After dining here, I jokingly asked my super critical husband how many stars he'd rate Chef's Table. He replied, "three stars." I laughed, thinking he wasn't serious, but he was totally serious. "Three Michelin stars," he said.
I feel like I should just end the review here, but if you're reading this, you're probably curious what we ate, otherwise you wouldn't be here.
Our meal was quite seafood intensive, and it was glorious. Every dish was well planned and executed, and you could really savor all of the different ingredients, both individually as well as together as a whole dish.
1. Hamachi tartlet -- flavor explosion in my mouth, as I followed the instruction to eat it all in one bite. It was pretty amazing how there are all these different flavors -- sweet, savory, sour, etc. going on at once, yet the freshness of the hamachi still shines through.
2. Hookaido sea urchin -- served over perfectly baked brioche and topped with truffle. So creamy, so fragrant, so many flavors working together again.
3. Kaluga queen caviar -- caviar "swimming" over the freshest tuna, and all complemented with cucumber and more creaminess.
4. Sawara -- beautifully presented with yet more edible flowers and the most delicious sauce. The fish itself was perfectly cooked and very light; did not have any of the fishiness that mackerel typically has (which I normally enjoy, btw, but this fish was so delicate and delicious, I loved it too...even though I wouldn't have guessed it to be mackerel if I didn't know).
5. King crab -- even more edible flowers and creaminess to highlight the freshness of the seafood. I'm starting to be very impressed by how all these creamy sauces don't mask the flavor of the seafood at all.
6. Chiba Akamutsu -- another perfectly cooked fish, this time served over a risotto-like rice, which had little uni bits mixed in!
7. Langoustine -- the best prepared langoustine ever. And obviously super high quality langoustine -- you could taste the natural sweetness of it. It was served over what looked just to be foam but was actually a mound of the richest, most buttery cauliflower ever. But as delicious as the buttery cauliflower was, it was borderline too heavy for me, and I would've been quite happy to just eat that langoustine all on its own.
8. Fluke -- fish was good, but it was the white asparagus and snap peas that blew my mind. I don't think I've ever had such sweet snap peas and white asparagus before. Key takeaway: quality ingredients make such a difference.
9. Quail -- grilled and seasoned to perfection. I was a bit distracted here by the party next to us, as one of them was hesitant to eat this because she has an aversion to eating animals that had been strangled. Took a lot of discipline for me to not ask for her portion. I guess she had a lucky friend who got to eat two of these.
10. A5 Wagyu -- another perfectly grilled and seasoned dish, and the meaty mushrooms went so well with it.
11. Yogurt with fresh, wild Spanish Malaga strawberries -- those strawberries were so sweet, and that yogurt was so creamy. Quite possibly my favorite dessert of the night, and it's not even chocolate.
12. Milk ice cream with a lot of nutty crunchies -- simple and delicious, although less memorable.
13. Frozen chocolate souffle -- I've never had frozen souffle before, and it was quite a fun thing to try. The texture is so airy, sort of like meringue but without the hard/crunchy exterior. Probably the lightest chocolate dessert there ever was, and also the most delicious, chocolatey air you'll ever taste.
14. Bonus dessert -- the kitchen sent out an extra dessert for us, as we were celebrating our 5Y anniversary. It was a sobacha mousse over a thin layer of chocolate cake, all covered by white chocolate...yum.
To sum it all up, very high quality ingredients and intricately prepared and presented dishes + immaculate service = amazing experience totally worthy of those 3 Michelin stars.
Good selection of Asian bread, and very clean presentation. They have a lot of standard breads, but there are also some more fun and/or Western-influenced pastries, e.g., croissants.
Of the breads, I tried the green tea bread with red bean filling as well as a purple rice taro bread, and both were very good. The bread was light and airy, not dense or dry at all. It was not warm, but the texture was still good, even the next morning. The green tea bread had a strong green tea flavor, and the purple rice taro bread had actual pieces of soft taro...none of that artificial flavoring and coloring.
Of the pastries, I tried the taro puff and the egg yolk puff. I liked the egg yolk puff more but will admit I'm partial to red bean fillings (although I clearly really like taro too). Of the two, the egg yolk puff was more dense and a little more sweet. The taro puff was nice and flaky, and the filling wasn't too sweet. Both were good.
