. I’ve had good experiences at Momofuku in NYC and Vegas.
The Gjelina Italian sub is 2x expensive than the Godmother. I don’t hear a lot of moaning and bitching about QPR. Because the ingredients are better and it tastes better - QPR be damned.
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For me, the “Q” in QPR stands for “Quality” more so than “Quantity,” as I would rather have (and pay for) more of something good and memorable than get a whole lot of utter shit for free.
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Well, yes and no. There may not be moaning and bitching, but I also think all of us readily acknowledge that Gjelina is pretty pricey. However, the Gjelina Italian sub has ruined me for all other italian subs b/c I literally think to myself, “Gjelina’s sandwich is double the price but 10x better than other sandwiches.” And not everything at Gjelina (as much as I like the place) inspires the same rhapsodizing (from me, at least).
Will Majordomo cause me to think the same thoughts? Perhaps. But I personally will wait until I see a few more reviews b/f I try it myself (not least of all b/c I’m not in Chinatown that often).
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Me too. As I get older my quantity intake is rapidly declining.
I hear you. Gjelina is my 2nd favorite Italian sub of all time behind Defonte’s of Brooklyn.
I am going to wait on more reviews before I go to Majordomo as well. Also I can’t get a reservation so there’s that.