Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare New (and Improved!), NYC, Nov 2023

I’ve been wanting to go to CTBF for quite a while and decided I’d visit during my current trip to New York. And then bam! They close, César Ramirez is fired, and they lose all 3 of their Michelin stars. In the end, I decided to stick with going to CTBF over Blue Hill, Atomix, Atera, etc., but was incredibly nervous to be spending $430+ on new chefs with a completely different untested/unreviewed menu, and took a huge gamble… and boy did it pay off (paid ~$630, $430 base + $200 truffle and caviar supplements)!

The first thing you have to realize about the new CTBF is that it truly is still the same restaurant. The new menu is exactly the same as the old one (tartlets, uni toast, 3-4 seafood courses, 2 meat courses, and ice cream/soufflé desserts), with tons of the current dishes being slight changes and improvements on the old ones. I will say the Japanese influences on the menu are a lot less than I’ve seen before, though that definitely isn’t a bad thing IMO.

King Crab Tartlet (buckwheat, ginger): Perfect start to the meal! I’m usually not a fan of grains like buckwheat, but its flavor and crunch paired perfectly with the crab and the ginger notes brought it all together beautifully. 9/10

A5 Wagyu (nori tartlet and caviar): How could you go wrong with this?! An incredible wagyu tartare served in a seaweed tartlet. The tartare did have an incredible marinade that greatly accentuated the fattiness of the Wagyu. This dish gets bumped down 1 point since while it went well with the seaweed tartlet, this dish absolutely didn’t need caviar. 9/10

Crispy Waffle (butternut squash, Hokkaido uni, white truffle): What God eats for breakfast! The uni toast is back! I’ve had uni toast at many restaurants and made Ramirez’s toast at home, and quite frankly, they all taste pretty much the same. Brioche and uni can only get so interesting. This was incredible, however! They use chef Marco Prin’s Belgian grandmother’s waffle recipe, and it gives a much more interesting depth of flavor and crunch than plain toasted brioche. I was skeptical about the butternut squash at first, but it absolutely added to the dish and worked very well with the white truffle! 10/10

Bluefin Tuna (ginger, fingerlime, agua chile): Classy dish. The awesome ginger and citrusy sauce really added to the tuna, once again, accentuating its rich fattiness. The ikura and slight chili notes also brought great variety to the dish. 8/10

Fingerling Potato (smoked sturgeon caviar, dill, brown butter sabayon): Imagine combining Guy Savoy’s sunchoke soup and Joël Robuchon’s mashed potatoes… if that sounds like perfection, it’s because it absolutely is! This might have been one of the simplest dishes of the night, but it was phenomenal. Heavily smoked caviar on top of a buttery potato pudding of sorts. You could absolutely taste the dill and the nuttiness from the brown butter as well. I would have preferred to have this dish before the langoustine, though. 10/10

Langoustine (prick chili paste, shiso vinaigrette, pan dan foam): The most Asian dish of the night IMO, but it worked. Perfectly cooked large langoustine with a beautiful sauce that had it all, spiciness, acidity, slightly sweet, and the perfect consistency. Though I didn’t like it at first, I realized how valuable the pan dan foam was by the end of the dish, as it cut through the richness. 8/10

Grilled Kinmedai (heart of palm, chive essence, Kaluga queen caviar): My least favorite dish of the night. This was the only place where I questioned the chefs’ flavor choices. The heart of palm and chive flavors went decently well together, but they didn’t work super well along with the kinmedai. The dish tasted even stranger when you added caviar to the bite. 6.5/10

Squab (yellow foot mushroom, foie gras): Awesome! The squab was nicely smoked, dry-aged, and lean, which made it go excellently with the foie gras. The mushroom elements were great, and the jus sauce brought everything together nicely. 9/10

Wagyu Ribeye (tongue and cheek ragout, wasabi, beetroot): Weirdly enough, I would have ranked this dish higher if they just gave me the Wagyu and sauce, which were quite excellent and deserved a better side than the ragout/beet tower. I also didn’t really even get a hint of wasabi. This dish also gets knocked down slightly due to the meat’s quality. At this price point, I expect A5, though at least this A4 Wagyu is better than the A3 César Ramirez was serving before he left while charging a minimum of $430 per head. 8/10

Bartlett Pear (crispy rice, roasted rice cremeux, sake granita): Incredible palate cleanser. The pear, rice, and sake flavors paired amazingly with each other, and this dish was also a textural masterpiece. 10/10

Persimmon Cake (ice cream, miso soja caramel, Japanese whiskey, white truffle): This is the new chefs’ interpretation of Ramirez’s frozen soufflé, and from what I’ve seen, I’d like to think it’s probably better. Once again a textural masterpiece! The concept of this dessert was similar to the last one, but mush sweeter due to the Japanese caramel. Phenomenal dessert! The white truffle added to this dessert was certainly interesting. Not good or bad, just interesting. 10/10 (Due note, I got petit fours after this course.)

Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare is back… and better than ever! Michelin has definitely been losing some credibility in NYC, and if CTBF doesn’t win back all 3 of their stars next year it might be the biggest fine dining shock of my life. This restaurant is absolutely back to being one of the best restaurants in the world! One of if not the best restaurant I’ve ever been to in my life!

by Schwarzwaldstube