New York City / Tasting Menus
Best Tasting Menus
in NYC
From $65 to $1,200 a head. Where the value actually is, and which lunches cost half the dinner.
Two kitchens serve the same food for less at lunch — Odo from 11:45am and Masa from noon.
- 17 verified rooms
- from $65
- to $1,200
- 3 include the tip
The best tasting menus in NYC right now are Corima at $140 for up to thirteen courses, Atomix and Eleven Madison Park at the top, and Dirt Candy if you want ten courses for $99 with the tip already in it. The range in this city is $65 to $1,200 a head, so the only useful version of this guide is one organised around what you actually pay. Three levers move the number more than anything else: eat at lunch (Jean-Georges is $170 cheaper, Odo $120), sit at the bar (Eleven Madison Park’s bar tasting saves $160 from the same kitchen), and check whether service is included — only three rooms here build it in, and it is a twenty percent swing. Every price below came off the restaurant’s own site or its booking page in August 2026, and where a number is a deposit rather than a total, we say so.
The short version
- Best valueCorima — $140 for ten to thirteen courses. About $11 a course, against $425 at Per Se.
- CheapestDirt Candy’s five-course Vegetable Patch, $65 — with the tip already in the price.
- Eat at lunchJean-Georges is $128 at lunch and $298 at dinner. Odo is $150 against $270.
- Sit at the barEleven Madison Park’s bar tasting is $225 against $385 in the dining room.
- Nobody mentions thisPer Se runs a $275 “Under 30 Lunch” — $150 below its dining room tasting.
At a glance
The real price per person, and when it drops. Tap a number on the map to place it.
| Restaurant | The price | Days | Service | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dirt Candy | $99 / $65, gratuity included | Tue–Sat | dinner | $$$ |
| Atoboy | $75 four courses, gratuity included | Tue–Sun | dinner | $$$ |
| Bodai | $99 nine courses, prepaid | Daily | dinner | $$$ |
| Corima | $140 for 10–13 courses | Tue–Sat | 5:30–10pm | $$$ |
| Hearth | $110, nine dishes family-style | Daily | 5–9:30/10:30pm | $$$ |
| 63 Clinton | $130 tasting; caviar handroll +$55 | Tue–Sat | 6–11pm | $$$ |
| Odo | Lunch kaiseki $150 vs $270 dinner | Wed–Sun | 11:45am–2:15pm | $$$ |
| Jean-Georges | $128 lunch vs $298 dinner tasting | Tue–Sat | lunch | $$$ |
| Le Bernardin | Lunch ~$137; dinner prix fixe $218 | Mon–Sat | lunch and dinner | $$$ |
| Masa | Lunch from $495; dinner to $1,200 | Tue–Sat | 12–2:30pm | $$$ |
| Eleven Madison Park | Bar $225 vs dining room $385 | Daily | dinner | $$$ |
| Atomix | Bar $285 vs counter $385 | Tue–Sat | 5:30–11pm | $$$ |
| Ilis | Menus $150 / $250; bar walk-in | Wed–Sun | dinner | $$$ |
| Yakitori Torishin | $107 pre-theater at the Sake Bar | Daily | until 6:30pm | $$$ |
| Per Se | $425 tasting; $275 under-30 lunch | Daily | lunch and dinner | $$$ |
| Gabriel Kreuther | $190 / $220 prix fixe; $295 tasting | Mon–Sat | from 4:45pm | $$$ |
| Kabawa | $150 three courses | Wed–Sun | dinner | $$$ |
Map: where these 17 spots are
Columbus Circle holds the ceiling; the genuine value is on Allen Street and the Lower East Side.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
Under $150 a head
The most useful section on this page, and the one other guides skip. See also best restaurants in NYC.
Dirt Candy
The only room on this page where the menu price is the actual price. The Vegetable Garden is ten-ish courses at $99 with gratuity included; the five-course Vegetable Patch is $65, same deal. Compare $99 here against $99-plus-twenty-percent anywhere else and the arithmetic swings hard. Pairings are $50 and $70. Entirely vegetable-based — no meat, no seafood, and it has never needed either. The honest caveat: because the tip is baked in, the sticker looks higher than comparable menus. It is not. Read the two numbers side by side before you decide it is expensive.
dirtcandynyc.com · See our best vegetarian restaurants in NYC
Atoboy
The cheapest route into the best kitchen family in New York. Four courses, $75, gratuity included — from the same team whose chef’s counter at Atomix is $385 and whose bar tasting is $285. You choose across three savoury courses plus dessert. During Restaurant Week the dinner prix fixe has run as low as $60. The honest caveat: these are small plates, not entrees — four courses is a proper meal but not a heavy one, which is why the $28 fried chicken supplement with gochujang and peanut exists. Order it if you are hungry rather than pretending you are not.
atoboynyc.com · See our best Korean restaurants in NYC
Bodai
Nine courses for $99, built on rare plant-based ingredients from mountains and forests, from Master Guo Wenjun — billed as the first and only Chinese vegetarian restaurant in the United States serving a tasting menu. On a page where the ceiling is $1,200, that is a genuinely startling number for the ambition on the plate. The honest caveat: it is prepaid through Tock and takes parties of two to six only, so this is not a solo walk-up and the money goes down before you eat. Midtown East, which is not where anyone looks for this.
