Sixty Three Clinton
New American restaurant · Lower East Side
63 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002
Highlights
Modern American tasting menu with global influences, breakfast taco
Modern American tasting menu with global influences, breakfast taco
"Sixty Three Clinton on the Lower East Side strives to be the tasting menu equivalent of the mother in Mean Girls—the one who says, “I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a cool mom.” And they pull it off, over seven courses. The best seats in the house are at the kitchen counter, where you can watch tattooed chefs fan duck breasts while you eat their signature breakfast taco with smoked salmon roe and a quarter of ajitama." - bryan kim, willa moore, will hartman, molly fitzpatrick, sonal shah
"One-starred American restaurant 63 Clinton from chef Sam Clonts and Raymond Trinh features a seven-course tasting menu that starts at $112 per person." - Eater Staff
"Chef-owner Samuel Clonts devised a playful, fine-dining take on tailgate food, turning oyster mushrooms, frozen cherries, foie gras, frozen French fries, lap cheong sausage, and tofu into a compact banh mi–style bite. He reshapes the frozen fries into oblong, football-shaped pancakes, pickles the cherries for bright acid, makes a cilantro-tofu spread for color and flavor, sautés the sausage with mushrooms, and scores and sears the foie gras so it renders and presents nicely. The result is a whimsical yet balanced big bite that leans into a wider trend of more playful approaches in fine dining over the past decade." - Annie Harrigan
"While explaining that the butter for our cheddar biscuit was flown in from Normandy, our server at Sixty Three Clinton giggled. We'll blame it on a few too many nights at fancy tasting menu restaurants—listening to suited servers tell us the life story of a quail without ever coming close to cracking a smile—but this display of normal human emotion took us by surprise. But Sixty Three Clinton strives to be the tasting menu equivalent of the mother in Mean Girls: the one who says, “I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a cool mom.” And for the most part, they pull it off beautifully. If you’re interested in trying a tasting menu, but don’t have a dinner jacket or hundreds of dollars to spend, this Lower East Side restaurant is worth checking out. photo credit: Giada Paoloni photo credit: Giada Paoloni photo credit: Giada Paoloni Sixty Three serves a seven-course tasting for $112, in a dining room that feels like a minimalist coffee shop. But the best seats are the four facing the small kitchen. Here, you can drink a white Negroni while watching chefs (all men, mostly tattooed) fan sizzling duck breasts on a Japanese grill, and place ramekins full of ham-and-cheese chawanmushi into a wood-fired oven. The menu changes seasonally, but expect dainty plates that feel like they'd be way more expensive elsewhere, and numerous opportunities to add caviar. Despite all the perfectly tweezed flowers on the breakfast taco, Sixty Three Clinton is laid-back: the chefs wear baseball caps and Reeboks, a regular named John discusses the city's best movie theaters, and a former server brings pupusas for the people in the kitchen, before sitting down at the bar to celebrate her birthday. In comparison to other caviar-wielding tasting menu spots that charge a whole lot more for a straight-faced quail biography, it stands out. You could celebrate a special occasion meal here without wearing something you bought for a wedding, and—as long as you're careful with the supplements—still be able to pay your monthly rent. Food Rundown photo credit: Giada Paoloni The Tasting Menu Though the dishes change often, you can count on the first course being the breakfast taco—a palm-sized tortilla with a fancy looking hashbrown, a spoonful of smoked salmon roe, and a quarter of ajitama. We did not opt for any of the extras or add-ons—caviar hand-rolls for $55, or Hokkaido uni on the breakfast taco for an additional $22—but if you added them all, they’d be more expensive than the tasting menu itself. We’d recommend skipping the add-ons and ordering a few cocktails instead. The rest of the menu might include things like a version of shrimp n’ grits, which comes with a congee-like porridge and one deep-fried shrimp, or a Basque cheesecake with grilled grapes from southern Spain." - Willa Moore
"It would be easy to underestimate this restaurant, located on an unremarkable corner and within the shell of a former pizzeria. However, that would be a shame, as the tasting menu, under the calm leadership of Chef Samuel Clonts, is anything but ordinary. In fact, diners can expect a wonderful and surprising meal with an eye towards finesse.From lush hamachi with shiso pepper-saturated Meyer lemon curd to juicy-crispy chicken roulade over a puree of miso and spicy mole, this kitchen team treats its top-quality ingredients with refined techniques. Inspired by his time in Arizona and at Bar Uchu, Chef Clonts prepares a taco with soft ajitama, fried potato and smoked trout roe; as well as a hand roll full of caviar and rice." - Michelin Inspector
