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Momofuku Ko boss cooking Manhattan diners into a frenzy

Manhattan is a famously elitist place when it comes to fine dining. Who you know, rather than the size of your wallet, is often the key to securing a table at one of the hot new restaurants.

Imagine the horror then, when the latest hyper-chic establishment of New York’s most happening chef abolished the old reservation system and opted for an egalitarian alternative. David Chang opened his Momofuku Ko in the East Village just a few weeks ago and the city’s dining world has been in a lather ever since.

The only way to secure one of the tiny restaurant’s 12 bar stools is via the Internet. To foil syndicates booking seats using computer programs, valid credit card details are required on the restaurant’s Web site.

Then you have to start frantically bashing your keyboard in an attempt to snatch one of the openings logged on a virtual grid. Places become available at 10am each morning for the next seven-day period, and only for a matter seconds. The competition among diners is that fierce.

And do not bother trying to bypass the online system with a quiet call to the maitre d’ about who you are. Dignatories, from the editor of Gourmet magazine to a former top Microsoft executive, have all been turned away with a polite reference to the booking Web site momofuku.com.

Frank Bruni, the food critic for the New York Times, spent days trying to get a seat. He was so determined to sample the US$85-tasting menu he perfected his technique.

The way to do it, Bruni writes on his blog, is to “click-click-hope-click-pray-click-please-God-click-fret-sweat-panic-pray-some-more.”
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