Restaurant in New York City, United States
Book it. Smart $$$ bet in Chelsea.
Hav & Mar is not the Ethiopian restaurant many expect — it is a modern, ingredient-led restaurant in Chelsea where Ethiopian and Swedish culinary traditions (teff, berbere, injera alongside mustard seed and Granny Smith apple) shape a genuinely differentiated menu. Michelin Plate 2024, 4.5 on Google across 507 reviews, and $$$ pricing make it one of the more compelling value cases in New York fine dining.
The most common mistake people make about Hav & Mar is arriving with expectations shaped by traditional Ethiopian dining — shared platters, communal injera, the familiar warmth of a family-run spot in the Bronx or D.C.'s U Street corridor. That is not what this is. Hav & Mar, at 245 11th Ave in Chelsea, is a modern American restaurant with Ethiopian and Swedish dual heritage running through the menu — a distinction that matters when you are deciding whether to book. If you want classic Ethiopian, this is the wrong address. If you want a serious, ingredient-led restaurant where teff, berbere, and injera exist alongside Granny Smith apple and Swedish mustard seed preparations, this is worth your attention and the $$$ price point that comes with it.
The physical space on 11th Avenue is Chelsea gallery-district in character: high ceilings, generous footprint, a room built for a crowd rather than a quiet dinner for two. That scale changes how the evening feels. This is not an intimate counter experience like Atomix or a hushed dining room like Per Se. The room has energy and volume , which works in your favour on a Thursday or Friday when the crowd gives it momentum, and less so on a quiet Tuesday when the space can feel underpopulated. If you are planning a special occasion and want an intimate atmosphere, book a table in the earlier seating or request positioning away from the main floor.
Ingredient sourcing at Hav & Mar is what justifies the price tier and what separates it from comparable modern American restaurants at the same spend. The kitchen uses Ethiopian staples , teff, berbere spice, injera , not as garnish or novelty, but as structural ingredients that define the dish. The bread basket makes this clear immediately: lentil roti, oat porridge crisp, and teff biscuit are not decorative; they are the menu's opening argument. Teff is a fine-grained, iron-rich Ethiopian grain that most New York kitchens ignore entirely, and the fact that it appears in the bread course signals where the kitchen's priorities sit.
Swediopian , berbere-cured salmon with Granny Smith apple, mustard seed caviar, buckthorn, and injera chips , is the dish that has drawn the most attention, and for good reason. Berbere is a complex Ethiopian spice blend that works as a curing agent with real effect on salmon, and pairing it with the acidity of apple and the Scandinavian sharpness of mustard seed is a coherent flavour decision rather than a fusion stunt. The corn-wrapped snapper with salsa verde and crispy coconut rice is the main course that has received consistent praise. The coconut rice alone , if it is done well , is worth ordering around.
If you have been once and ordered off the middle of the menu, the next visit should start with the full bread basket and commit to the Swediopian as a non-negotiable. The sourcing choices across those two courses explain what the kitchen is trying to do better than any description can.
Hav & Mar holds a Michelin Plate recognition for 2024, which signals consistent kitchen quality without the full star designation. The White Star from Star Wine List (published December 2024) adds a wine credential that matters if you are planning a longer, drinks-led evening. A Google rating of 4.5 across 507 reviews is a meaningful signal for a restaurant in this price range , high-ticket venues in New York accumulate polarised reviews, so a sustained 4.5 with that volume suggests the kitchen is delivering reliably. For context, that rating compares well against similarly priced creative restaurants in the same borough.
Thursday through Saturday evening is when Hav & Mar operates at its leading , the room has the energy it is built for, service is calibrated for full covers, and the kitchen is in full stride. Weekend lunch, if available, gives you a quieter room and the same menu at a different pace, which suits a longer, exploratory meal better than a weeknight when the floor is moving fast. Avoid early-week bookings unless you specifically want a low-energy room; the Chelsea gallery-district location means Monday and Tuesday can feel thin.
Address: 245 11th Ave, New York, NY 10001. Price: $$$, expect a meaningful per-head spend before wine. Reservations: Book 2–3 weeks ahead for weekend evenings; moderate difficulty overall, but prime Saturday slots go faster. Wine: White Star recognition from Star Wine List , the wine program is worth engaging rather than defaulting to cocktails. Getting there: The 11th Avenue address is a walk from the High Line and accessible from the 23rd Street subway stops on the C/E and 1 lines. Dress: Smart casual is the floor here; the room is not a jeans-and-sneakers environment, but it is not a jacket-required room either.
