César – the grocery-store virtuoso's first restaurant of his own

César occupies a quiet stretch of Hudson Street where SoHo blurs into Hudson Square, in a room most passers-by would never guess holds two MICHELIN Stars. It is chef César Ramirez's first restaurant under his own name, opened in July 2024 after a very public split from Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, the counter he ran inside a grocery store — first in downtown Brooklyn, then in Hell's Kitchen — for more than a decade, making it the only restaurant in Brooklyn's history to hold three MICHELIN Stars. César itself earned two MICHELIN Stars less than five months after its first service, a pace almost unheard of for the Guide, and in 2026 OAD ranked it the No. 1 restaurant in North America, ahead of Le Bernardin, Atomix and the French Laundry. The room runs on a seafood-driven tasting menu of a dozen or more courses, built on Japanese technique, French discipline and ingredients pulled from Mexico, Spain and Norway — proof that Ramirez's cooking survived the move intact.

01The room and the setting

César fills a 4,500-square-foot fit-out designed by Vanguard, with white oak walls, applied moulding and a bar counter cut from Carrera Bianco marble that looks straight onto the open kitchen. The space is far larger than anything Ramirez had before: 13 counter seats and 36 table seats, against the single eighteen-seat counter he once ran in Brooklyn.

The restaurant is split into three distinct rooms. The Dining Room offers luxuriously spaced tables of two to four with a direct view of the kitchen, and every guest at a table must take the same tasting menu. The Chef's Counter, built from white oak, puts diners in a single row facing the stoves, for parties of one to four. The Salon is a semi-private space for two to five guests, with the option of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage pairings alongside the tasting menu.

02The chef

César Ramirez was born in a small town near Mexico City and raised in Chicago, where he began working in the city's kitchens before travelling to Europe to study its food and culture. In 1998 he moved to New York and spent nine years working for David Bouley at Danube and Bouley, eventually running Bouley's kitchen as executive chef — a period in which he was introduced to Japanese cuisine and began the trips to Japan that still shape his cooking.

Insider tip

Dinner only, seven nights a week; book the Counter on Resy, the Salon by phone or email.

In 2009, grocer Moe Issa recruited Ramirez to open a restaurant behind his Brooklyn Fare store in downtown Brooklyn, a counter that became Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare and the first restaurant outside Manhattan to earn three MICHELIN Stars, a title Ramirez held from 2010 through 2022 and which, to date, remains the only three-star run in Brooklyn's history. The partnership ended in 2023 in a bitter legal dispute with Issa, and the restaurant lost all three stars before reopening under new chefs; Ramirez, meanwhile, quietly leased space in Hudson Square and opened César the following year.

03The cooking

The tasting menu runs to twelve or more courses and changes with the seasons, though Ramirez has said the format — roughly three-quarters seafood, with French technique applied to ingredients sourced from Japan, France, Spain, Mexico and Norway — is one he developed over fifteen years. Fish arrives from Japan alongside langoustines from Norway and quail from California's Wolfe Ranch, which the chef has called the best he has found anywhere.

Supplements can push the bill considerably further: shaved truffle over one or two courses, a spoon of caviar, or an additional four-ounce course of A5 Wagyu have all appeared as add-ons to the set menu, making it easy to double the headline price for diners who want to.

04What to order

Ramirez's signature remains a course of Hokkaido uni and truffle set over a brioche mousse toast, the dish most closely associated with his cooking and one he has carried over from his Brooklyn Fare days. Expect Wolfe Ranch quail to appear among the meat courses, and a seasonal frozen soufflé that has become one of the kitchen's recurring closing notes.

05Wine and drinks

The wine list runs to more than 400 selections drawn from roughly 2,000 bottles in the cellar, weighted towards white wines and lighter reds from Burgundy and the Loire Valley, with further strength in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. An optional beverage pairing is offered alongside the tasting menu for an additional charge, and the Salon can also be booked with a non-alcoholic pairing for guests who prefer it.

06When to go and booking

César serves dinner seven nights a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 6pm to 11pm, Wednesday from 6pm to 11pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 5.30pm to 11pm, as published on its own site in 2026. The Chef's Counter can be booked directly through Resy; tables in the Dining Room and the semi-private Salon, especially for parties of five or more, are best arranged by phone or email directly with the restaurant.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.