César

When you arrive, the door is locked, and you cannot enter without a reservation. Seating is offered in two ways: at the bar, on a set schedule, or at a table, which requires a reservation. The dining room itself is stunning—spaciously arranged so that every seat provides a clear view of the impressive open kitchen. Thoughtful details, like the inclusion of purse stands, add to the ambiance. The menu features some truly delicious dishes, but there are others that feel like an amalgamation of luxurious ingredients chosen for the sake of extravagance rather than harmony. For context, I haven’t shared an updated review of Le B., but if you’re familiar with that restaurant, César carries a similar vibe. The assumption is that because the clientele can afford it, details about pricing are less significant. And while this may be true, such transparency feels increasingly necessary in 2024. For example, our table chose to add both caviar and truffles to our meal. While we were informed of the price per person for the caviar, the cost for the truffles was not disclosed. Similarly, when asked if we wanted to try the chef’s A5 wagyu steak, we said yes—only to have sourdough bread dropped at the table shortly after. The timing felt strategic, as if the bread might make us feel fuller and less inclined to continue adding courses. To complicate things further, you don’t receive the menu until the end of the meal, leaving you blindsided about what’s to come and how many courses you’re working through. That said, the single malt and liquor list, while short, is well-curated with quality selections. Overall, the meal was good—an intriguing, novel experience. However, it didn’t leave me feeling like César is the kind of place I’d want to add to our special occasions rotation.

The 12-course tasting menu created by Chef Cesar Ramirez and his team is in my top 10 dining experiences. Three things that I especially loved: 1. the counter seating. Getting front-row seats at this well-choreographed culinary performance is fantastic. 2. I was also blown-away by how they had developed the menu from the first course to the last - an absolute crescendo of flavors and visual pleasures, totally inventive but never at the expense of deliciousness. And 3. the staff. Everyone working here clearly loves what they do. I also really appreciated their friendliness and how welcome they made me feel as a solo diner. THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: This restaurant is (deservedly) very expensive. I did not order any of the extra dishes nor did I do the wine pairing. I did order wine by the glass and the 12 courses more than satisfied my hunger. The focus at Cesar is the beauty and the creativity of the food preparation - it is NOT where I would come with a group of friends who I just wanted to socialize with and enjoy catch-up conversations etc. This is, in my opinion, an evening dedicated to culinary exceptionalism. I gave 4 stars for Atmosphere because the room, in its ultra minimalism, felt a little cold to me - but that's really just nitpicking!!

Had a truly incredible meal here. The food was out of this world and so was the service. Special thank you to Jackie (!!) who wrote down a list of recommendations for me to try and was so personable and kind. The chef also came over during the meal to personally serve us and ask how we were liking the food so far. I really appreciated this meal and the thoughtfulness of everyone involved in preparing it.

I was a huge fan of Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, so I was really looking forward to coming to César. We loved all of the courses. The food was as excellent as we expected. Service was very good. Everyone was attentive but not hovering over us. The space is beautiful, modern and sophisticated. We’ll definitely be back. Congrats on the new restaurant!

Dining at Chef Michel’s start restaurant for the full courses tasting menu, paired with wines, was an unforgettable experience. Each dish was meticulously executed, showcasing a range of textures and seasonal flavors. The service was exceptional, and the sommelier’s wine selections perfectly complemented each course. Highly recommended for anyone looking for an extraordinary culinary journey. Thank you Chef Cesar!

Cesar is a new NYC restaurant by Chef Cesar Ramirez. The decor is gorgeous. The tasting menu is perfection. The best ingredients are used throughout the meal. The presentation is beautiful. Every course is cooked and seasoned perfectly. The entire staff is friendly and professional. We cannot wait to return.

Cesar always exceeds expectations! His mastery of different flavors and textures is unrivaled. Amazing experience. Some people complain about the services; while the team is indeed young and not the most experienced, we didn’t have any problems with it and can already see improvements. Will come back again.

