My niece has been Keen for me to try her latest neighborhood gem as she calls it, Ngogo. Until yesterday it was difficult for me to go along but I managed it yesterday.
I haven’t always been excited about tasting menus but once there I felt it was the best choice. The March or perhaps spring- not sure - tasting menu was two starters, salmon tartare, and then three seared shrimp, with accompaniments. The main is 5 oz of duck breast with artichoke puree and spinach. The dessert is a white chocolate panna cotta. The menu photo gives you all the details. I thought I’d be hungry afterwards but it was actually enough. Perhaps extra bread would have done the trick. I really enjoyed it despite how cold I felt at the table. Our server was young and calm and very attentive. I think there was only one chef at the back so well done to him. The atmosphere is intimate, there aren’t many tables so you should book ahead if you plan to go. The price was $38 and there were additional items you could order to boost your experience, such as a fifth course of pasta, or cassoulet to go with your duck. Recommended.
Ngogo is on our regular rotation.
Typically we ignore the prix fixe and choose from the a la carte - in our opinion it’s well worth the extra cost - still a bargain. The dishes rotate ‘slowly’ - maybe one or two a month, but the other attraction is a very reasonable corkage cost (their wine list is perfunctory). Other than Fri or Sat it’s an easy reservation - and open Mondays!
We finally tried Ngogo (we were told it’s pronounced N and then go go) yesterday. It’s the same $38 menu as the original poster (calam1ty) showed and it’s also exactly the same 4 dishes in this prix fixe menu, except for an extra $7, we replaced the duck breast with duck confit (so total $45pp). We also added a Gochujang pasta (shared between the 2 of us) for $21 which was interesting as we’ve never had a pasta with gochujang sauce before. FYI, this is a French style restaurant with some dishes using Korean ingredients.
The salmon tartar was quite tasty and the pan seared shrimp was cooked to perfection. The gochujang pasta was saucy but good. The duck confit was just ok, on the dry side; and the panna cotta was also ok. Overall, we both agreed it was a solid value dinner.
Restaurant ambiance was friendly with lighting on the darker side. Tables were in close proximity to each other which invites conversations (which we did do) with patrons sitting next to you. The bill came to be $55.50pp for food only before drinks, taxes and tip. We shall return to try other dishes.
IMO the duck breast is much stronger than the confit. Although nobody has mentioned it yet, the Korean Fried Chicken is one of the better versions I’ve had (and the portion size is equivalent to a main).
Good to know. We have found duck breast to usually have gristles which are hard to chew which we don’t like, thus we switched to the confit. Will try the fried chicken next time.
Incidentally, they said corkage is $25 per bottle.
