We weren’t sure what we were going to do for dinner, but Andrea said she wanted something nice so who am I to refuse. I was able to score a last minute reservation here at The Modern. There are actually three concepts – the Bar which is more casual, the dining room where we are, and the kitchen table which is in the kitchen. We couldn’t have asked for a better meal for our last night in NYC. During this trip, we ate at a total of 9 Michelin stars (4x 2-stars, 1×1-star), the most I’ve eaten in one stretch. This was, for us, easily the best. If we had to rank them we would have said here, Momofuku Ko, Aquavit, Daniel, then Marea.

Tasting menu here is all a surprise and every dish was fantastic. The tagliatelle with truffle was a supplement…since we’ve been burned with less than fragrant truffles before and on this trip too, so we asked to see and more importantly even the truffles, which they happily obliged…the truffles were quite fragrant and our fungal fears were assuaged. In short, every dish was great and many superb…so many standouts- the caviar with poached egg (the one dish that has been carried over for awhile), the lobster with maitake mushroom and sabayon sauce, the tagliatelle with truffle, the duck…so much more. Even the snack to start, and the strawberry palate cleanser were all so tasty and more tasty than are usually are served at most restaurants.

Wine pairings were original and unique…not the traditional, obvious old and new world choices but very nice selections from South Africa, Argentina, etc. meshes to say, the somm was fantastic and ask of her pairings were spot on. For an after dinner drink, we were hoping for something like a 50-year old Amaro. They didn’t have that, but instead they put together a fantastic trio of wines for us that were all so interesting and different.

Needless to say, service was impeccable. They even took us on a brief tour of the kitchen afterwards and we had a chance to speak to the chef and thank him for the fantastic inspired meal. We really enjoyed the experience and this was our best meal of the trip and we’re thankful that it was our last dinner, otherwise we would have been relatively disappointed with every meal that came afterwards. We’d definitely come back here again.