Food was amazing. Our server (we were sitting at the counter by the door) was awful though. The rest of the staff was amazing and so professional though. Unfortunately, our server ruined our experience. We could barely hear him speak, he explained the dishes incorrectly (e.g. he served pear juice at the beginning and said it tasted like apple juice. I’m gluten free and he never mentioned if the dish was in fact gluten free when it was set down. I mentioned that trace amounts of gluten and soy sauce was fine since I’m just intolerant / I get hives when eating gluten but not celiacs. He misunderstood and served me a puff pastry and he put down a brioche and didn’t tell me it was gluten free so I found myself double checking a number of times). He was also extremely rude. He asked my group of 3 if we wanted to add-on white truffles on any of the recommended dishes - chawanmushi or sole. We told him that I wanted to add additional white truffle on 1 dish (foie gras chawanmushi only) and my mother wanted it on her Dover sole. This server even had a note pad and wrote down our order, however he misunderstood. When the chawanmushi dish arrived, all 3 had white truffles shaved on it. Do note that we wouldn’t have complained but white truffle add-on costed $150-175 per dish / portion. Which meant a minimum addition of $450 added to our bill. When we mentioned that only 1 person wanted white truffles on the chawanmushi and the other wanted it on the sole, he began saying that we were mistaken. All 3 of us understood correctly on our original order (1 truffle on chawanmushi, 1 truffle on the sole), but somehow he was convinced that we were all wrong. He then said “well you definitely said all 3, but in any case do you want me to take it off your bill or what?!” in a snarky manner. We said yes that would be greatly appreciated if possible. He then goes to his manager (clearly blaming us since he was glaring at us and giving us looks) and comes back to tell us taking it off the bill was impossible. We said no worries and thanked him for trying. He also struggled clearing the dishes and even his coworkers glared at him when he would only pick up 1 dish (instead of 2) of our 3. We also were prompted on whether we wanted to add wagyu beef. We were keen so asked if they could split 1 steak into 3 as we were 3 petite women and knew we’d be full but wanted to try anyway. The server said absolutely not as the steak was tiny so we decided to order 2 steaks split 3 ways. The steaks came and 1 steak was definitely large enough to be split into 4 pieces. We ended up taking 1.5 steaks home to enjoy the next day. We absolutely LOVED the food and most of the experience but our server ruined it for us. I will be requesting NOT to be seated at the counter next to the front entrance as I’m sure we would have had an amazing experience if it weren’t for him. Unfortunately I didn’t get the name of our server (he was the only non-Asian or Caucasian staff on the team apart from the amazing somm). I highly recommend that the Chef Cesar reevaluate that server as all other service staff were amazing.

TLDR: I don't think you can properly review or rate a restaurant in its first few weeks of opening, and I think Cesar has already worked out the service kinks mentioned in other reviews. I had a fantastic meal here (though it cost me a pretty penny) and I really loved the food. SETTING: We came on a Friday night at 6:15pm for a birthday dinner. Though we couldn't get countertop seating, we got a table looking right at the kitchen with two large comfy chairs. The restaurant is huge with a tasting counter as well as a full dining room. The ambiance is really upscale, clean, and classic. Perfect for a special occasion. FOOD: Some of these dishes actually brought me to tears. Not because anything is super different or creative but what they do, they do very very well. The pictures are not in order unfortunately and I didn't get a menu so kind of hard to remember exactly what each dish was composed of, but I do remember after every bite, looking at my partner in awe and each of us just shaking our heads / closing our eyes to focus on the incredibly medley of flavors going on. The uni on brioche is a classic and I have been lucky enough to try this at Chef's Table a few years ago. This dish is perfectly executed every single time- the flavors of the uni, the brioche, the truffle just create the most decadent little bite. The tuna tartare was fresh, and fantastic. Again, nothing incredibly "new" or inventive but absolutely perfect in execution. In fact, all of the fish courses were expertly crafted and executed. The one dish I thought was good but not incredible was the quail. Not a knock on the cooking or anything as it was perfectly cooked but, I think I realized I just might not like quail that much - nothing about that dish stood out but it's okay because every dish that came before was a 9 or 10 out of 10. SERVICE: Service was fantastic. I always felt very attended to. We didn't have dishes coming out at the same time or lack of silverware when needed. I have no complaints about the service. People will always find something to complain about, like not wiping off bed crumbs from the table.. but when you're eating food like this... who cares ?? VERDICT: I am sure Cesar will be incredibly successful and will be a fine dining hallmark in NYC just as CTBF was. And it is well deserved - chef Cesar definitely knows what he's doing !!

