César New York

Ever since my earliest memories from my food blogging days, I’ve wanted to dine at Brooklyn Fare in New York City. This 3-Michelin starred “casual” restaurant in Brooklyn boasted an insane tasting menu of 20+ unique courses. People RAVED about it. And yes, as often happens, it was IMPOSSIBLE to book. I gave up early, essentially writing Brooklyn Fare off as a place I’d never visit.

More than a decade passed. I moved to Hong Kong, the pandemic happened, and restaurants came and went. Brooklyn Fare had its own share of issues, eventually ending in a split. The original executive chef César Ramirez opened his own place called César (which quickly gained 2 Michelin stars). The owner Moneer Issa kept the Brooklyn Fare name and hired another chef. Both restaurants have ranked very highly since.

Though it’s not quite the same as going to the original Brooklyn Fare, I can only imagine that Chef César has refined his cooking EVEN MORE since those early days of Brooklyn Fare.

The first chance we had to spend time together in New York City, Bryan booked César for our “fancy” meal of the trip. It did not disappoint.

The Tasting Menu

We started with Smoked Trout Rillette, which instantly reminded me of smoked whitefish from New York City (like Zabar's or H&H). Comforting, familiar, and honestly a little nostalgic.

Then the server brought over Shima Aji Weaved in a Potato Crisp. The nori was super crispy, the shiso was fresh, and the rice texture was excellent. It was so many great textures in one bite.

We were sitting at the bar seats watching the kitchen when Chef Cesar came over.

“Do you like your camera?” He pointed at my new Leica Q3 which Bryan had given to me for my birthday last year.

It turns out his wife has the exact same camera, is a HUGE Leica fan, and uses that camera to take all the photos on the restaurant’s website. By the way, those photos are gorgeous, and his wife surely knows what she is doing!

We bonded over a love of cameras and photography.

He was so kind to even gift me an upgraded version of the Red Prawn Monaka, made with Atlantic shrimp and wasabi. The luxurious (optional) caviar on top totally made the dish (definitely recommend upgrading!).

Soooo good.

Pigeon as the "red" meat

And the the sweets began . . .

General Thoughts - César New York

All in all, our dinner at César New York was such a nice, nice meal. We really enjoyed sitting at the counter, where we could watch the chefs perform their magic. I loved how the meal was predominantly seafood, with significant influence from Japanese cuisine (one of my favorites!). Bryan really liked how César incorporated elements of New York cuisine, such as the smoked trout rillette that reminded us of smoked fish spread from a Jewish deli.

Here's the video version of our meal!

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September 2025 César New York Tasting Menu

We liked our meal at César New York so much we came back 4 months later with good friends of ours to celebrate the husband's 50th birthday. The tasting menu was similar, but not exactly the same as the meal we had enjoyed in June. Many themes, such as the whitefish "cigar, the "fish & chips", monaka, and uni toast were still on the menu. However, there were several differences as well. All in all, it was again an excellent meal, and our friend, the birthday boy, enjoyed it very, very much.