I’ve had better service at Chipotle.

On Sunday, I meet up with Meredith and a fellow blogger friend visiting from out of town at Momofuku Ssam bar in the East Village. (No, I don’t always casually meet up with people I know from the internet. We have a friend in common.)

It is a rainy, humid Sunday. The kind of weather that compels you to stay indoors and endure many hours of top chef re-runs. Or it’s also the perfect weather to consume a wrap the size of a football.

We enter Ssam bar and plant ourselves at one of the sleek, dark wooden booths and wait for a waiter, host, busboy, ANYONE to acknowledge us. After about 15 minutes of circling our heads like the exorcist and making eyes at people who resemble servers, we finally have a gentleman approach our table and inform us that they don’t have table service during lunch and that we have to place our orders at the counter.

Okay, it’s Sunday afternoon and we’re not the most well-rested and cognizant people on the planet, but it would have been nice to have a sign placed somewhere in our vicinity announcing this. And they do have an “order here” sign but it’s placed at the counter which is on the opposite of the entrance.

So we go up to the counter and there are like 10 people working behind it and they all look they are ready to punch eachother and the customers. Even though there are more people working behind the counter than people waiting in line for food, it takes forever just to place an order.

A ssam is analogous to a burrito. I ordered the Momofuku ssam which is a thin flour pancake with berkshire pork, rice, edamame, and pickled vegetables. The ingredients look like they have been sitting out since Saturday night. The pork resembles stringy doll hair and there is more oil spilling out of it than the Exxon Valdez.

Nevertheless, I order a ssam, a pork bun, and a Smart Water. The total comes out to 20 dollars.

We finally sit and eat our ssam. Despite the suspicious looking ingredients the ssam is really tasty. I wish the pork were a little warmer but I guess that’s what happens when you order at the counter. There is ALOT of oil though. By the time I finish the entire ssam I have a mountain of napkins beside me. And my elbow is so greasy you could use it as a slip and slide. Interestingly, Meredith and Blogger Friend don’t seem to have this problem so maybe I am just a very sloppy eater.

All in all the ssam is tasty and very filling. You will feel like a pregnant woman when you are done. It’s actually big enough to share between two people. The service is sub par but maybe it’s different during dinner time. I’m not sure if Meredith will go back. She says, “Chipotle could dance circles around Ssam bar.”

But if you like ordering food from people who act like they are serving food at a high security prison, then Ssam bar is the Sunday destination for you.