We booked a last minute table for a dinner on a week day as the counter seats were fully booked. The table service was rather underwhelming the whole night for meal of this price range - our server was great explaining the courses, refilling our water etc. But lack of small details for instance, multiple first appetizer courses we had to eat by hand, as they were more so like Japanese hand roll style, but there is no towel to clean our hands/fingers in between these courses. Even just from first course my two fingers were already covered in grease. The tables were much away from the counter so you can't see the kitchen, lighting was very dim, but the noise level within the restaurant especially from the counter area was very high. The wait time between courses was also very long. I wasn't bored because our group wasn't small so we chatted a lot while waiting for the courses, but I could imagine for smaller parties sitting at tables it would be quite some time to kill. Now speaking of food itself, though I was impressed by certain courses like the quail or the soufflé (dessert) at the end, most courses appear to be either basic, like the tuna toro on nori wrapped rice (which I don't want to call it as sushi as it's not), or stacking of strong salty and sweet and sour juice. From what I remembered, most courses were highly salty and sweet and sour, overwhelmingly taking over the aroma of good ingredients themselves. Either way I can see this is personal taste as well, as some people might not like fish tasting fishy; for me the strong sauces were simply too compelling. Overall though, proteins were nicely prepared, tender and just well cooked. At level in our expectations. Btw we picked chefs tasting menu. Would be better if we receive a copy of menu at the end.

TLDR: Cesar still has a long way to meet the average $500 PP dining experience in New York City. Still can't forget that night's experience. As a fine dining lover, I booked my reservation on the very first day 7/1 when Cesar released on Tock, paying $800 for two people's meals without even thinking. However, when you expect more you get less. 1. MANDATORY schedule change: I booked a 8:15 reservation but I only get the option to reschedule to earlier slots or to other days. 2. Signature dishes of Cesar didn't serve well. The uni sweetness is covered by something else. Tempura is too hot and we don't even have a fork to pick it up. Sorbet melted enough tasting like water. Corn soufflé is frozen enough on the top breaking my teeth. Not to mention the portion of $500 meal is not large enough for a dinner. We had to eat elsewhere after this. 3. Lack of service. Water and wine are self-served before we waited long enough. Breadcrumbs were not cleaned from the table ever since. Nobody asked us about truffle supplement option. 4. Even worse, we waited for food for longer time. I can see chef and other staffs are shaking hands and taking photos with some VIPs who are speaking highly of in the reviews. BUT, WE HAD to ask for our dessert which turns out to be over-melted sorbet. I put down notes on my bill but nobody ever followed up. So I publish it here to gain some attention. Please take my review as a heartfelt reminder because I don't usually write this much about a single restaurant. Hope you can improve.

Good food. Good service. Ambiance is perfect for date. My favorite dish is langoustine. Reservations are easy to get at this moment

