Restaurant in New York City, United States
Serious tasting menu. Book well ahead.
63 Clinton is a Michelin-starred tasting menu on the Lower East Side backed by a decade-long kitchen partnership forged at three-star Brooklyn Fare. Ranked in Opinionated About Dining's top 110 in North America for 2025, it delivers technically precise contemporary cooking in a deliberately understated room. Book three to four weeks out minimum — this is a hard reservation.
63 Clinton is one of the harder reservations to secure on the Lower East Side, and that difficulty is earned. This is a Michelin-starred tasting menu format operating Tuesday through Saturday, 6–11 pm, with no walk-in culture to speak of. If you are planning a special occasion dinner and want a room that can match the ambition of a $$$$ price point without the institutional weight of Midtown's established flagships, 63 Clinton delivers. Book as far out as your schedule allows — this is not a last-minute option.
The cooking at 63 Clinton is precise in the way that only comes from long-term collaboration. Chef Samuel Clonts and co-owner Raymond Trinh have worked together for over a decade, with their shared career beginning at Brooklyn Fare, a three-Michelin-star kitchen known for its technical rigour. That foundation shows. In New York City's contemporary tasting menu field, 63 Clinton has risen quickly: ranked #109 on Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in North America in 2025, up from #110 in 2024 and a Highly Recommended listing in 2023. The Michelin star, awarded in 2024, confirmed what OAD's trajectory suggested.
What makes the kitchen worth your attention is its control of balance and texture across a full tasting menu arc. Opinionated About Dining's assessment of the menu describes early bites like a breakfast taco that set an unexpected tone, scallop dishes that prioritise balance, soft scrambled eggs with shio-koji butter, stracciatella-filled cannelloni, a composed short rib, and a goat milk ice cream that closes the meal as a study in texture. None of that reads like a kitchen trying to impress through complexity alone. The emphasis is on ingredient quality and technique working together rather than in tension , a harder thing to pull off than it sounds, and rarer in the $$$$ tasting menu tier than you might expect.
The dining room itself is deliberately understated. The Lower East Side address and the modest interior are part of the point: this is not a room designed to signal status before the food arrives. For a special occasion dinner where the meal is the event rather than the setting, that restraint works in your favour. The atmosphere is calm and controlled, suited to conversation. If you are after theatrical presentation or a high-energy room, this is not the right choice , for that, look toward Eleven Madison Park or Per Se. But if considered, focused cooking in a low-key setting is what you want, 63 Clinton does that more convincingly than most rooms at this price.
Service is described as warm and knowledgeable, which matters at this format. A tasting menu only works if the front of house can explain what you are eating without making it feel like a lecture. The long-standing team dynamic between the kitchen and the floor supports that , this is not a room with high staff turnover.
Reservations: Hard to secure. Book a minimum of three to four weeks out; popular weekend slots will fill faster than that. There is no walk-in option for a format like this. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 6–11 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. Budget: $$$$ price range. Expect tasting menu pricing consistent with a Michelin-starred contemporary room in New York City. Dress: No dress code listed, but the calm, considered atmosphere of the room suggests smart casual as a baseline. Address: 63 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002.
See the full comparison below for context on where 63 Clinton sits in New York City's $$$$ tasting menu tier.
At $$$$ pricing with a Michelin star and an OAD top-110 ranking, 63 Clinton is in direct competition with the city's most serious contemporary kitchens. The key distinction is scale and ambition of setting. Le Bernardin and Per Se both carry three Michelin stars and operate in rooms where the formality and polish of the service is part of what you are paying for. If that level of occasion dressing matters to you, those rooms deliver it more completely than 63 Clinton, though they will cost more and require equally far-out booking windows. Atomix is the closer comparison in terms of room scale and chef-driven precision: it operates as a focused tasting menu with strong awards backing and a similar intimacy. If modern Korean technique is not a preference, 63 Clinton is the better fit; if you are open to both, Atomix edges it on current critical ranking but the gap is not large enough to make one obviously the right answer.
