Momofuku Milk Bar

Ever since I was little, my family has had a little bit of a routine. After eating dinner at a restaurant, either a waiter comes by and asks if we want dessert and my mom and I won’t say anything while my dad says something like “Oh yes! These two need dessert!”  OR we make a special trip to another restaurant/bakery/ice cream parlor/etc just to get dessert. Basically, we get dessert either way (it was essentially a food group in my house). Now, when I tried to implement this tradition with my boyfriend he was very very confused. He came from a household that rarely ate dessert, so he didn’t have this pressing need to eat something sweet after every meal like I do. Pressing need as in I will literally eat fruit snacks after a dinner if there is no dessert around just because my meal doesn’t feel complete.  But that’s a different life crisis of mine…

As I grew up and went to eat without my parents, I kept up this routine of getting dessert elsewhere and rationalized it because it let me try even more restaurants and I was–am–determined to eat at every place in whatever city I live in. Impossible goal? Maybe. But it’ll sure be fun trying.

I went to Momofuku Milk Bar when my mom was in town, because it felt like home again eating dinner together and finding somewhere to eat dessert. This place came up on a few results from the Google search “best desserts in NYC” and it was on our way home, so we popped in.

I admit that I was a little confused at first by it. You walk in and there is a little counter with the sweet treats, behind which there is a restaurant off to the back. After we ordered, they told us we could go to the lobby of the hotel next door and sit there and enjoy our goods since there were no seats or tables here (also threw me off a little because the lobby was actually joined to this area by a little hallway behind the counter).  Thinking about it now I guess it makes more sense that the word “bar” is in the name.

We asked them to name their most popular items and then ordered one of each. We ended up with a slice of crack pie, a compost cookie, a cereal milk milk shake, and b’day truffles. The closest thing I can compare the crack pie to is buttermilk pie (and it was my favorite of all the items we got). The compost cookie is a mish mash of chocolate, butterscotch, oats, pretzels, and lots of other yummy random ingredients. The b’day truffles are like funfetti cake balls. And the cereal milk milkshake, well that one blew my mind the most. I think they literally just have bowls of cereal soaking in milk around and then sell that milk because that is exactly what it tasted like (what happens to the cereal!?!) If you’re one of those people who loves cereal at all times of day or gulps down the milk after you finish eating, then you have to try this.

Also, sorry for the poor quality pictures. This random lobby we were sitting in was super dark and sultry, and we already looked weird enough carrying all these desserts into there from a side entrance to go straight to their couches. I wasn’t about to have a photo shoot flashing my iPhone camera all willy nilly.

Crack pie, compost  cookie, b’day truffles, and cereal milk milkshake

15 w 56th st
New York, NY 10019

(multiple locations)