Moving on to the famous egg tarts. I tried the normal egg tart and the German pudding one. The regular one was good but not that special (I reheated at home because egg tarts should always be warm!). The German pudding one was really good though. The filling was a bit more like Portuguese egg tarts and was a little lighter/more custard-like/less eggy, although it didn't have the caramelized top. Both were respectable renditions though.
Finally, I sold my soul to Instagram and got a hot dog bunny just because it's cute, full well knowing it probably didn't taste like much and I should go with the more traditional hot dog bun with scallions instead. Well, I was right...the hot dog bunny was pretty average, but people like to see cute faces on their food I guess.
The service is as unorganized and frazzled as everyone says, and the food is pretty good on average but not so amazing that I'd want to come back anytime soon.
We enjoyed the sisigs the most, and out of the pork, squid, and chicken sisigs, the pork was definitely the best. When I called ahead to order (more on that later), I was asked if we wanted it mild or spicy, and we got one spicy and the other mild, but when we got the food, we could barely taste the difference between spicy/mild...so what I'm saying is, don't be afraid to ask for spicy...if they ask you (when we tacked on a 3rd sisig, they didn't ask how we wanted it).
The lechon kawali (fried pork belly) was well fried, and I liked the crispy skin, but some of the pieces were so fatty (more than half fat), that even the best of our eaters couldn't handle it and had to cut out the fat by the end.
The kare kare was pretty good -- I liked the peanut flavor, and the oxtail was cooked well...very tender.
The lumpia shanghai were pretty standard...nothing special.
The short ribs were battered and fried, which I was not expecting. This was an item we added on, so maybe I was just gassing out, but I didn't enjoy this dish that much (but will admit I'm not the biggest fan of fried beef).
The bihon was fine, but also nothing special.
Finally, for dessert we had the turon, and those were really delicious.
TLDR: get the pork sisig and turon.
Now, on to the experience. We called to make a reservation, and were told to call ahead with our food order, as wait times (for food alone after being seated) could be over an hour, so I followed their advice and placed our food order earlier in the day.
We noticed an empty table when we walked in, and rightfully assumed it was our reserved table, but no one got around to clearing the table or asking us to sit until 5 minutes after our reservation time, which isn't horrible, but it was the first sign of inefficiency (we were there early and just stood there staring at what was going to be our table).
After being seated, our food did come out relatively quickly, but it was all lukewarm. I guess it was made in advance and just left on a warmer somewhere. The sisigs were definitely not sizzling. We tried to ask a server for water, and he looked quite frazzled and said to go to the counter. So we went to ask for water and reminded them of our iced tea order, which we placed right before sitting down. The water came, but the iced tea didn't come until 2 reminders later, after we were almost done with our meal. After a few initial bites, we did go back to the counter to place an order for more food, as the portion sizes looked to be on the small side. The follow-on order came about 35 minutes later, which was better than we expected and actually hot this time.
All in all, food was decent, but given the hectic experience, I think I'd wait until they get their act together before visiting again.
Guan Fu was totally worth the hour-long trek to Flushing for me. Everything we tried was good, from the quality of ingredients to the flavor. They have a very extensive menu as well, and I'd definitely like to try more items. The ambiance of the restaurant is more high end and classy, and the prices reflect that (not a small hole-in-the-wall place).
We had the cold mung bean jelly noodles (涼粉) in chili oil to start, and while it had a kick, it became the most refreshing item after all the heat in the other dishes.
The boiled fish with pickled cabbage (酸菜魚) was very flavorful, and you can pick whether you want tilapia (standard offering) or sea bass (more expensive...almost twice as much; can't remember). I was expecting boneless fish filet, but there was actually quite a lot of fish bones to pick through. The flavor was very good though, if you don't mind eating more slowly to pick out the small bones.
The chicken with double pepper (雙椒爆童子雞) was super spicy and delicious. Chicken itself was still tender despite being heavily stir-fried. We ended up with a bunch of leftover chili pepper, no surprise, and I decided to take it home and cook another meal with the pepper, and I'll just say those peppers are just as potent the second time around (in the best of ways, of course).
We also tried the dan dan noodles (擔擔麵) with mapo tofu, which was a fun 2-in-1. The flavor was good, but the noodles were a bit on the soft side for me.
Overall very good first experience.
