Le Bernardin is a three-

Michelin star The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic ...

French seafood restaurant in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Eric Ripert is the executive chef, and he is co-owner along with

Maguy Le Coze Maguy Le Coze (born 1944) is a restaurateur and the co-owner of Le Bernardin in New York City. In 1972 she moved to Paris to open the first version of Le Bernardin with her brother Gilbert Le Coze. After receiving multiple Michelin stars in Pari ...

History

Gilbert Le Coze Gilbert Le Coze (1945 – 28 July 1994) was a French chef known for his innovative methods in seafood preparation. Le Coze's cooking has been compared to Japanese cuisine and has influenced a generation of American cooks. In 1972 he left B ...

and his sister

opened the original Le Bernardin restaurant in Paris in 1972; the name came from a folk song their father sang to them as children, "Les Moines de St. Bernardin", about monks who "loved life – the good life especially". The Le Coze siblings relocated the restaurant, under the same name, to New York City in 1986, not long after receiving a third

. Eric Ripert joined the restaurant as

chef de cuisine A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads a kitchen and its cooks. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is a chef that manages multiple kitche ...

in 1991. When Gilbert Le Coze died of a heart attack in 1994, Ripert succeeded him as

executive chef A chef de cuisine (, French language, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that Supervisor, leads a kitchen and its cooks. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is a chef ...

, and in 1996 he became co-owner of the restaurant with Maguy Le Coze. In 2012 the restaurant was completely redesigned by the architectural firm Bentel & Bentel. A large lounge was also added.

Menu and dining

Le Bernardin serves a four-course

prix fixe Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who ...

dinner for $210 as well a 10-course chef’s tasting menu along with an optional wine pairings. A vegetarian tasting menu for $250, with six savory courses and two desserts, was added in 2017 which also has its own separate optional wine pairing. There is also a separate lounge menu serving ''

à la carte In restaurants, ''à la carte'' (; ; ) is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to ''table d'hôte'', where a set menu is offered. It is an early 19th century loan from French meaning "according to ...

'' options which consist of a small variety of tasting menu options such as their signature pounded tuna with

foie gras ; (, ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a Domestic duck, duck or Domestic goose, goose. According to French law, ''foie gras'' is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by ''gavage'' (force feeding). ''Foie gras'' i ...

and other delicacies such as caviar. The restaurant also serves lunch consisting of two menus. The former in the main dining room consists of three courses and runs for $130 (outside of supplements) on weekdays only. There is also a lounge prix fixe in collaboration with City Harvest; a non-profit food rescue organization associated with the chef Eric Ripert. Said menu is priced at $94 for 3 courses including a $5 donation to said organization. The restaurant specializes in fish and seafood, prepared in a variety of styles and sauces based fundamentally on French cuisine while also using various Asian ingredients and other modern and international flavors. The menu is divided into headings of "Almost raw", "Barely touched", and "Lightly cooked". Upon request, pasta, lamb, poultry, or filet mignon are served. The dress code is

business casual Business casual is an ambiguously defined Western dress code that is generally considered casual wear but with :wiktionary:smart#English, smart (in the sense of "well dressed") components of a proper lounge suit from traditional informal wear, ...

; jackets are recommended but not required. For private gatherings, the restaurant has two options: Les Salons Bernardin, upstairs from the restaurant with its own entrance, with space for up to 80 guests; and Le Bernardin Privé, across the building's Galleria on the ground floor, which can seat up to 200. The restaurant's lunch service is Monday through Friday, 12:00PM to 2:30 PM. The restaurant's dinner service is open at 5:00pm. Le Bernardin is closed on Sundays.

Awards and accolades

Le Bernardin has maintained a four-star rating from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' since 1986. It is the only restaurant in New York that has kept a four-star ''New York Times'' rating for over 35 years. It has won several

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

s, including Outstanding Restaurant (1998); Best Chef – Eric Ripert (1998); Outstanding Pastry Chef – Michael Laiskonis (2007); and Outstanding Restaurateur – Maguy Le Coze (2013). Le Bernardin received three

Michelin stars The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic ...

in 2005, the first year that Michelin published a guide for New York City. It is one of five restaurants in New York with three Michelin stars. In 2009, Le Bernardin ranked 15th in the world in

The World's 50 Best Restaurants The World's 50 Best Restaurants is a list produced by the UK media company William Reed Ltd, William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant (magazine), Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards are no longer direc ...

published by ''

Restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

'' magazine. ''

Zagat The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, coverin ...

'' rates Le Bernardin among the best restaurants in New York. In ''Zagat''s annual survey of restaurant patrons, Le Bernardin received the most votes of any restaurant in the city during the years 2009 to 2012. The ratings are published in a guide for the following year. In 2012, 44,306 restaurant patrons participated in the survey, and the ratings were summarized in the ''2013 New York City Restaurants'' guide. In 2016,

Grub Street Until the early 19th century, Grub Street was a street close to London's impoverished Moorfields district that ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate north to Chiswell Street. It was pierced along its length with narrow ent ...

ranked it as No. 2 in "The Absolute Best Restaurant in New York"; the No. 1 spot went to Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. In 2017, Le Bernardin ranked second on

La Liste La Liste which initially was a list of the 1,000 best restaurants in the world is privately owned and was launched in Paris in December 2015. This French ranking and restaurants guide nowadays lists 20,000 restaurants in 195 countries by aggregatin ...

, a privately published list of the top 1,000 restaurants in the world. In 2018, La Liste ranked Le Bernardin number one in the world. Since 2022, Le Bernardin has maintained a No. 1 ranking on

The Infatuation The Infatuation (formerly known as Immaculate Infatuation) is an American New York–based restaurant recommendation website and messaging service, created by former music industry executives Chris Stang and Andrew Steinthal in 2009. They are mos ...

's "The 25 Best Restaurants in NYC" with a rating of 9.5 out of 10.

Cookbooks

*''Le Bernardin Cookbook: Four-Star Simplicity'' (1998) *''A Return to Cooking'' (2002) *''On the Line'' (2008)

References

External links