Eleven Madison Park’s Latest Trick? A Shorter Tasting Menu

It goes without saying that eating a meal at a fine-dining restaurant is a big investment. Steep price aside, you might take a bit more time to think about your outfit, and it can often take multiple hours to complete the meal. The team behind Eleven Madison Park in New York City, the three-Michelin-starred institution considered to be one of the best restaurants in the world, launched a new six-course tasting menu that can be completed in two hours or less without sparing any of the grandiosity. 

In a time when restaurants are moving toward more casual dining – and some have gone so far as to argue that fine dining is dead – Eleven Madison Park remains committed to the craft. Its condensed six-course tasting menu features a progression of plant-based dishes. In spring of 2021, executive chef Daniel Humm shocked the restaurant world when he announced that the menu would be entirely vegan moving forward. The move came as a shock since some of Eleven Madison’s most beloved dishes featured meat. They traded in hearty dry-aged duck for meticulously presented potatoes that are treated like entreés. 

The new, early March menu we tried featured a celebration of local winter vegetables like radishes, onions, and potato – and truffles, of course. One of the best bites, or sips, rather, of the night was a perfectly seasoned savory tea filled with unctuous umami notes. That first course, a duo of tea and a delicate dumpling, aimed to celebrate radishes, an often overlooked vegetable. The celebration continued through the second course of gently dressed, shingled-sliced radishes, followed by beet tostadas adorned with tonburi, a seed that, when marinated with seaweed, tastes like caviar.

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The new menu’s show-stopper is a potato dish presented in a large clay vessel that erupts with steam tableside. The potato gets generously topped with black truffle and finished with a broth. We enjoyed a whimsical dessert featuring multiple preparations of citrus, and capped the night off with homemade vermouth. 

The potato dish encapsulates what’s still special about fine dining – not only is it dinner, but dinner and a show. Eleven Madison Park continues to offer pristine hospitality, with a thoughtful and attentive service style that also affords you the time and space to enjoy the meal. That hospitality extends to the beverage service. The restaurant’s Champagne selection, rolled out on a cart, is served by the sommelier who walks diners through each option. The Manhattan cart service includes a few cocktails named after New York neighborhoods where cocktails are made tableside. 

This two-hour dining experience is designed with busy New Yorkers and on-the-go travelers in mind without sparing any bells and whistles. Adaptations of the winter menu we enjoyed will run through April 2023 and will be replaced seasonally. The six course meal is $285 per person before beverage and gratuity, and an optional standard wine pairing goes for $145.