Manhattan Tasting Menu?

[scubagirl72]

Hi,

Three of us are going to Manhattan to celebrate turning 40 at the end of September. We would love to have a dinner at a restaurant that has a great tasting menu with paired wines/beverages. Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

[JC2]

Not sure if they do wine pairings, but Annisa's tasting menu is fabulous, also 15 East, Jung Sik..

[kathryn]

Many of the top NYC restaurants serving tasting menus book 28, 30, or 31 days in advance.

You've just missed the opening of the booking window and may find yourself shut out of your first few choices, or left only with the very early and very late times.

Also note that many fine dining destinations are closed on Sundays, but not all of them are. The day of the week you wish to celebrate will influence where you end up. Obviously Friday and Saturday nights are the most in demand. If you are flexible or are willing to do lunch (esp weekday lunch) you will have more options.

As Spiritchaser mentions, making recommendations without having a price range in mind is difficult. Especially since you want wine pairings.

For example, Per Se is $295 per person for dinner, service included, but certain courses also have supplements. Le Bernardin has two tastings, $190pp for the Chef's and $145pp for the Le Bernardin (service not included). The tasting menu at Eleven Madison Park is $195pp (they recently eliminated their prix fixe option). The tasting at Daniel is also $195pp. The two tasting menus at Jean George are $168pp. Del Posto's 7 course tasting is $145pp. And this is just all just for the food part of your bill...

http://www.jean-georges.com/
http://www.delposto.com/menu.cfm?restaurantid=1&id=5#639
http://www.tkrg.org/upload/ps_menu.pdf
http://www.le-bernardin.com/tasting/
http://www.danielnyc.com/daniel.html
http://elevenmadisonpark.com/#/menus

And if you want wine pairings, you'll pay more on top of that. Example chart here from last year:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06...

What about dress code? Are you bringing a jacket? For example, Per Se is jacket required both at lunch and dinner (they only serve lunch Fri-Sun). Jean Georges is jacket required for dinner but not lunch. Le Bernardin is jacket required both at lunch and dinner. Daniel is jacket required (they don't serve lunch). Eleven Madison Park is jacket preferred, not required, at dinner. Del Posto is jacket preferred, etc.

[scubagirl72]

Read the article, fabulous info. Going to look at your recommendations this morning and hopefully manage to get a reservation.

We are fairly casual girls but can certainly dress up if the occasion requires.

We are there from Friday morning to Monday morning and are flexible with times. Actually like the idea of lunch rather than dinner, would probably appreciate having the extra time to walk off the calories!

[EBT]

Jean Georges is one of the few that does tasting menus for lunch on Saturday, and I highly recommend it. I'm with you on eating well all day and walking it off all afternoon! You can stroll up to the AMNH or the NY Historical Society afterwards.

[Spiritchaser]

Jean George is a great recommendation in general but for lunch it's a fantastic idea, love JG at lunch time (and the real JG, not Nougatine).

[Tommy D.]

The bar at Nougatine will serve the JG tasting menu upon request, which is a good option if the OP wants to dress very casually.

[ellenost]

Bouley does a $55 multi-course tasting menu at lunch with choices for each course. While I've dined at Bouley only at dinner, I've heard excellent things about the lunch tasting menu. Bouley has recently revamped its website, and when I had dinner there two weeks ago, the website menu and the actual menu were the same.

[buttertart]

Ii love that lunch but Booley's wines are very overpriced, thereby making it no real bargain if you drink. The Modern's prix fixe lunch is more expensive but they have a better list with more lower-end but still very good bottles. (Upcoming anniversary at the Modern, happy to be going back for dinner.)

[mushroomaffairs]

I went with my aunt and cousin to Torrisi IT Specialties which is nothing but one tasting menu, at least when I went back in June. It was $65/pp and the portions were fairly ample and not dinky bites. They have a wine menu but we didn't order alcohol since neither of my relatives drink and I only drink occasionally. The server handed my aunt the wine menu and she just handed it right back, lol.

I don't recall if they had second menu for wine pairings though, check the website. It's a really cute albeit dark little restaurant in Little Italy.

[scubagirl72]

Think we're going to try to book this in for lunch one day, looks great. For dinner we are looking for a larger variety. Just love having a chef serve up what he/she thinks is the best of what they have to offer.

[Spiritchaser]

So many choices it's hard to find a place to start but you will probably get better response if you give some more details regarding price point etc.

[scubagirl72]

Was looking for something around $150 for food, understanding that the beverage pairings would cost more. We are three women, fairly casual, but clean up well if need be :) Prefer more understated restaurants, more about the food than the image.