Stories and Conspiracy Theories From the First 48 Hours of Fuku Delivery

For months, if you wanted to taste David Chang's deep-fried chicken thigh sandwiches you had to wait in line at the Midtown or East Village locations of Fuku, and eat your food inside the restaurant. But as of this week, anyone below 85th Street can order Fuku's salty treats (and salads) for delivery using Caviar. It's a whole different ball game now. And since the service went live on Tuesday, Eater readers have been writing in with reports on their experiences — some good, some not so good. Here's what people are saying about Fuku delivery:

The Great News

The ordering system worked like a charm for one reader named Dan:

I placed an order just after 11am and got a confirmation saying that it would arrive "around 2:10pm" I ordered two sandwiches and a salad. I got a message around 1:20 that my order was on its way. It was at my desk by 1:31 p.m. Chicken was still piping hot, still crispy and delicious. I work in the Flatiron so not far from the store, so that may have been part of what made this so easy but all in I was very happy. I haven't gotten to the salad yet but you don't win friends with salad so who cares.

The Bad News

A reader by the name of Mike hit a snafu yesterday: "Tried to order at 11:45 a.m. today, signed up for Caviar, went through whole process including putting in my CC info, only to be told that they were no longer delivering for the day."

The OKAY But Not Amazing News

Here's the tale of Mikey, a reader who pre-ordered on Tuesday for a Wednesday delivery at 12:30:

.Our order left at 11:45 and got delivered at 12:35 or so. Will say, even if they had been delivered earlier I'm not sure the Fuku fingers would have survived. They became a soggy mess, like a movie theater chicken finger. The sandwich's thick crunch held up WAY better for the delivery, the fries were decent but also lost the crisp-ness. Obviously a lot of this was to be expected for fried food delivery. But hey, the salad survived with ease :)

Anyway! Overall everything is OKAY but not amazing, kinda a bad impression of Fuku for first time eaters if they do the delivery unless they're within a few blocks? (We're down in the Financial District)

The Major Fuku Delivery Kitchen Reveal

A reader named Andy offers a major reveal about where those sandwiches are coming from...

Ordered a spicy fried chicken sandwich at 1:04 p.m. Noticed that the map showed that it was being made at a location on 8th Ave, which struck me as strange. When it went out for delivery, I tracked the map and sure enough the delivery guy took 8th Ave all the way up to 55th in Midtown before heading east to my office building. I remember reading back in July that Momofuku had signed on for a location at 232 8th Ave. Maybe they're using the kitchen to fire up Fuku sandwiches for delivery in the meantime? Anyways, looks like my Fuku sandwich is pulling up as we speak 1 hr 40min later, but I'm, not complaining.

Indeed, Momofuku did sign a lease on a space at 232 8th Avenue in Chelsea. Word on the street is that Chang & Co. were contemplating a super SURPRISE early debut, but then they decided to take some more time with this new restaurant before kicking those doors open. In the meantime, it looks like the Momo team is using that kitchen as part of the Fuku delivery operation.  Update: A Momo rep confirms that while the Chelsea restaurant is still in development, the kitchen has the capacity "to serve a limited number of fried chicken sandwiches via delivery."