Beleaguered Momofuku Nishi Closes for Renovations

Momofuku kingpin David Chang’s Chelsea restaurant Nishi has closed for renovations. A tipster reports that he spotted workers “emptying out the restaurant yesterday” and was told that it was for remodeling.

The restaurant opened in January 2016 and received one-star reviews from Eater’s critic Ryan Sutton and Pete Wells of the New York Times — with both saying it was a loud and expensive restaurant that didn’t quite hit.

In October, Chang admitted to making a “stupid mistake” with rushing the opening of the Korean-Italian restaurant, blaming some of the issues on a “very limited budget.” Since the negative reviews, he has tried to make fixes like ending no-tipping to adjust pricing and adding sound panels to reduce noise.

Momofuku did not immediately have further information about what would be changing with the restaurant. Stay tuned for more.

• All previous coverage of Momofuku Nishi [ENY]