Visited in September 2024
Dinner
Rating: Unrated

Long awaited after it had been public that César Ramirez had signed a rental contract for a room at 333 Hudson Street his own restaurant finally opened in July 2024. Except for Yelp, Tripadvisor, and some online magazines, there were no professional reviews available until now. This can be changed. I booked immediately when the booking slot for my desired date was available. Since I did not want to start at 5 pm or 9 pm, which are the times for the kitchen counter, I booked a table at 7 pm.
After a 2.5-kilometer walk from my hotel in flat iron district, I arrived at the restaurant in time.

I was received by a very attractive young female receptionist and guided to my table in the area right of the rectangular room. Viewed from the street there are an open kitchen to the left with a kitchen counter, a lounge-like waiting area towards the street, and tables to the right. In the kitchen, César Ramirez works fully with 7 other tock-headed cooks. The room is relatively big and almost not damped. This leads to a vivid atmosphere if not a loud soundscape. Gentle music is played in the background. Except for the wine menu, no other menu is presented. A wine pairing is available and at the beginning, one is asked if one would like to have additional caviar for the fish course and/or wagyu A5 as a replacement for the main course.
Wine by the glass has typical New York price tags (high) and the selection of half bottles is limited. I decided for a 2022 Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Rudi Pichler, Wachau Austria which turned out to be a good choice and was also a very good pairing for most of the food servings. The wine was too warm after opened and a first sip for tasting was in the glass. The bottle was cooled and Ok then.
A smaller wine glass was placed on the table without a comment. Short time later the server came with an opaque carafe and poured a slightly yellow liquid into the glass. When guided to the mouth I smelled an intense Umami aroma. The liquid itself had an intense tomato and sweet taste. It turned out to be tomato water made fresh every day. No sugar was added, the sweetness came from the tomato sort. Wow, what a start with this delicious elixir.

After the tomato water was served, César Ramirez came to my table shaked hand and expressed his appreciation for having me here this evening. A very kind gesture. I did not observe that he did this with many other guests.
Next came a hollow roll baked of very thin filo dough. I had seen this already in photos on the internet. This time the roll was filled with salmon rilette. There was also a version with eel mousse in the past. The rilette was more intensely flavored than that served as amuse bouche in Le Bernadin in the lunch menu. The salmon taste was very pronounced and freshness from the chives and just the right acidity were present. Very good.

This little snack to be eaten at once turned out to be non less than sensational. It consisted of a crispy thin Nori cylinder filled with Koshihikari rice, a layer of shiso leafs, a little wasabi and tuna belly/back tatar from Japan. The snack was simply perfect from composition, proportions, temperature and textures. Like in a perfect Nigiri, the rice had the right temperature, grain size and bite.

The following bigger tarte pre-cut into two pieces was filled with meat of the Norway lobster, smoked trout roe, imperial caviar and shiso flowers. The subtle spiciness that I tasted was a little wasabi. Again, this exhibited a perfect balance of sweetness, acidity, smoke taste, salt and spiciness.

The next bite took the minimalism of César Ramirez’s cuisine to the extreme. A qualitatively perfect piece of kisho fish (this is what I understood) partly wrapped in a thin potato chip. Crispy, salty and tender would be the adjectives to describe this serving.

A classic of the chef was served now – the famous uni brioche that consists of 3 ingredients: a crispy roasted brioche, truffle and best uni (sea urchin) from Hokkaido. Simply fantastic.

In a deep bowl were prepared different layers: smoked trout mousse, pickled cabbage, tomato water jelly, tatar of the Spanish mackerel from Japan, a generous scoop of imperial caviar, basil oil and tiny crispy potato cubes for the texture. As you would expect, this was a fantastic combination and it was best eaten altogether with the spoon deep diving into the bowl.

A ceviche-like preparation had Madai, one of the most precious fishes in serious sushi bars, also named Japanese sea bream, as the main product. The fantastic fish quality came with a bright cream, chives, ginger, lime and a straw, which reminded me of Shio Kombu.

Warm sourdough bread was served with the hint that it is absolutely wanted to take up remaining sauce of the now-following bigger courses with the bread.

Sweet potato foam at the bottom, cooked Hudson Valley foie gras, parsley oil and a poultry broth formed the next serving. The potato “foam” had more the consistency of a flan or chawan mushi. Sweet potato and the goose liver paired very well.

A nice piece of Dover sole was accompanied by Spanish sepia, chantarelle mushrooms, tarragon and preserved turnips. Also here, product qualities and craftsmanship regarding the sauces were at top level. I liked this fish course very much.

A Japanese breed of quail from a farm in Sacramento was used as the main ingredient for the meat course. It came with zucchini, maitake mushrooms and crème, elderberries, leek and a classical jus. The skin of the pieces of the bird was crispy the meat pan-fried to the point.

The sweet part of the dinner began. In a bowl, the team prepared elderflower jelly and berries, crème Chantilly and a yoghurt ice cream. Very good, not more, not less.

As a further classic of the chef if I understood it right a horchata-based ice cream and soufflé was served as main dessert. Horchata is a classical rice-based drink from Mexico, the native country of the chef. Ice cream and Soufflé were sitting on gingerbread crumble and topped by hazelnut crumble. The sensation of this dessert is the cold soufflé, which was produced by a freeze-drying technique. When pieces of it arrive on the tongue, it immediately collapses – a unique experience.

Opera Cake, peanut cherry praliné, espresso ganache. All three were perfectly finished and very clear in their taste.

Summary
Since I like reduced cooking I was in culinary heaven here. Some servings were unreal good. Perfect product qualities meet combinations that fit very well and perfectly balanced aromas. These are plates and bowls for absolute taste and not so much for Instagram. The way, most of them are composed and served does not yield very spectacular photos. The light situation in the spot I was in did not contribute to good photos either. I am glad that I was allowed to take photos at all. I read that there were different rules in the past…
Also the cooks brought some servings to the table and explained them. They have a really “cool” sommelier here and also the other people in service were very attentive. I went to the chef afterward to say thank you. From the contact I had with him, I found him to be a nice person. From his statements, he is still in the ramp-up phase of the restaurant and there is a lot to do. This hinders him from other activities. For that, the level is already astonishingly high.

Website of the restaurant: César (cesar.restaurant)