These Are The 12 New Michelin Star Holders In New York

Photo Credit: Masato Kawano Nacása & partners Inc

The second annual MICHELIN Guide awards on December 9, 12 New York eateries received MICHELIN Star awards, while One White Street earned a MICHELIN Green Star. Here are the latest and greatest of a city-wide selection that comprises 385 restaurants and 62 types of cuisine.

3 Michelin Stars

Photo Credit: Dan Ahn

Jungsik New York (Korean cuisine)

Cool and polished, this dining room bears that perfectly downtown nexus of low-key yet elegant; with its dark and light color scheme and intimate proportions. Chef/owner Mr. Yim Jung Sik and Executive Chef Daeik Kim’s Korean meal starts like many do, with an array of banchan; however, the presentation here is unlike any other; and it’s just that creativity that makes dining here so distinctive. From there, the tasting menu unfolds to reveal delights such as slivers of raw striped jack with white kimchi and chilled fish bone broth; gorgeously crisped octopus with gochujang aioli; and dry-aged Arctic char in a pool of kimchi and red curry sauce. This is cooking that is highly original, impeccably executed, and enormously satisfying; a meal that makes you involuntarily nod to yourself while you’re eating.

Two Michelin Stars

Photo Credit: Adriana Rodriguez 

César (Contemporary cuisine)

César Ramirez is one of the few chefs who, night after night, has the difficult task of meeting his own singular standards of high-wire precision. His new downtown restaurant brings a sleek, minimal look to a century-old address. As might be expected, world-class seafood plays a large role in his tasting menu which features such delights as a morsel of blackthroat seaperch from Chiba, crudo of fluke from Jeju Island, and langoustine from Norway dressed with caviar and smoked trout. A masterful hand with sauces and a sense for harmonious, exacting combinations demonstrate both creativity and maturity. An eager service team oversees the spacious room where counter and table seating alike offer a prime vantage point for watching this kinetic kitchen.

Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare (Contemporary cuisine)

This famed address hidden in the back corner of a Hell’s Kitchen grocery store has entered a new era under Chefs Max Natmessnig and Marco Prins. The room is a box of luxury and sparkles as bright as ever under the spotlights, with most guests seated at a glossy walnut counter that wraps around a brigade of cooks who have nowhere to hide. The team works quickly, sending out a volley of delicate tarts and bites that showcase skill and refinement. Highlights include sea scallop in a lush brown butter sauce, turbot with firefly squid and herb-oil swirled buttermilk, and buri tartare with smoky creme fraiche and finger lime.  

Sushi Sho (Japanese/Sushi cuisine)

In the shadow of the New York Public Library, Chef Keiji Nakazawa exemplifies mastery of the highest order. An omakase like no other, the progression ebbs and flows with a dazzling variety of fish, shellfish, vegetables, and more—all aged, fermented, and pickled for weeks, months, and sometimes years. Rice is treated with reverence; seasoned to suit and complement the range of fish. The setting is its own marvel and features a spacious, eight-seat Hinoki counter flanked by towering ice boxes fronted with carved wood doors, while all around, the kitchen and service teams work in perfect tandem. In total, the pace, breadth, and persistence of excellence that unfolds here will impress even the most experienced sushi enthusiasts.

1 Michelin Star

Photo Credit: Todd Coleman

Bar Miller (Japanese/Sushi cuisine)

This diminutive spot with a sprinkling of seats steers clear of the familiar minimalist design, favoring bold colors and eye-catching details. Chef Jeff Miller delivers an omakase that is a showpiece of sustainable sourcing, much of it local—even the rice is sourced from New York state. Their personality is evident in dishes such as daikon vichyssoise with wakame butter-braised greens and gently poached salmon. Dry-aged fluke topped with apple ice in a sweet soy sauce holds its own, while the duo of uni and the mellow, dry-aged mackerel with yuzu kosho are two standouts from the nigiri course. Desserts, like the amazake and the corn gelato with caviar, round out the singular experience.

Café Boulud (French cuisine)

A new and improved Café Boulud has been beautifully reborn on the storied corner of 63rd street and Park Avenue with Chef Daniel Boulud and Executive Chef Romain Paumier at the helm. Enjoy this unique prix fixe menu which highlights four inspirations: classic French cuisine; “La Saison;” vegetarian farmers’ market dishes; and “Le Voyage,” offering an international focus. Choose one style of menu or handpick for a multicourse meal that is on-point with sharp execution and a soigné presentation. The array of impressive cooking here includes the likes of the signature black sea bass wrapped in crispy potatoes and sauced with a red wine reduction; seared scallops with Champagne beurre blanc; or lobster ravioli dressed with a vivid lobster bisque as well as preserved lemon curd.