Corima
The best courses-per-dollar in New York, and it is not close. Fidel Caballero’s Michelin-starred counter runs roughly ten to thirteen courses of northern Mexican cooking for $140 — about eleven dollars a course, against $425 for Per Se. You sit at the counter and watch the whole thing happen. The honest caveat: the beverage pairing is $90 on top of a $140 menu, which is close to a two-thirds markup — order from the drinks list instead unless you specifically want the full run. Tuesday to Saturday, 5:30 to 10pm.
corimanyc.com · See our best Mexican restaurants in NYC
Hearth
“Let Us Cook For You” is nine dishes across four courses for $110 a head, served family-style, from a kitchen that has been doing this on East 12th Street for two decades without ever reaching for a tweezer. Pairing adds $75. It also does lunch Wednesday to Friday and weekend brunch, which almost nothing else at this level bothers with. The honest caveat: family-style means the whole table eats the same progression, so it does not work the way a counter does for one person, and you cannot opt out of a dish quietly. Go with people you like.
restauranthearth.com · See our East Village happy hours
63 Clinton
A genuine tasting menu for $130 — roughly what several rooms on this page charge for three courses. The summer menu runs about eight components and ranges from tuna salad and breakfast tacos to Basque cheesecake and a s’more choco taco, which tells you the register it is working in. A caviar handroll supplement is $55. The honest caveat, and check it before you book rather than at the table: the kitchen states plainly that it cannot accommodate vegans, or egg, coconut, soybean or severe allium, herb and spice allergies. Resy only, Tuesday to Saturday.
63clinton.com · See our Lower East Side happy hours
Lunch, for half the dinner price
Same kitchen, same room, a different number. More midday value in best lunch in NYC.
Odo On now
The textbook case for eating fine dining at lunch. The Abridged Lunch Kaiseki is $150 for six courses; dinner is $270 for eight to nine. Same chef, same counter, $120 less. Lunch seatings run Wednesday to Sunday, 11:45am to 2:15pm. It is also the most humane cancellation policy at this level — refundable up to 48 hours out. The honest caveat: corkage is $150 per bottle, which is precisely the price of the entire lunch menu. Bringing your own wine here is a category error. Note the entrance is unmarked; you are looking for a doorway, not a restaurant front.
odo.nyc · See our best Japanese restaurants in NYC
Jean-Georges
The clearest lunch-versus-dinner arbitrage in Manhattan fine dining. Three courses at lunch, Tuesday to Saturday, for $128 — against $298 for the six-course tasting at dinner. Same dining room on Central Park West, same kitchen, a $170 per-person gap. For two people that is $340 saved for the price of eating at 1pm instead of 8pm. The honest caveat: $128 buys you three courses, not a compressed version of the tasting menu — if you want the full six-course progression you are paying $298 and going at night. Nougatine next door is the cheaper a la carte room under the same roof.
Le Bernardin
Three Michelin stars, four New York Times stars, and three quite different prices depending on when you walk in: the eight-course Chef’s Tasting is $350, the dinner prix fixe $218, and the three-course lunch prix fixe runs around $137. The honest caveat, and people genuinely get caught by this: at lunch, dessert counts as one of your three courses and the menu does not say so. Plan your three picks accordingly or you will spend one of them on a sweet you did not mean to order. Swapping the cheese cart in adds $44. The lunch figure is the one number here we could not source to the restaurant’s own page — confirm when you book.
Masa On now
The most expensive sushi in America, and the widest lunch-to-dinner gap we found anywhere: lunch omakase starts at $495, while dinner is $750 at a table, $950 at the hinoki counter and $1,200 for the Chef’s Reserve. Lunch runs Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 2:30. Reservations drop on the first of the month at 2pm. The honest caveat, stated plainly: even the cheap way in is $495 a head before drinks, and the booking figures are deposits with add-ons attached, so the final bill runs higher than the headline. This is on the page as the ceiling, not as a recommendation.
Bar and counter seats at fine-dining rooms
Where you eat the same food for $100 to $160 less. See also best omakase in NYC.
Eleven Madison Park
The single biggest saving available at this level: the bar tasting menu is $225 for four to five courses in about two hours, against $385 for six courses in the dining room. Same kitchen, $160 less, and you are still in the room. The dining room price went up from $365 in April. Two honest caveats that matter here more than anywhere: reservations are prepaid and non-refundable with no rescheduling offered — if your plans move, the money is gone — and the $385 does not include gratuity, so dinner for two lands near a thousand dollars. Reservations release on the first of each month.
elevenmadisonpark.com · See our best Michelin star restaurants in NYC
Atomix
Chef Park’s ten-course counter is $385; the bar tasting is $285. That hundred-dollar gap buys you the same kitchen, which makes the bar the value seat in the building. And here is the detail that changes the real cost: Atomix does not accept gratuities, so the listed price is closer to the price you actually pay than almost anywhere else on this page — a $285 bar seat here can undercut a $225 one elsewhere once tip lands. The honest caveat: it sells out completely. At the time of checking every seat was gone and the only route was the notification list. This is not a same-week booking.