Eleven Madison Park occupies a different tier in terms of room grandeur and name recognition, but its fully plant-based format narrows the audience significantly. If that format works for your group, EMP is a genuinely different experience from anything else in New York City. If it does not, 63 Clinton is a more reliable choice for a broader range of diners. Masa remains the price ceiling of New York City omakase and is not a direct comparison except at the highest end of the budget conversation. For diners who want Michelin-starred technical cooking without the Midtown price premium or the institutional scale of the city's legacy rooms, 63 Clinton is the most coherent option in its neighbourhood tier.
For equivalent contemporary tasting menu experiences in other cities, Alinea in Chicago, The French Laundry in Napa, and Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg all operate at a comparable awards level with different emphases. Lazy Bear in San Francisco and Providence in Los Angeles are useful reference points if you are benchmarking the $$$$ tasting menu format across American cities. Within New York City, 63 Clinton represents strong value relative to its peer group , the combination of Michelin recognition, OAD top-110 standing, and a room that does not charge for its own reputation makes it one of the more honest bookings in the city's upper tier.
Planning more of your trip? Our guides cover the full city: restaurants, hotels, bars, wineries, and experiences. For comparable contemporary tasting menu experiences in North America, see Alinea in Chicago, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, Lazy Bear in San Francisco, The French Laundry in Napa, Providence in Los Angeles, Emeril's in New Orleans, AnnaLena in Vancouver, and Barbara in Vancouver.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63 Clinton | $$$$ · Contemporary | There are very few teams in New York City that have worked together as long as Chef Sam Clonts and co-owner Raymond Trinh. They started their work career 10 years ago at 3-Michelin Star Brooklyn Fare,...; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #109 (2025); This understated Lower East Side dining room may appear modest, but the tasting menu under the calm leadership of Chef Samuel Clonts is anything but. This is precise, polished cooking where ingredient quality, texture and technique speak loudly. Unexpected early bites like a breakfast taco set the tone, while dishes such as Hokkaido scallop highlight balance and finesse. Soft scrambled eggs with shio-koji butter, stracciatella-filled cannelloni and a composed short rib demonstrate control. The meal peaks with a goat milk ice cream, a beautiful study in texture.Warm, knowledgeable service and a confident point of view make 63 Clinton a standout.; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #110 (2024); Michelin 1 Star (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Highly Recommended (2023) | Hard | — |
| Le Bernardin | French, Seafood | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Atomix | Modern Korean, Korean | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Eleven Madison Park | French, Vegan | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Masa | Sushi, Japanese | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Per Se | French, Contemporary | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in New York City for this tier.
Book at least three to four weeks out. Weekend slots fill faster given the Michelin star and OAD Top 110 recognition, so aim for four-plus weeks if you have specific dates. There is no walk-in option for a tasting menu format at this level.
63 Clinton runs a set tasting menu only — there is no à la carte. The format is fixed, so your decision is whether the tasting menu format suits you, not which dishes to pick. The menu is known for precise, technique-led cooking that OAD reviewers have cited for ingredient quality and textural control.
Expect a full tasting menu commitment — this is not a drop-in dinner. The room is described as understated, so do not arrive expecting grand décor; the focus is entirely on what comes out of the kitchen. Chef Samuel Clonts and co-owner Raymond Trinh have worked together for over a decade, including time at 3-Michelin-star Brooklyn Fare, which shapes the level of kitchen cohesion you will encounter.
For a similar $$$$ contemporary tasting menu with comparable critical standing, Atomix on the Upper East Side is the most direct comparison — it holds two Michelin stars and consistently ranks higher on OAD. If you want a longer-format, more theatrical experience at higher cost, Eleven Madison Park or Per Se are options, though both carry significantly larger price tags and different culinary philosophies.
At $$$$ pricing with a Michelin star and an OAD Top 110 ranking (2025), 63 Clinton is fairly priced for what it delivers relative to the city's tasting menu tier. It is a better value proposition than Per Se or Masa if what you want is precise, focused cooking without paying for a landmark room. If you are on the fence about tasting menu formats generally, this is not the place to test the waters.
63 Clinton does not offer lunch service. Dinner runs Tuesday through Saturday, 6–11 pm. Sunday and Monday are closed, so plan accordingly.
The restaurant's tasting menu format and small Lower East Side dining room make it a difficult fit for large groups. Parties of two to four are the practical sweet spot. If you are planning a group of six or more, check the venue's official channels to confirm capacity — no private dining details are documented for this venue.
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