Sydney icon Momofuku Seiobo to call last drinks in June

Sydney’s acclaimed Momofuku Seiobo restaurant is closing in June, ten years after first opening in a back hallway of the Star Casino.

The restaurant was opened in 2011 by David Chang and offered a Caribbean inspired menu by Chef Paul Carmichael.

In 2020, it was added to the World’s Best Restaurants list compiled for Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure magazines. It is one of only three Australian restaurants that have made that list.

Mr Chang revealed in an interview last week that once the lease ended, he and his team, which comprises chef, Paul Carmichael, and the general manager, Kylie Javier Ashton, decided against renewing it, with all three wishing to close the restaurant on a high note.

“We had many conversations about what the future of Seiobo would look like,” said Mr Chang.

“The restaurant is their baby. When you eat there you understand how personal this is for them. There is no Seiobo without them. They’ve given so much to the restaurant — especially this year — and when they said they wanted to go out on top, I supported them completely.”

During Sydney’s pandemic lockdown last year, the restaurant had to close for 18 weeks. When it re-opened in July, it had less staff and government-mandated capacity restrictions led to less customers.

However, financial reasons are not the cause of them shutting down with Mr Javier Ashton stating: “If anything we have created a business model that is a lot more efficient”.

Any staff who are direct employees of Star Casino will have the option to be placed in the casino in other restaurant jobs.

The restaurant’s closing date is 26 June. It is the third restaurant in the Momofuku empire to close since the beginning of the pandemic. These include:  CCDC in Washington, D.C., and Nishi in New York City shuttered in mid-2020.

15th March 2021