Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare

Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare is a renown three Michelin Star restaurant by Chef Cesar Ramirez. It’s inspired by Japanese cuisine with French technique, and the 13 course tasting menu tonight is focused on fish & shellfish with 1 meat course and 4 dessert courses. I was quite excited to come here since moving to NYC. This restaurant was always very difficult to get reservations, so it was great that we were able to when we wanted. This restaurant is currently rated number 61 out of 100 on the The World’s Best 50.

Ambiance & Service

The location of the restaurant entrance is actually located inside of the Brooklyn Fare market. It’s in the backside where the wine selection is. You will see a host there waiting there. When we entered the restaurant, it’s a large table that wraps the kitchen. Unlike other restaurants we’ve been to with U-shaped tables, this one fitted quite a number of people. In addition, they had larger tables situated against the walls.

The ambiance was fairly intimate with the kitchen. You can see the different chefs prepare your dish, and Chef Ramirez was delegating and directing some to do things. It felt like half of the food was assembled by him. He cooked some of the langoustines and also prepared some of the initial canapes.

The dinner itself was $430 per person (not including tax & tip) for the tasting meal. We didn’t order any of the supplements, but those included things like:

• caviar over some of the items
• additional uni course
• additional meat course of a 3 oz wagyu A4

The wine tasting menu was $320.

The service was definitely elegant. The Chef individually greeted and welcomed each party and individual, which was all surprising and an epitome of humility and gratitude. However compared to other 2 and 3 Michelin Star restaurants, there was something else that seemed a little inconsistent. For example, the sommelier spoke very quickly about the wines and was fairly quiet. Unlike other similar restaurants, I was expecting more engagement from him. When they brought out the food to the different tables, they tried their best to appear cordial and organized, but it was basically a staggered dinner for the patrons. On one hand, I understand, but when compared to other restaurants, it seemed like other restaurants have really mastered the art of synchronizing all the presentation and delivery of their dishes. Regardless of this constructive criticism, the service was still very commendable on its own, and it was very much memorable … especially Chef Ramirez’s greeting.

They do not give you paper souvenir menus to go. You have to ask them to send you an email with the PDF. That very slightly irked me a bit, but I did receive the PDF about 16 hours later.

Food

We ordered a non-alcoholic glass of the Lysegrøn ($22). This was from the Sparkling Tea company in Copenhagen. It had a very distinct, refreshing green tea taste to it.

The first alcohol pairing for the following 3 canapes was this Taittinger, ‘Comtes de Champagne’, Brut, Champagne 2011.

The front wine is the color of the champagne above, and the back is the Lysegrøn. The champagne was crispy, bubbly, and pretty good and smooth.

The first course was a canape of hamachi ikura. This was smoked salmon from Faroe Island and had a medley of flavors. I tasted some shiso leaf in it. The ikura was quite good.

The second course was a canape of wagyu beef tartar. This was Mayazaki A5 wagyu beef on a crispy kelp. I also tasted there was some pickling notes in it. It was pretty good too.

The third course and last canape offering was the kasugodai. This was baby sea bream, rice, ginger, and vinegar. This was quite delectable and tender.

The second alcohol pairing for the next course was Estefania Tilenus, ‘Monteseiros’, Bierzo, Leon 2021.

This wine was crispy with a lot of apple notes and some citrus in it.

The fourth course was a caviar sawara. This was Japanese mackerel with caviar and chips. Everything was quite tasty. They gave us a good amount of caviar, and the fish was very fresh. Each bite was delectable.

The third alcohol pairing for the next course was Moulin Touchais, Coteaux du Layon, Loire 1996.

This wine was on the sweet side. I was not a fan of this, but part of it is due to not liking sweet wines much.

The fifth course was uni. This was 2 pieces of Hokkaido uni on top of a toasted brioche with some black truffle on top. The uni was delicious and was very fresh. Compared to other regions, Hokkaido uni is always known for their creaminess. I can understand somewhat why a sweet wine was used to pair with this course. The sweet wine sort of accentuates the uni taste.

The fourth alcohol pairing for the next course was the Clemens Busch, ‘Marienburg’ Grosses Gewächs, Mosel 2021.