Great neighborhood spot on the UES, although the line/wait time tends to be quite long. The menu is quite small, but the food is above average and the service was really friendly. That said, while overall it was quite enjoyable, I probably wouldn't wait hours for it (and they don't take reservations).
We started with an artichoke salad, which was fresh and well done. Then we had the gnocchi (with red snapper), mac & cheese (with bacon and mushrooms), as well as the paella. The gnocchi were larger than usual, but they tasted great -- doughy without being too dense. The mac & cheese was nice and cheesy but not overly salty. The paella was the weakest link and just seemed like normal rice on a plate (not served in a paella pan, so no crispy rice). There's a good assortment of seafood and meat, but the dish didn't quite come together for me -- rice and chorizo were quite salty, but seafood was quite bland. I normally don't like overseasoned seafood (good seafood should be able to stand alone), but the other flavors masked the seafood and it was hard to appreciate (hence tasted bland).
For dessert, we got the bread pudding, and it was as good as advertised.
The pho is definitely the star of the show here. The broth is very flavorful (a bit of sweetness and tartness to it), but still feels relatively light and "clean." The extra short rib was worth it too -- it was so tender, I didn't even need the knife they gave us.
The other items were less memorable, which is not to say not good. The papaya salad came with a lot of shrimp and was not spicy, as I had expected, but I enjoyed it. The soft shell crab portion was pretty exciting, and it was nicely fried, but the dish didn't really stand out so much that I would order it again. Finally, we also tried the tet noodle (egg noodle with crab and shrimp). The noodles were a bit sweet, and the texture was softer than I normally like, but it was overall decent (but not that special).
Overall a very enjoyable meal, beautiful plating, and attentive service.
Garden:
Sweet Potato Beignets -- my favorite in this section. I'm not sure if beignet really describes it, as it's not an airy doughnut, and is essentially a fried sweet potato ball. But it's nice and soft on the inside and not dense or dry at all. The white kimchi soup actually pairs quite nicely with the sweet potato.
Brussels Sprouts -- shredded sprouts topped with grilled tofu. It was an interesting take, and I liked the mix of flavors and textures (raisins, peanuts, seaweed, tofu).
Glass Noodle -- a pretty good japchae, albeit on the sweet side for me.
Mung-Bean Korean Pancake -- I was expecting a thin pancake more similar to the seafood pancakes, but this was actually quite thick, and the texture was quite meaty...like a meatloaf (and kind of dry...like a meatloaf).
Sea:
Spanish Mackerel -- small portion, but pretty well done. Bite-sized pieces of grilled mackerel on top of rice wrapped in swiss-chard. The mackerel flavor was not too strong (mackerel can be a "fishy" fish, but this did not have that, which is good for those who don't like mackerel, although I wish it had a bit more flavor). The swiss chard was pretty much just a wrapper for the rice and didn't have much flavor on its own, but the rice was good.
Cod -- also very light. My favorite was actually just sipping the broth.
Land:
Pork belly -- well cooked, but not as much flavor in the pork belly as I expected. Really liked the crispy skin, and the meat was also tender without being too fatty (I dislike it when there's as much or even more fat than meat, but this had a good ratio of meat to fat). The kimchi roll, however, was really delicious.
Short rib -- also pretty tender meat, and I liked the sweetness of the soy marinade.
Chicken -- again, well cooked and tender, and this one was nice and spicy.
Dessert:
Korean-style Rice Stick -- delicious honey chestnut gelato and misugaru powder. The rice sticks are essentially fried mochi-like sticks, so you have a bit of a crunchy + chewy texture. There were a lot of sticks though, and I could've used fewer sticks (or more ice cream).
Passion Fruit Tart -- simple but well executed. Nice and buttery and crunchy tart with a sweet and tart (but neither too sweet nor too tart) passionfruit filling.
Cute cafe to stop by for dessert and drinks. The go-to item for me (and I'm assuming most people) is the ho-dduk, which you can get to go (either served whole or cut up into quarters) or have there. I get great satisfaction ordering it to go (uncut) so that I can bite into it, see the liquidy, hot brown sugar syrup, and smell the cinnamon. It's definitely prettier when cut up and served on a plate with ice cream, but then you don't get as much of the syrup and miss the surprise element of biting and then getting greeted with a strong cinnamon fragrance. I don't even know if that makes sense.
