Restaurant in New York City, United States
Seasonal fine dining, easier to book than expected.
Vestry is Shaun Hergatt's Michelin-recognised New American restaurant inside The Dominick hotel in SoHo, ranked #371 in North America by Opinionated About Dining in 2025. At the $$ price tier, it delivers Japanese-inflected seasonal cooking — including a serious caviar service — with easier reservations than most comparable Manhattan fine dining. Dinner only, closed Sundays; bar seating is a genuine option.
Getting a table at Vestry is easier than you might expect for a Michelin-recognised restaurant in SoHo. Reservations are recommended, but the booking window is forgiving — you are unlikely to need more than a week's notice on most evenings, and the bar offers a genuine walk-in option if the dining room is full. The more pressing question is whether it earns the trip, and the short answer is yes, with a clear profile in mind: this is a dinner restaurant for people who want serious cooking without the formality of a $300+ tasting menu.
Vestry sits inside The Dominick hotel on Spring Street, but it reads as a neighbourhood restaurant rather than a hotel dining room. Wood tables without linens, parquet floors, long hanging mirrors, and a collection of potted plants give the room warmth. There is outdoor seating for fair weather — the side of the building has a vine-covered, older character that contrasts with the hotel's modern exterior. It is a strong setting for a date or a celebration dinner where you want the room to do some work without feeling stiff.
Chef Shaun Hergatt's menu is seasonal and short, which is a reliable indicator of kitchen discipline. The cooking draws on his Queensland upbringing and a clear affinity for Japanese technique: expect seafood and vegetables as the main focus, with flavour built through restraint rather than volume. Opinionated About Dining ranked Vestry #371 in North America in 2025 (up from #387 in 2024), and the Michelin Plate recognition confirms consistent execution. This is not a venue coasting on a hotel address.
The caviar service , Hergatt operates his own caviar brand, Caspy, and runs a dedicated Caviar Bar at Resorts World Las Vegas , is a credible anchor for a special occasion. Available in 50g or 125g portions with potato blini, it is the kind of luxury add-on that makes sense here rather than feeling bolted on. Dishes like chu toro with yuzu and watermelon radish, or black cod with edamame and young onions, reflect a kitchen that understands how to build a plate around a single ingredient rather than overwhelming it. Desserts carry a light, playful register: a cheesecake shaped like a wedge of Swiss cheese, arriving with a mouse-shaped apple compote, signals a kitchen that is confident enough to have fun without losing focus.
Vestry is a dinner-only restaurant. The kitchen opens at 5 pm Monday through Thursday and Sunday is dark , hours run to 10 pm Sunday through Thursday and 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. There is no lunch service. If you are looking for a daytime New American option in the same price tier, ABC Kitchen serves lunch and covers similar seasonal territory, or Craft offers a comparable Tom Colicchio-era value proposition with broader hours. For Vestry specifically, the optimal booking is an early Friday or Saturday table when the kitchen runs longest and the room has the most energy without the full noise load of a late-night crowd.
The wine list is substantial: 600 selections, 2,500 bottles in inventory, with acknowledged depth in Burgundy, France, and Italy. Wine pricing sits at mid-tier ($$), meaning a reasonable range without the all-$100+ bottle walls you encounter at Per Se or Le Bernardin. Corkage is $75 if you bring your own. Wine Director Aidan Cooper oversees the list. The bar program deserves attention on its own terms: cocktails run from the Silver Bee (gin, chamomile, honey, lemon) to a credible non-alcoholic option with Seedlip Grove, yuzu, and egg white. Sitting at the black marble bar for a full meal is a practical and genuinely good alternative to a table, not a consolation prize.
Vestry is at 246 Spring Street in SoHo, inside The Dominick hotel. Self-parking is available. The cuisine price band is $$ (roughly $40–$65 for two courses before drinks), which makes it notably accessible by the standards of Michelin-recognised fine dining in Manhattan. Dress code is business casual. Gluten-free and vegetarian options are on the menu. Google rating is 4.0 from 353 reviews , solid without being effusive, which tracks for a room that attracts hotel guests alongside destination diners. General Manager Reuben Lirio and Chef/Owner Shaun Hergatt round out the senior team.
