The More the Merrier: Ma Peche's Beef 7 Ways and Other Group Feasting Opportunities

A few weekends ago (I know I'm behind), my friends invited me to a group dinner at David Chang and his partner Tien Ho's (relatively) new restaurant Ma Peche. I'd been there for lunch before, but this time I was here for the Beef 7 Ways dinner!

What is beef 7 ways you ask? It's a traditional style of Vietnamese dining when they, well you know, make beef courses in 7 different ways. A lot of Vietnamese restaurants offer this, so I was eager to see David Chang / Tien Ho's interpretation of it.

I was super excited for the food, but I also just love getting together for big dinners. The problem in New York though, is that this is usually so hard to do! Most of the most delicious restaurants here are pretty tiny and not very accommodating about groups. I always thought New York is almost anti-group eating and prefers keeping things cute and exclusive. (See the end of this post for a list of other restaurants that have group dining options like this!)

Anyway, on this day, I rushed here straight after a few hours at a Korean spa with my roommates, starving and ready to eat. I wasn't prepared with my camera, so these pics are from my food blogging friend Andrew Nguyen!

First up was the beef tongue salad (Niman Ranch tongue with basil, spinach and plum vinaigrette). This was one of my favorite dishes -- I know some people haven't had tongue before, but I felt that this presentation of it made it easily acceptable to people unacquainted with the wonderful flavors of beef tongue! It was nice to have some greens in a dish too when we were expecting ALL beef ALL the time for this meal.

Niman Ranch beef tongue with basil, spinach and plum vinaigrette -- 
Super delicious and light/fresh dish to start off the 7 courses of beef =)
Another super delicious dish for the 2nd course -- This was Wagyu beef with ginger, scallion and radish. The Wagyu beef was SO marbled / fatty that it just melted in my mouth!
Next they brought out a bunch of delicious fresh veggies to go with our beef salad wrap things. They also had fried onions, chilis, etc. 
And then they brought out the highlight of the dishes -- You may not be able to tell from the photo but this was the MOST delicious sausage (lemongrass, thai basil, shallots) and Cote de Boeuf (butter, thyme, garlic). We used the lettuce and side veggies to wrap it up into salad rolls.
Posing quickly before we devour our beef/sausage wraps
It seems like a lot of food already right? Well nope, we haven't even reached the STAR of the show... It's this behemoth of a BEEF SHANK that they had to get a six foot plus tall burly guy to carry out. Can you tell how big it is? I tried to help with the perspective with my peace / fob / bunny ears sign =P

On the left is oxtail cooked with soy, sherry and apple juice and on the right (yea that big thing) is the shank cooked with crab paste, onion and chili
Anyway, I think the highlight of this dish was definitely the oxtail on the left. It was so tender that once you lifted the bone off your plate, the meat just slid off! SO delicious. I thought this beef shank was uber impressive looking, but it didn't have as much flavor as I was hoping for. Maybe it was because it was the 6th course of beef, but it just all started tasting the same! =X

Oh wait, excuse me, we still aren't done! There's one more thing left... Something I liked to call beef espresso =P Okay, it's actually beef consomme if you want to be fancy about it. I guess after 6 courses of beef, the only way left to consume beef is to drink it. It was a very rich, delicious beef broth that snapped us out of our food coma (just a little).

Cheers!
Beef consomme with cilantro, basil and lime
And that was finally it! Our server asked us if we wanted dessert. We said NO in unison. We had so much beef shank left that she made us FOUR to go bags to bring home (I used some in my Shin ramen the next day =P)

Anyway, it was another great David Chang experience with lots of great food and wonderful company. The dinner was $85 a person (yea pretty pricey), but you definitely got your moneys worth in food (especially in the volume department). Because of the price, I don't think I'll be coming back for the Beef 7 Ways dinner (too many other restaurants in New York to try), but I definitely thoroughly enjoyed the food and experience. It would be awesome if some of these individual dishes were available a la carte though! 

Here are some other places that also do group format dining the next time you want to get together with a bunch of your foodie friends!


And with that, I will leave you with the lucky peach! =)


Hope everyone has a great weekend and happy Halloween!
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Ma Peche
Mezzanine of Chambers Hotel
15 W 56th St between 5th and 6th Ave
Yelp Reviews
Make a reservation before you go. Required for Beef 7 Ways, but restaurant is pretty small so still encouraged for casual visits

P.S. Our server tried to convince us to order raw oysters and crab legs, etc at the beginning to balance the beefiness of our meal, but DON'T FALL FOR IT! There is SO much food in this thing that I don't know how they would encourage people to order anything else with it!
JessicaFood, New York City