Monday, October 15th, 2012

The 2013 edition of the highly-regarded New York City Michelin Restaurant Guide went on sale earlier this month — once again, a handful of Upper West Side restaurants received coveted stars.

Of particular note is that of the seven 3-star restaurants in all of NYC, three of them reside on the Upper West Side.

If you’re looking to try any of them, I’ve got some tips below on how to do it while saving a bit of cash (relatively speaking).

Eater has a list of the restaurants that received stars. Here are the UWS recipients (stars in parenthesis):

• Jean Georges (***): 1 Central Park West
• Masa (***): Time Warner Center/Columbus Circle
• Per Se (***): Time Warner Center/Columbus Circle
• A Voce (*): Time Warner Center/Columbus Circle
• Dovetail (*): 103 W. 77th
• Picholine (*): 35 W. 64th (dropped from two-stars in 2011)

While the NYC list as a whole has grown from 805 to 896 restaurants, the Upper West Side list is unchanged from 2012.

For what it’s worth, last October former NYT restaurant critic called Per Se “the best restaurant in New York City.”

Anyone been to any of these?

I ate at Dovetail in 2008, a few months after it opened. I can’t remember the specifics, but I DO remember it was damn tasty.

One thing that all these restaurants have in common — beside the Michelin stars — is expensive menus. A couple of tips if you’re looking to try them out at slightly reduced prices:

• While prix fixe and tasting menus at Jean Georges range in price from $118 to $168, they offer a two-course prix fixe lunch menu for a much more reasonable $38. That’s obviously more expensive than a $6 sandwich, but it’s a downright steal for a formal lunch at one of the top restaurants in NYC.
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• The set menu at Per Se is $295/person, but as mentioned in Mr. Sifton’s NYT review “… there is an à la carte menu available in the salon up front, and careful diners could eat there for less than $100.”
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• Masa is even more expensive than Per Se (think $450 for a 20-25 course dinner), but like many other pricey NYC restaurants, lunch is your best bet to try it on the (relative) cheap. The adjoining Bar Masa offer a variety of Bento Box options for under $50, plus a $72 Omakase tasting (including soup & salad!)
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• Dovetail features a weekly “Sunday Suppa” three-course prix fixe menu for $48. After tax and tip that’s by no means cheap, but it’s a great bargain compared to their normal a la carte menu the rest of the week.
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• Picholine offers pre- and post-theater prix fixe menus for $68 (two-courses) and $88 (three-courses). Hard to call those “deals,” but they’re definitely cheaper options than going a la carte at other times.
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• A Voce probably has the least expensive offerings of any restaurant on this list, but if their dinner menu is still out of your price-range, they offer a three-course prix fixe lunch for $33 from Monday to Friday. On weekends, there’s an a la carte  brunch menu — it’s not cheap, but it’s less expensive than dinner.

It’s also worth noting that both A Voce and Dovetail usually participate in NYC Restaurant Week, although I believe only for lunch ($24 prix fixe).

If you’re not in any rush, Winter Restaurant Week 2013 should run from mid-January to mid-February.

Filed under: Food & Drink, Going Out, Manhattan, New York City, News, NYC, Restaurants, Upper West Side, Upper West Side Blog, UWS No Comments »
Tags: 1 Central Park West, 2013 Michelin Restaurant Guide, A Voce, Ai Fiori, Chef Michael White, Columbus Circle, Dovetail, Jean Georges, Marea, Masa, Michael White, Michelin Restaurant Guide, Michelin Star, New York City, NYC, Per Se, Picholine, prixe fixe, restaurant rating, Time Warner Center, Upper West Side, UWS