Anyway, of the other desserts, the snow ice is surprisingly good -- nice and milky texture, not overly sweet either; the beignets are one of the betters ones (and relatively authentic) in the city, although hard to compare to the real deal in New Orleans; and there's a fun selection of waffles and drinks too, among other things. The only thing I've been disappointed by is the mochi waffle, which barely had any mochi (I was expecting the waffle to have a more mochi-like texture, but it seemed like a pretty normal waffle with just a few sparse pieces of mochi here and there), and the toppings were a bit excessive (but I guess that's what people like to see).
Given all the hype, I was expecting this to be leaps and bounds ahead of all the other Korean fried chicken places, but while good, my expectations were not close to being met.
We tried the wings with their original spicy sauce and the boneless chicken, extra crispy, with the honey garlic sauce. I was skeptical about the boneless chicken and was concerned it would be dry, but the guy taking my order convinced me to try it and said it was very popular. Alas, I should've went with my gut, as the boneless chicken was on the dry side -- not horrible, but certainly not juicy (granted some pieces were better than others). The wings were better.
I think regular crispiness would've also been fine; you can definitely taste the difference in extra crispy vs. regular, but I don't think ordering it extra crispy really adds much.
As for the sauces, the honey garlic was as good as people say. The signature was fine, but less memorable.
Overall, the chicken was fine, but I didn't feel like it was so stand-out to be in its own category.
1. Hamachi tartlet -- flavor explosion in my mouth, as I followed the instruction to eat it all in one bite. It was pretty amazing how there are all these different flavors -- sweet, savory, sour, etc. going on at once, yet the freshness of the hamachi still shines through. 
2. Hookaido sea urchin -- served over perfectly baked brioche and topped with truffle. So creamy, so fragrant, so many flavors working together again.
3. Kaluga queen caviar -- caviar "swimming" over the freshest tuna, and all complemented with cucumber and more creaminess.
4. Sawara -- beautifully presented with yet more edible flowers and the most delicious sauce. The fish itself was perfectly cooked and very light; did not have any of the fishiness that mackerel typically has (which I normally enjoy, btw, but this fish was so delicate and delicious, I loved it too...even though I wouldn't have guessed it to be mackerel if I didn't know).
5. King crab -- even more edible flowers and creaminess to highlight the freshness of the seafood. I'm starting to be very impressed by how all these creamy sauces don't mask the flavor of the seafood at all.
6. Chiba Akamutsu -- another perfectly cooked fish, this time served over a risotto-like rice, which had little uni bits mixed in!
7. Langoustine -- the best prepared langoustine ever. And obviously super high quality langoustine -- you could taste the natural sweetness of it. It was served over what looked just to be foam but was actually a mound of the richest, most buttery cauliflower ever. But as delicious as the buttery cauliflower was, it was borderline too heavy for me, and I would've been quite happy to just eat that langoustine all on its own.
8. Fluke -- fish was good, but it was the white asparagus and snap peas that blew my mind. I don't think I've ever had such sweet snap peas and white asparagus before. Key takeaway: quality ingredients make such a difference.
9. Quail -- grilled and seasoned to perfection. I was a bit distracted here by the party next to us, as one of them was hesitant to eat this because she has an aversion to eating animals that had been strangled. Took a lot of discipline for me to not ask for her portion. I guess she had a lucky friend who got to eat two of these.
10. A5 Wagyu -- another perfectly grilled and seasoned dish, and the meaty mushrooms went so well with it.
11. Yogurt with fresh, wild Spanish Malaga strawberries -- those strawberries were so sweet, and that yogurt was so creamy. Quite possibly my favorite dessert of the night, and it's not even chocolate.
12. Milk ice cream with a lot of nutty crunchies -- simple and delicious, although less memorable.
13. Frozen chocolate souffle -- I've never had frozen souffle before, and it was quite a fun thing to try. The texture is so airy, sort of like meringue but without the hard/crunchy exterior. Probably the lightest chocolate dessert there ever was, and also the most delicious, chocolatey air you'll ever taste.
14. Bonus dessert -- the kitchen sent out an extra dessert for us, as we were celebrating our 5Y anniversary. It was a sobacha mousse over a thin layer of chocolate cake, all covered by white chocolate...yum.