Hav & Mar sits at $$$ where most of New York's marquee dining is at $$$$. That price gap is relevant. Le Bernardin, Atomix, Eleven Madison Park, Masa, and Per Se all require a higher baseline spend and, in most cases, significantly harder booking lead times. Hav & Mar offers a genuinely differentiated menu at a lower price point and moderate booking difficulty , that combination is uncommon in this city. If you are drawn to ingredient-led cooking that operates outside French and Japanese frameworks, and you are not ready to commit to a $400+ omakase or a $350 tasting menu, Hav & Mar is the more accessible and arguably more interesting bet. For more options across the city, see our full New York City restaurants guide.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hav & Mar | Ethiopian | Hav & Mar is a restaurant in New York City, USA. It was published on Star Wine List on December 11, 2024 and is a White Star.; How do you share your melting pot heritage without pandering? Just ask Chefs Marcus Samuelsson and Fariyal Abdullahi, the brains behind Hav & Mar. This modern spot pays homage to Samuelsson's Ethiopian and Swedish roots with a seamless and heartfelt approach. The menu pulls from both cultures and their staple ingredients. Start with the bread basket, an impressive collection of lentil roti, oat porridge crisp and teff biscuit. Few dishes represent this cultural collision better than the Swediopian, a berbere-cured salmon shingled between slices of Granny Smith apple, dressed with mustard seed caviar and buckthorn and finished with injera chips. Corn-wrapped snapper served with a bright salsa verde and crispy coconut rice is a can't-miss main.; Michelin Plate (2024) | Moderate | — |
| 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 | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
The menu draws on Ethiopian and Swedish ingredients — teff, injera, lentils, fish — which gives it natural range for pescatarians and those avoiding red meat. The bread basket alone spans lentil roti, oat porridge crisp, and teff biscuit, suggesting the kitchen thinks beyond a single dietary default. check the venue's official channels ahead of your visit; at $$$ and with Michelin Plate recognition, the kitchen is equipped to accommodate with notice.
Yes, particularly for a dinner where the occasion benefits from a conversation-worthy menu rather than a conventional tasting format. The Chelsea space runs large and energetic rather than hushed and intimate, so it suits celebrations better than romantic dinners for two. Thursday through Saturday evenings give you the full room at its best. At $$$, it sits below the city's $$$$ special-occasion tier — Le Bernardin, Masa, Per Se — which makes it a strong choice when you want the moment without the four-figure bill.
At $$$, yes — particularly given that comparable creative cooking in New York typically runs $$$$. Hav & Mar holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and a White Star on Star Wine List, both of which signal consistent execution rather than hype. The kitchen's Ethiopian-Swedish crossover is specific enough to justify the spend; this is not a generic modern American menu with a few global gestures. If you are looking for a lower price point, you will trade ingredient sourcing and kitchen ambition for it.
Book 2 to 3 weeks ahead for weekend evenings, which is when the room operates at full energy and demand is highest. Weeknight slots open up with shorter lead times. The venue is at 245 11th Ave in Chelsea, and at $$$ with Michelin Plate recognition, it draws a consistent crowd — do not assume availability will hold if you wait.
Do not arrive expecting a traditional Ethiopian dining format. There are no shared injera platters in the conventional sense; instead, the menu uses Ethiopian ingredients — teff, berbere, injera chips — within a composed, plated format shaped equally by Marcus Samuelsson's Swedish background. The bread basket is the right place to start, and dishes like the Swediopian salmon give you the clearest read on what the kitchen is doing. The room is large and lively, not quiet or minimalist.
For Ethiopian-influenced cooking at a similar price, Hav & Mar has few direct peers in New York — the Ethiopian-Swedish combination is specific to this kitchen. If you want more formal tasting-menu precision at a higher spend, Atomix (Korean, $$$$) offers some of the same cultural specificity with a Michelin-starred format. For creative American cooking at $$$, the comparison field is wide, but few bring the same biographical depth to the sourcing that Samuelsson and Abdullahi do here.
The venue database does not confirm a tasting menu format at Hav & Mar; the kitchen appears to run an à la carte and composed-plate format rather than a set tasting progression. If a tasting menu option exists, confirm at booking. At $$$ with a Michelin Plate, the à la carte menu delivers enough range — from the bread basket through mains like corn-wrapped snapper — to build a full meal without a fixed format.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
