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.
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.
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