This was basically a riesling, and it also had some interesting funk to the smell of it. It was acidic, dry, and fairly balanced in taste.

The sixth course was bluefin tuna. The Japanese bluefin tuna came with cilantro, basil, and tomato sorbet. The tomato sorbet was quite interesting. It was no where near as bold as eating tomato paste, but it reminded me of it except it has a low coolness to it. The soup itself was pretty good.

The fifth alcohol pairing for the next course was the Heaven Sake, Junmai Ginjo, Hyogo.

This tasted very similar to other sakes I’ve had. It was ultra smooth and clean. It reminded me a bit of potato vodka where you get a very mild alcoholic aftertaste. When drinking it, there’s really no burn.

The seventh course was corn custard. This was a soup with early summer corn custard, foie gras, and conch. This broth also had a lot of ginger flavors in it, but it gave a nice uplifting feeling to it. If you dip the spoon deep enough, there’s hot corn custard that is very similar to a chawanmushi texture.

The sixth alcohol pairing was the Bachey-Legros, Chassagne-Montrachet, Burgundy, 2020.

This white wine smells of some funk, but it was good when paired with the langoustine course.

The eighth course was the langoustine. This was Norwegian langoustine, maitaki mushrooms, and a white asparagus sauce. The langoustine was perfectly cooked by Chef Ramirez on the flattop. It was sweet and deliciously texture. This did have a medley of mushrooms which I gave away to my partner without blinking. Other than that, the green sauce was also pretty good too.

The seventh alcohol pairing for the next meat course was the Mazilly, ‘Les Poutures’ 1er Cru, Pommard, Burgundy 2019.

This is the red pinot noir for the upcoming meat course. This was a solid medium body red wine with subtle earthy and oaky notes.

The ninth course was the quail. This also came with zucchini blossom and sugar snap peas. The zucchini blossom has something tasty in it that I could not quite figure out. The quail as expected was cooked perfectly and very delicious. Paired with the pinot noir, it was complementary.

The eighth and final wine pairing for the dessert courses was the Royal Tokaji, ‘5 Puttonyos Aszu’, Tokaj, 2017. Although this wine was pretty good, I have realized that I am just not a dessert wine kind of person.

Now, time for the dessert courses.

The strawberry sorbet was meant to be a palette refresher, and it definitely did its job.

The corn frozen souffle was actually pretty good. It had a similar texture to Hawaiian shaved ice, but with a lot of sweet corn syrup and notes to it.

The vanilla with rhubarb cake came with a candle for a birthday.

This was the innards of the vanilla rhubarb cake. It was mildly sweet and pretty good. It was not the best rhubarb dessert I’ve had.

The 13th and last dessert course was this display of 2 bite sized desserts:

• The higher hand was a dark chocolate puff. It had a mildly sweet cream in it, and it was very good.
• The lower hand was a dark chocolate passion fruit tart. This was simply sublime.

Final Verdict

Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare was pretty delicious for what it is. However, the price point compared to some of its other Michelin competitors does not quite justify it. I thought the wine pairing was pretty good, but the price affects it in a less than positive way. The service was also interesting. It felt not as polished or buttoned up as some other 2 to 3 Michelin star restaurants we have been to. If Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare was on your wishlist, now is the best time to try to land a reservation since it’s not as difficult as it was before. However, I do have some concerns that the total package offered may not feel as rewarding as the prestige it did offer a few years ago.

Yelp Jabs

This famed 3 Michelin star restaurant tucked away in the back of a grocery store serves an innovative Japanese menu… While each of the dishes were good none really blew me away. Probably a step below what I’d expect from a 3 star establishment.

More Michelin stars does not mean the food taste that much better. Sure, there’s some expectations of refinement and luxury, but the experience also supports the narrative. I think this Elitist went to this restaurant with inflated expectations.

Among the five best meals of my life - and I’ve eaten well across the world. I was blown away by the intricacy of the flavor in each bite. Some dishes were transcendent

Unfortunately, this was not one of our best meals of our lives. Compared to Atomix, it’s not even close. We also still prefer Le Bernardin. The food was good, but it was just not as good as others we’ve been to. We are glad to have knocked this off our list, but we feel the newer restaurants offer more transcendence.

Revisions

1. Jun 15, 2023 - Initial revision.