Tasting Menus Are Cool Again

Karla Walsh

Chocolate mousse Corn mousse Signature mousse

Six restaurants putting a new spin on the multicourse affair.

As an alternative to five-hour parades of foams and marathons of tweezer-perfect plates, these restaurants are interpreting the classic tasting menu in new and creative ways.

NYC “pastry gallery” Lysée is one of the city’s most coveted reservations, with a celebrated philosophy that dessert should be considered a daily luxury rather than a guilty pleasure. The four-course tasting menu features a fine-art-inspired spread of French- and Korean-influenced creations, and the highlight is the cult-favorite corn mousse cake, which sells out nightly.

Thousands of travelers make the pilgrimage to Caiazzo, Italy (about an hour’s drive north of Naples) to visit the critically acclaimed Pepe in Grani – many call it the world’s best pizzeria. The pizza tasting menu includes a fried and stuffed dough cone; four to eight seasonal slices, from margherita to fig and cheese; and a sweet fried dessert pizza.

Fancy flights at The Vesper Club.

John Troxell

At The Vesper Club, a sleek cocktail lounge inside The Continental Nashville, chef Sean Brock and head bartender Natalie Newberry take guests on a five-course tour of caviars from around the globe. Each spoonful is paired with a petite martini designed to complement the roe. Diners don’t receive a copy of the menu until after the tasting, to avoid any fishy preconceptions.

The tasting menu gets the family-style treatment at Hong Kong’s Rosita, courtesy of chefs Ricardo Chaneton and Agustin Balbi (from Venezuela and Argentina, respectively). The hearty six-course meal stirs together Latin American heritage with Japanese and French cooking techniques, resulting in dishes such as seaweed tostadas and Hokkaido scallop and strawberry ceviche.

Ask for the three-course brunch tasting menu at San Francisco’s Hilda and Jesse. The selections, which change regularly (and have recently included celery-root tots, chicken congee, and apple fritters with rye pudding and star anise ice cream), showcase why the playful North Beach space earned its first Michelin Bib Gourmand last year.

Terroir is a term normally reserved for wine, but it’s on full display in the plant-based tasting menu at Portland, Oregon’s Workshop. Cuban American chef Aaron Adams combines childhood favorites with Pacific Northwest flair in a vegan feast featuring onion stroopwafel-mushroom pâté sandwiches, nopales with celery kombucha vinegar, and more.

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