There are a few reasons you might opt for a tasting menu. Maybe you want to try something new? Maybe you want to impress a date with your mature and refined palette? Maybe you’re too lazy to read a menu and you simply want food to appear in front of you? All valid reasons, yes, but for us we go the tasting route because we get menu FOMO. We want to try everything, but sometimes we’re dining solo or with only one other person and we don’t want to look like a fat ass. You know you’ve been there, trying to be cute but wanting to stuff your face with all 25 pastas on the menu, plus the burrata and the tiramisu, because you don’t wanna miss the best thing. It’s a tough tight rope to walk, we know.

So we love tasting menus because they let us do this very thing, but the problem is that most are crazy expensive. Like sure, we could go to Masa and pay $450 per person or perhaps opt for a more humble experience at Momofuku Ko for a mere $175 each, or we could just not. And we don’t. Instead, we’re into tasting menus that are kinder to our wallets, ones that let us feel dapper and eat awesome food without making us blow our life savings. We appreciate these restaurants for accommodating our needs, so to show our thanks we thought we’d share them with you.

THE EDDY

Photo via The Eddy

The Eddy offers a 5 course tasting menu for $65 alongside its a la carte menu, but it can be more like a 9 course menu if you play your cards right. That’s because the first few courses include various sharing “snacks” for the table, immediately bumping up your dish count from like, 2 to 4. On top of that, this tasting menu gives options for its main course and dessert, so if you and your co-diner select different options you’re looking at 9 different dishes. Do it.

Address: 342 East 6th Street, New York, NY 10003

Phone: (646) 895-9884

Reservations via Open Table

 

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WALLFLOWER

Photo via Yelp

This is the Eddy’s lesser known sister restaurant with an equally tantalizing tasting menu for $68. Plus you might even be able to get a seat at 8pm on a Friday, which is nice. Like The Eddy, there’s a fair amount of choice here which can be good or bad depending on why you came. It’s good if you’re trying to literally sample everything on the menu (see technique strategies above) but it’s bad if you were hoping to use as little brain power as possible during this meal (we understand, you came to eat). If the latter is the case just let your waiter know, we’re sure they’d be happy to accommodate.

Address: 235 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10014

Phone: They don’t have one…it’s weird we know.

Reservations via OpenTable

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KURA

Photo via Whatshieats

This East Village sushi/omakase spot doesn’t even have a website and you’ve probably walked by its spot on St. Marks one hundred times without realizing, so unless you spend hours on yelp looking at food pics trying to distinguish hamachi from yellowtail from fluke (please don’t do that), you won’t know what you’re getting till you arrive. But just so you know on a recent visit we were served everything from to octopus to swordfish to yellow crab to yes, Santa Barbara uni, so maybe you’d get some of those. Japanese tasting menus are notoriously pricey (remember Masa’s $450 price tag), but somehow Kura manages to make our Jiro dream come true for as little as $85 for 13 pieces of sushi. We don’t know how or why they do it but we’re definitely not complaining.

Address: 130 Saint Marks Place, New York, NY 10009

Phone: (212) 228-1010

Reservations via phone

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SEMILLA

Photo via Bloomberg   

This veggie centric chef’s table in Brooklyn serves 10 courses for $75 to 18 diners per night. Expect to eat things you’ve never seen or heard of before mixed with a few things you might usually avoid (like broccoli and mushrooms), but just roll with it. You’re here for the experience, remember? This definitely isn’t a place for a rowdy crew, a picky crew, a carnivorous crew, or even a crew at all (they don’t take parties larger than 4), but it’s there for you and that friend who isn’t afraid of weird vegetables.

Address: 160 Havemeyer St. No 5. Brooklyn, NY 11211

Phone: (718) 782-3474

Reservations via website

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BOXKITE

Photo via NY Times

This tiny East Village coffee counter serves an 8-10 course tasting menu every night (yes…you sit at the coffee counter), and it’s really, really cool. The smallest spot on this list, Boxkite offers two 6-person seatings each night, but somehow it’s low key enough that we snagged a reservation for Friday night that same Friday afternoon. The chefs are ever changing so the menu is too, but you’ll likely be treated to dishes inspired by what was at the Union Square greenmarket that day, plus an obligatory coffee course. Head to Boxkite if you want to feel like sh*t about the meals you made in your college dorm room because these chefs whip up their meal in the tiniest kitchen we’ve ever seen, or just drop in for an evening espresso and sneak a peak.