Corima (Mexican cuisine)

On the edge of Chinatown, Chef Fidel Caballero is not holding anything back. Whether you sit at the kitchen counter for the ambitious tasting menu or order à la carte in the boisterous dining room, the cooking is a singularly original and bold celebration of Mexican cuisine. If anything, there must be an order of sourdough tortillas somewhere on the table. Made with Sonoran wheat and chicken fat, these delicate, perfectly griddled discs served with recado negro butter will lock in a return visit. Better yet, this won’t be the only course worth returning for. The likes of lobster nicuatole, black cod with salsa Veracruzana, and sweetbreads with bitter almond foam make for lasting impressions.

La Bastide by Andrea Calstier (French cuisine)

Head to this modern farmhouse in Westchester where a soothing design perfectly complements sweeping views of the pastoral landscape. Husband and wife duo Chef Andrea Calstier and General Manager Elena Oliver are at ease in their intimate dining room, a space fit with only a few tables and perfectly calibrated for the tasting to come. The menu draws on their upbringing in the south of France. A simple-sounding salad is so much more with grilled gem lettuce paired with poached celtuce, cured egg yolk, and an olive oil sabayon. Squab with rosemary and fig leaf is as accomplished as grilled black sea bass with artichokes and razor clams. Dessert is a particular strength, and the combination of chocolate with goat cheese is a thrilling finale.

Joo Ok (Korean cuisine)

This Seoul transplant has an unusual entrance—via freight elevator up 16 floors—but the elegant space is instantly inviting. Echoing a traditional Korean home, guests are welcomed with savory crackers and drinks before being escorted to the dining room, where a minimalist design is juxtaposed with views of the Manhattan skyline. Joo Ok delivers a Korean tasting menu that is rooted in tradition but presented through a modern lens. Dishes are stunning, as in the jat jeup chae – tender lobster and Korean pear tucked inside salted cucumber slices. Makgeolli bread topped with freshwater eel is a dramatic single bite, but their signature deul gi reum with diced geoduck, spotted shrimp, and a whole quail egg in house-pressed perilla seed oil is equally memorable.

Nōksu (Contemporary/Korean cuisine)
Eating underground in the subway system may not sound appealing, but that hasn’t stopped Chef Dae Kim. In the heart of Koreatown at Herald Square behind a code-locked door, find a black marble counter that stretches the length of the room. Every chef is armed with tweezers to manage and primp gorgeous dishes that are largely contemporary in their design. Seafood is a serious focus with the likes of crab, fluke, clams, and mackerel. The restaurant’s signature is obvious once you spot the squab dry aging in a fridge. Against the backdrop of 80s hits playing overhead, a chef holds the bird up and repeatedly ladles hot oil over it in the style of Peking duck. It’s a defining reminder that in New York City, anything can happen anywhere. 

Shota Omakase (Japanese/Sushi cuisine)

Far from the subway stop on a quiet street in Williamsburg, find this welcoming omakase counter hidden away near Domino Park. Chef Cheng Lin sets the tone as a friendly, relaxed guide for the night’s proceedings. And whereas some chefs practically take vows of silence with regards to sourcing and technique, he is quick to share where in Japan the fish is from, why he uses Inochi-no Ichi rice, and what it took to find his special aged soys and vinegars. His intentionality delivers in the form of excellent, seasonal product and a fine-tuned parade of nigiri, for which the rice is refreshed repeatedly. Prepared dishes like binchotan-seared sawara with citrus sauce, shiso, and nori or even a restorative cup of dashi with mushrooms also show distinction. 

YingTao (Contemporary/Chinese cuisine)

Owner Bolun Yao’s beloved grandmother serves as both the namesake and culinary inspiration for this stylish Hell’s Kitchen hideaway, an unassumingly ambitious project that aims to reinterpret Chinese cuisine through the lens of Western fine dining. Chef Jakub Baster lends his experienced hand to the effort, composing elegant dishes that blend a wide array of Chinese flavors and ingredients with elements of French technique and a contemporary style. The results are simultaneously inventive and familiar. Flavors tend toward subtlety, with careful attention paid to textures, as in a silky soy milk custard matched with celery root, and savory, mildly spiced doubanjiang, or rich crab noodles with egg yolk and smoked tobiko. To finish, a reimagining of nian gao (sweet rice cake) is sure to delight.

Photo Credit: Brynne Levy

Michelin Green Star

Photo Credit: Gary He

One White Street (Contemporary cuisine)

Chef Austin Johnson operates a truly “farm to table” restaurant by working closely with their partner farm in the Hudson Valley, Rigor Hill Farm. Rigor Hill Farm supplies the restaurant with as much seasonal produce as possible. A supportive ecosystem of relationships allows the farm to practice progressively sustainable farming techniques and build an organization that is able to invest in and support the lives of its farmers, in addition to the restaurant’s Tribeca community. Rigor Hill takes pride in cultivating a system of growing food that can be as good at producing flavorful, nutrient-dense food as it is at ameliorating its impact on a changing climate.