Ilis
The rare fine-dining kitchen you can eat at without booking anything. The 14-seat bar takes walk-ins and runs a rotating a la carte menu — no reservation, no tasting menu, no commitment — while the dining room offers the Market Menu at $150 or the full Field Guide at $250. Mads Refslund cooks over wood, and the room is a converted Greenpoint industrial space that earns the word cavernous. The honest caveat: the Market Menu’s “extra ingredients” are supplements rather than inclusions, so $150 climbs if you say yes to everything offered. Corkage $75, two bottles maximum.
ilisnyc.com · See our Greenpoint happy hours
Yakitori Torishin
The cheapest way into a Michelin-recognised yakitori kitchen: the $107 Pre-Theater Course at the Sake Bar, which is walk-in only, no reservation needed — unusual at this level and genuinely useful before a show, given it is a few minutes from the Theater District. The honest caveat, and it is a hard cutoff: you must be seated by 6:30pm. Arrive at 6:45 and you are on the full-price omakase. The Sake Bar also carries a $40 per-guest minimum spend, which the pre-theater course clears on its own. The Select and Chef’s Counters are the reservation-only rooms.
The big-ticket rooms
What the ceiling actually costs, stated plainly. More in best Michelin star restaurants in NYC.
Per Se
The most expensive standard tasting menu on this page at $425, with two menus daily — the Chef’s Tasting and the Tasting of Vegetables, same price. The under-covered fact: Per Se runs an “Under 30 Lunch” at $275 per person, $150 below the dining room tasting, bookable for diners under thirty and available in the private East Room. Almost nobody writes about it. The Salon lounge is a lower-commitment route with a four-course menu and a $150 deposit. The honest caveat: the booking figure is a $200 deposit, not the total — the balance plus tax and service lands at the table, so budget well above $425 a head.
Gabriel Kreuther
The cheapest entry point into a Michelin-starred tasting-menu room in Midtown: three courses for $190, four for $220, or the Chef’s Tasting at $295, in an Alsatian dining room across from Bryant Park. Dinner from 4:45pm, Monday to Saturday, and the bar and lounge serves rustic Alsatian plates a la carte if you want the kitchen without the commitment. The honest caveat, and it is the sharpest illustration of a category-wide problem: the classic wine pairing is $295 — the exact price of the tasting menu itself, with the premium pairing at $650. Order by the glass unless the pairing is specifically what you came for.
Kabawa
The most talked-about new tasting menu in the city: Paul Carmichael’s Caribbean fine-dining room on Extra Place, three courses at $150 before beverages, tax and gratuity, with multiple options per course plus “whatever we’re making that day.” The honest comparison, and it is worth making: $150 buys three courses here against ten to thirteen for $140 at Corima. You are paying for the room and the cooking, not the count — which is a fair thing to pay for, as long as you know that is the trade. The local move: Bar Kabawa next door, from the same team, is the cheaper no-commitment version.
kabawanyc.com · See our East Village happy hours
NYC tasting menus: FAQ
How much does a tasting menu cost in NYC?
Between $65 and $1,200 per person in 2026. The floor is Dirt Candy’s five-course Vegetable Patch at $65 with the tip included; the ceiling is Masa’s Chef’s Reserve Omakase at $1,200. The three-Michelin-star tier clusters around $350 to $425 – Le Bernardin’s tasting is $350, Eleven Madison Park is $385 and Per Se is $425, none of which include gratuity.
Which NYC tasting menus are cheaper at lunch?
Several, and the gaps are large. Jean-Georges is $128 for three courses at lunch against $298 for the six-course dinner tasting. Odo is $150 for six courses at lunch against $270 for eight or nine at dinner. Masa starts at $495 at lunch against $950 at the hinoki counter. Le Bernardin’s three-course lunch runs about $137 against a $350 dinner tasting. Per Se also runs a $275 ’Under 30 Lunch’ for diners under thirty.
Do NYC tasting menus include service?
Usually not, and it is a twenty percent difference. Only three rooms in this guide include it: Atomix does not accept gratuities at all, Atoboy builds it into its $75, and Dirt Candy marks both menus tip included. Eleven Madison Park explicitly does not include gratuity in its $385, and Kabawa’s $150 excludes tax and tip.
Are tasting menu reservations refundable?
Often not. Eleven Madison Park states that all sales are final and non-refundable, with no rescheduling offered. Bodai is a prepaid Tock booking. Per Se takes a $200 per-person deposit that is applied to the bill. Odo is the most forgiving – refundable up to 48 hours out, with nothing refunded inside 48 hours or for no-shows.
Can you eat at a fine-dining restaurant in NYC without a reservation?
At a few. Ilis in Greenpoint keeps a 14-seat bar that takes walk-ins with a rotating a la carte menu. Yakitori Torishin’s Sake Bar is walk-in only and serves a $107 pre-theater course to anyone seated by 6:30pm, though it carries a $40 per-guest minimum. Gabriel Kreuther’s bar and lounge serves a la carte Alsatian plates without a dining-room booking.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