Address: 115 Saint Marks Place, New York, NY 10009

Phone: (212) 574-8201

Reservations via email (reservations@boxkite.nyc)

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LUKSUS

Photo via Grubstreet

Luksus’s menu barely makes the cut at $95 per person, but it’s cool enough that we still wanted to tell you about it. First off, you enter Luksus through the back door of a beer hall called Torst, so it’ll satisfy whatever desire you might have to go to a “secret restaurant.” But honestly, Luksus isn’t a secret at all. It’s in fact quite popular and that’s probably because it’s currently the only tasting menu in NYC that has a beer accompaniment. So bring your beau, impress him with the fact that “you’re not a normal girl. You really do like beer,” and you can thank us later.

Address: 615 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Phone: (718) 389-6034

Reservations via Open Table

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CONTRA

Photo via NY mag

$55 for 5 courses, this one is really a steal. We love Contra for its casual vibes, so it’s great for when we want a memorable food experience but don’t want to wear a suit or feel stressed out about it (which is often). Reservations aren’t even that hard to snag, there’s just one set menu, it’s only 5 courses which comparatively is pretty chill, and its LES location is probably right next to where you were going tonight anyway. Really, this one couldn’t be any easier.

Address: 138 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002

Phone: (212) 466-4633

Reservations via website

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 DOJO SUSHI

Photo via NY Eater

We know there are a zillion and one omakase deals in NYC (and actually quite a few for under $100), but we picked Dojo Sushi because it might be the cheapest and it’s really freaking delicious. We know it’s not a secret and we know it’s not new, but it’s still one of the best deals around. The 10 piece sushi omakase is only $45, and keep in mind that the Whole Foods sushi box you had for lunch was $16 if you got the special roll. And if you’ve already been here and you’ve already snagged that deal, come back because there are at least 5 ways you can eat a tasting menu-esque meal here.

Address: 110 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10009

Phone: (646) 692-9398

Reservations via website

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 LOURO – NOSSA MESA SUPPER CLUB

Photo via Louro

Louro is another delightful modern American restaurant in the West Village serving “bites for the table” as well as small and large plates to share. Or so you thought. Now, thanks to us, you know that on Monday nights the Nossa Mesa Supper club jumps in and serves a fixed priced (usually around $50 or $55) themed tasting menu. It’s not a traditional tasting menu, everyone shows up at 7pm and is served simultaneously, but the idea of a set menu of small-ish plates for a fixed price is the same. Best part? It’s BYOB. So grab that $7 bottle of wine and get over there. Oh and also, reservations sell out weeks in advance but recently we called at 6:45 and they “squeezed us in.” It was oyster themed so thank God we made it, and you always give that a try.

Address: 142 West 10th Street, New York, NY 10014

Phone: (212) 206-0606

Reservations for Supper Club via phone or email (nossamesa@louronyc.com)

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MISSION CHINESE

Photo via Bon Appetit

We know we’re getting even further from the traditional tasting menu with this one, but we just can’t keep it to ourselves. If you don’t know about Mission Chinese yet that’s a little weird, but maybe it’s been too cold for you to trek to east Chinatown. But anyway, Mission Chinese seems to be all anyone’s talking about these days, but the menu can be really overwhelming. So to prevent delaying the meal you’ve already waited 2 hours for any longer, quickly grab one of their set dinners for $69 or $99. Oh and also, that $99 deal comes with the cocktail cart (yes you heard correctly…a cocktail cart), so you’ll still be under $100 even with dranks if you leave a 0% tip (don’t do that).

Address: 171 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002

Phone: (212) 529-8800

Reservations? Nope.

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 NORTHERN SPY FOOD CO.

Photo via Men Who Like To Travel

Northern Spy Food Co is a super homey resto in the East Village that serves comfort food exactly to our liking. Head in any night of the week (or for brunch, or for LUNCH gosh darn it), and enjoy classics like roast chicken and ice cream sammies. But go for their weekly Sunday Supper and you’re in for something special – three courses of hearty and filling stuff for $27 to be specific. It’s not the only place doing a Sunday Supper these days, but we think it’s both the cheapest and the best. It sounds too good to be true, we know, but it is true and it’s happening every week.

Address: 511 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10009

Phone: (212) 228-5100

Reservations here or walk-ins

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Featured image by Daniela Spector

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