Former RuYi chef to open Momo Mee in Harbor District

The Harbor District will be getting a pan-Asian restaurant called Momo Mee, specializing in house-made dumplings and noodles, from the former chef of RuYi at the casino.

Tony Ho said he will make noodles fresh daily at his restaurant, at 110 E. Greenfield Ave. in Freshwater Plaza. Freshwater Plaza, an apartment-andretail building, is at the northeast corner of West Greenfield Avenue and South 1st Street, the gateway to the city’s new Harbor District.

He’ll also make dumplings such as Shanghai soup dumplings (xiao long bao); they’ll be served traditionally, with fresh ginger and black vinegar. (Momo are dumplings, mee are noodles.)

The full-service restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner daily, and it will have a bar serving house cocktails and sake, among other drinks.

Ho said he will make four or five kinds of noodles, including noodles for ramen and for Sichuan-style dandan.

Momo Mee won’t have a big menu, Ho said, but will include dishes not

easily found in Milwaukee and will represent a variety of cuisines, Chinese, Korean and Japanese (including sushi) among them.

The restaurant will have dim sum dishes on the menu, including steamed buns with a variety of fillings such as pork belly, Korean spicy beef and spicy chicken, and Cantonese siu mai, the pork and shrimp dumplings.

Ho, a native of Hong Kong, was with Potawatomi Hotel & Casino for 10 years, most recently working as the chef of RuYi. He left the restaurant in January, he said.

“I just want to start my own business,” he said.

My Ong Vang, with whom he worked at RuYi, will be the general manager at Momo Mee, Ho said.

The restaurant will be at a corner of Freshwater Plaza; the space has floorto-ceiling windows with views of the plaza’s fountain. Momo Mee is expected to have about 80 seats indoors; it also will have patio seating.

Ho expects the earliest the restaurant could open would be August. It’s awaiting approval for a liquor license, and the vacant space still must be outfitted for the restaurant.