Food was amazing. Our server (we were sitting at the counter by the door) was awful though. The rest of the staff was amazing and so professional though. Unfortunately, our server ruined our experience. We could barely hear him speak, he explained the dishes incorrectly (e.g. he served pear juice at the beginning and said it tasted like apple juice. I'm gluten free and he never mentioned if the dish was in fact gluten free when it was set down. I mentioned that trace amounts of gluten and soy sauce was fine since I'm just intolerant / I get hives when eating gluten but not celiacs. He misunderstood and served me a puff pastry and he put down a brioche and didn't tell me it was gluten free so I found myself double checking a number of times). He was also extremely rude. He asked my group of 3 if we wanted to add-on white truffles on any of the recommended dishes - chawanmushi or sole. We told him that I wanted to add additional white truffle on 1 dish (foie gras chawanmushi only) and my mother wanted it on her Dover sole. This server even had a note pad and wrote down our order, however he misunderstood. When the chawanmushi dish arrived, all 3 had white truffles shaved on it. Do note that we wouldn't have complained but white truffle add-on costed $150-175 per dish / portion. Which meant a minimum addition of $450 added to our bill. When we mentioned that only 1 person wanted white truffles on the chawanmushi and the other wanted it on the sole, he began saying that we were mistaken. All 3 of us understood correctly on our original order (1 truffle on chawanmushi, 1 truffle on the sole), but somehow he was convinced that we were all wrong. He then said "well you definitely said all 3, but in any case do you want me to take it off your bill or what?!" in a snarky manner. We said yes that would be greatly appreciated if possible. He then goes to his manager (clearly blaming us since he was glaring at us and giving us looks) and comes back to tell us taking it off the bill was impossible. We said no worries and thanked him for trying. He also struggled clearing the dishes and even his coworkers glared at him when he would only pick up 1 dish (instead of 2) of our 3. We also were prompted on whether we wanted to add wagyu beef. We were keen so asked if they could split 1 steak into 3 as we were 3 petite women and knew we'd be full but wanted to try anyway. The server said absolutely not as the steak was tiny so we decided to order 2 steaks split 3 ways. The steaks came and 1 steak was definitely large enough to be split into 4 pieces. We ended up taking 1.5 steaks home to enjoy the next day. We absolutely LOVED the food and most of the experience but our server ruined it for us. I will be requesting NOT to be seated at the counter next to the front entrance as I'm sure we would have had an amazing experience if it weren't for him. Unfortunately I didn't get the name of our server (he was the only non-Asian or Caucasian staff on the team apart from the amazing somm). I highly recommend that the Chef Cesar reevaluate that server as all other service staff were amazing.

Cesar Ramirez opened a new restaurant in the city. Run, don't walk to this fabulous restaurant. The decor is stunning. The tasting menu is memorable. Every course was beautifully presented, cooked and seasoned perfectly. The entire staff impressed us with their friendliness and professionalism. The best ingredients are used throughout the meal. What a spectacular experience. We cannot wait to return

Please take heed to "Han L" review of this place. They nailed everything wrong with this place. Food is paced horribly, is extremely overpriced & a lot of dishes were underwhelming to say the least. The aji nigiri & the lamp course with truffle sauce were the only wow moments. The uni waffle was just flat for lack of a better term as were the desserts. I'd be confident in stating that NY has better & cheaper options than this

This is Chef César Ramirez's brand new restaurant, and it is AMAZING! Beautiful decor with both counter seating and tables. Service is very polished and friendly. The cuisine is the best! César is now among my top 3 restaurants worldwide! I look forward to my next dinner!

Two words, "The Best". Having eaten at least 20 Michelin 3 star restaurants in the US, Paris, Europe, Hong Kong, Macau and Tokyo; I haven't eaten better than tonight. The restaurant is spacious, elegant and the service top notch; Go Cesar!

CESAR The brad new restaurant run by Michelin 3*** chef Cesar Ramirez (Brooklyn Fair). Cesar is a very talented and creative chef. Once again no disappointment. Food is superb. Almost completely different from what I ate at 2 other Brooklyn Fair before. The Truffle slices on Uni dish are the best among those 3*** in US, France and Italy. You probably won't get this quality in any other restaurants or market easily. Only Cesasr can get them from a secret special source. Supplement $135 is expensive but good to try. My husband thought the quail dish with slices truffle is the best quail dish he has ever eaten, as light as a feather. The only complaint was some server can't speak CLEAR English, But it is OK, we are here for Chef Cesar's cuisine. MAITRE D' is too pushing. I have been 47 out of 50 Michelin3*** restaurants globally, have never bumped into anyone like him.