For more of New York City's leading dining, see our full New York City restaurants guide. If you are building a full trip around the neighbourhood, our New York City hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the rest. For seasonal American cooking at a similar price point in other cities, Bayona in New Orleans and Emeril's in New Orleans offer useful comparisons, while Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Providence in Los Angeles, and Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg sit at the higher end of the same New American conversation. If you are considering the full range of fine dining ambition, Alinea in Chicago, The French Laundry in Napa, and The Inn at Little Washington represent the tier above.
Yes. The black marble bar is a proper solo dining option , you can watch the bar program in action and order the full menu. At the $$ price tier, a solo meal at Vestry is one of the more accessible Michelin-recognised dinners in Manhattan. Beauty & Essex and The Four Horsemen are alternatives if you want a livelier solo atmosphere, but neither matches Vestry's cooking credentials at this price point.
It is a strong choice, particularly for a dinner that needs to feel considered without requiring a $300+ outlay. The caviar service gives the meal a natural centrepiece for celebrations, and the warm room , parquet floors, mirrors, live plants , carries a date or an anniversary without tipping into stuffy territory. The Michelin Plate and OAD Top 400 North America ranking (2025) add the kind of credibility that makes a booking feel intentional rather than arbitrary. For a more formal occasion where the setting needs to do even more work, Clocktower is worth comparing.
Business casual is the stated expectation. In practice, SoHo fine dining runs smart-casual to business casual , a blazer over a clean shirt works for most occasions, as does a dress. Jeans are fine if they are not distressed. The room has no tablecloths and a relaxed warmth to it, so you will not feel underdressed in smart casual, but showing up in athletic wear would be out of step with the room's register.
Vestry only serves dinner (5 pm onwards, closed Sundays), so the comparison does not apply here. If you specifically want a lunch option in the seasonal New American category in New York, ABC Kitchen is the most direct equivalent with lunch hours. For Vestry itself, an early Friday or Saturday booking , when the kitchen runs until 11 pm , gives you the most comfortable pacing and the leading chance of the room being at its liveliest without tipping into late-night noise.
Yes, and it is genuinely worth considering as a first-choice option rather than a fallback. The black marble bar serves the full menu, the cocktail program is serious (the Silver Bee and the non-alcoholic yuzu sour are both well-constructed), and it is the most practical way to eat here without a reservation on a busy night. Bar seating is also the leading seat in the house for solo diners or couples who want a more interactive meal.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vestry | New American | Easy | |
| Le Bernardin | French, Seafood | $$$$ | Unknown |
| Atomix | Modern Korean, Korean | $$$$ | Unknown |
| Eleven Madison Park | French, Vegan | $$$$ | Unknown |
| Masa | Sushi, Japanese | $$$$ | Unknown |
| Per Se | French, Contemporary | $$$$ | Unknown |
How Vestry stacks up against the competition.
Yes — the black-marble-topped bar is a legitimate solo option, not an afterthought. You can eat a full meal there while watching the drinks program in action. For a Michelin Plate restaurant priced at $$ (roughly $40–$65 for two courses before drinks), it's a low-pressure way to try Hergatt's cooking without needing to fill a table.
It works well for a low-key celebration — Michelin-recognised cooking, a 600-selection wine list with depth in Burgundy and Italy, and a warm interior with parquet floors and no tablecloths. At $$ pricing it won't break the bank the way Per Se or Masa would. If you need a more theatrical special-occasion format, Atomix offers a tasting-menu structure that feels more ceremonial.
Business casual is the documented dress expectation. The room is warm and relaxed — wood tables, no linens — so you won't feel out of place in smart trousers and a collared shirt or a simple dress. Avoid anything too casual given the fine-dining price point and SoHo hotel setting.
Dinner is the only option — Vestry does not serve lunch. The kitchen opens at 5 pm Monday through Friday and Saturday, and is closed Sundays entirely. If you're planning a midday meal, you'll need to look elsewhere.
Yes, and it's one of the better ways to experience the restaurant. The black-marble bar is set up for a full meal, and the drinks program — including a non-alcoholic sour with Seedlip Grove and yuzu, and a sake list alongside the main wine list — is worth exploring on its own. Bar seating is first-come, but Vestry is easier to walk into than most Michelin-recognised SoHo restaurants.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
