Le Bernardin

Maguy Le Coze and Eric Ripert’s icon has been entertaining the city’s movers and shakers for close to 30 years and its popularity remains undimmed. Seafood restaurants have no hiding place when it comes to cooking fish or crustaceans and this kitchen always hits its marks—whether that’s lusciously sweet, seared langoustine in a truffled broth or golden-brown fluke with a bouillabaisse enriched with sea urchin. While seafood remains Ripert's passion, his vegetarian tasting menu makes waves with dishes like the Himalayan morel, spring pea and fava bean casserole or the warm artichoke panaché with vegetable risotto and Périgord black truffle vinaigrette. Finish with purple sweet potato baba au whisky cloaked with caramelized pecan whipped cream.

• The main dining-room menu is structured by cooking level, almost raw, barely touched, lightly cooked.
• Two parallel tasting paths, a seafood chef’s tasting and a vegetarian truffle tasting, both offered at the same headline price.
• A deep bench of caviar and uni dishes threads through multiple sections of the menu.

Signature Ingredients

• Royal Osetra caviar, offered throughout the menu, including a bluefin tuna and caviar course.
• Sea urchin, paired with oyster or folded into warm scallop courses.
• Tuna, from yellowfin carpaccio-style preparations to tartare.
• Dover sole, a flagship main-course fish.
• Black cod, treated with a miso glaze as a house signature.

Menu

• Dining Room dinner prix fixe: $218 for 4 courses.
• Chef’s Tasting Menu: $350 per person, $530 with wine pairing.
• Vegetarian Truffle Tasting: $350 per person, $530 with wine pairing.
• The dining-room menu is organised by cooking intensity, from “almost raw” to “barely touched” to “lightly cooked”.

Style

• Three-star seafood temple in Midtown, with a broad raw and barely-cooked opening act, then precise sauced fish and shellfish mains, plus a parallel vegetarian tasting built around truffle.