"For more than a decade, it felt like David Chang could only open hit restaurants — until Nishi. At his Chelsea outpost of this Momofuku restaurant, gone were the pork buns, rich bowls of ramen, and fried chicken dinners served in tiny dining rooms in the East Village where his fans regularly lined up out the door. Nishi’s Korean-Italian menu never took off with New Yorkers, and the critics panned it, including our own Ryan Sutton, whose review ran with the headline “Momofuku Nishi Is Broken — Can David Chang Fix It?” Chang would go on to address the critiques, from a loud dining room to an unpopular no-tipping policy (this was in early 2016, before the movement had caught on), and he even tried adding an Impossible Burger to the menu. But it wasn’t until he temporarily closed Nishi for renovations and reopened in 2017 with a focus on just Italian food that I became a fan. I could live without another menu of Chang’s greatest hits or long waits for a weeknight dinner. From the new banquettes to the pasta-centric menu, Nishi 2.0 felt more adult, without the prices of Chang’s tasting-menu-driven Momofuku Ko. It became a go-to restaurant in an area with few options, though the chef has since faced criticism over allegations about the abusive workplace culture at some of his restaurants. I had my typical order: an endive salad showered with bagna cauda (rich anchovy and garlic dip) and walnuts to start, before diving into a 1.5-pound lobster fra diavolo that was more than enough to share with another friend or two. These dishes felt like nods to both Chang’s creativity and red-sauce classics — two things many New Yorkers can get behind." - Eater Staff
