Estela
“The Burrata was smooth and creamy and mixed surprisingly well with the bright green Salsa Verde.”
“Ricotta dumplings – These were like a light gnocchi.”
“I'm a sucker for beef tartare and Estela's has a nice saltiness and crunch to it.”
Estela
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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We immediately booked this place as the worlds top 50 restaurant list was announced earlier this year. We went with a lot of expectations and it met with all the hype! The service was just amazing and the servers spend time explaining the wine pairing with the food that we ordered. The ambience is very intimate and cozy and the place is small but very warm. The menu had very interesting options – the best of the lot was oysters as the mignonette sauce was just out of the world. The tomato with dried shrimp was a pleasant surprise. Went by Yelp reviews and chose the ricotta dumplings and they didn't disappoint. The poulsard vieilles vignes wine was light and perfectly suited the food we ordered. The ranking is totally justified and given the fact that the restaurant is still relatively unknown, you get reservations fairly easily. Go for it now before it becomes difficult to get reservations as this one is definitely going down as one of the best places in NYC to take your date out for a nice romantic dinner!
Hmmm….was not too impressed. Came here for brunch and Ordered the below:
Toast w lardo and Jam: extremely difficult to eat due to crusty nature of the bread and toasting it made it extra cruncy, appreciated the pairing of the acidic jam to the fatty lardo but the ratio was off as a thin sliver of lardo was not enough to balance the extremely acidic jam!
Oysters w yuzu mignonette: I did not try this but my friend said it was fresh and the dressing paired nicely
Burrata w charred bread and salsa verde: Not really sure I understood the description as I didnt expect salsa verde to be a brothlike consistency. The wonderfully creamy burrata was overshadowed w the construction of this dish as the burrata was on top of charred bread sitting in a puddle of salsa verde, why?
Ricotta Dumplings: ok dish as the pillowy dumplings paired w mushrooms and pecorino sardo was again sitting in a puddle of broth, very dashi-esque.
Whitefish Sandwich: pedestrian take on a Jewish favorite but on an english muffin opposed to a bagel. simplistic nature made is my fave dish of the day even though there was no wow factor.
Btw, Bloody Mary was far from impressive. Service was attentative and friendly. Might come back and try dinner IF I'm in the area!
Estella's brunch menu lived up to the hype that matches their Top 50 ranking in the world. Lot of unique dishes and options ( sorry no eggs Benedict here y'all ). The star of the show is undoubtedly the blood cake with onion marmalade and egg, a nice twist of the British classic. The ricotta dumplings were also fantastic, although a pretty hearty option during brunch, all the flavors blended well together and the shaved mushrooms on top almost had a paper like texture in a good way that didn't contrast too much with the heavy filling of the dumpling. Lamb ribs was alright, nothing to rave about. All in all a great experience !!! I will return for that blood cake yum !!!!
I'm shocked that I didn't write a review for Estela the first time I dined here a year ago. But here we are, after Estela made it into the World's Top 50 Restaurants of the year. I revisited Estela last night to refresh my memory.
Hidden yet shockingly good surprises are the name of the game here (including the restaurant itself). Go up the steps from Botanica Bar. Be prepared, it's tiny, packed, bustling, and can feel like everything's gone haywire. Hopefully you'll think that's part of the charm. It may be difficult to hear each other, but just cozy up closer and it will all be fine.
The last official seating for reserved tables is at 10:30pm. We were seated on time.
The cured fluke with sea urchin looked pretty plain, the white fluke neatly hiding the wonderful sea urchin below it. Lovely melding of flavors. Our favorites of the night were probably the lamb ribs with charmoula and honey, and the steak on a bed of lovely hashbrown-like potato and amazing chimichurri.
I really loved how accessible everything looks and feels- simple, with a pleasant twist. Our otherwise sweet server made a lot of mix ups throughout the night, but I'm sure everyone's just had a long night. So we drank and we were merry, and it was just grand.
Ermagherd.
Had dinner here last July and it was phenomenal. (In other news, I write reviews and leave them sitting in draft mode too long!) The place is definitely busy yet unfussy, and the food is imaginative but approachable.
My friend YT and I shared several dishes, starting with the endive salad, which I didn't expect to like but was wonderful! The endives are served individually and you basically create a lettuce-wrap style bite with the rest of the ingredients. Then we had the black rice with squid and romanesco – another dish I didn't expect to like but ended up loving! We also had the lamb ribs and the pork. Everything was well done, a little different, but better, than expected. Can't remember the two cocktails I had but they were boozy and to my liking.
I can't wait for another opportunity to visit Estela and try more of the menu… or maybe I'll be a bad girl and order the same things again!
We came here for a Sunday brunch after I saw it on top 50 best restaurants in the world 2016 list. The reservation wasn't hard to get, maybe because it was brunch. We arrived around 1pm and the place was packed. We were seated right away, at a suuuuuper small table that resembled a small end table. I didn't like the seating arrangement along the wall, seats are too close together that I moved my feet and was afraid that I may kick my neighbor.
Anyways, we ordered oysters, toast with lardo and jam, slab of bacon, blood cake, and ricotta dumplings to share.
– Oysters, pricey (6 for $18), but the vignette on top had the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity and complemented the oysters very well.
– Toast with lardo and jam. It's one of the best combinations on a toast I've had, I think it's their take on bone marrow with jam.
– Slab of bacon: I'd call it slab of pork belly over bacon. Meaty and juicy and tender, amazing.
– Blood cake was definitely an interesting combo, it reminded me of "sundae" the Korean blood sausage. But the spicy sauce and sunny side up egg added some additional dimension to it.
– Ricotta dumplings were just delicious. It's like cheese ravioli covered with thin slices of mushrooms. How would I ever say no to cheese and mushrooms? It was just delicious.
It may not seem to be a lot of food in the beginning, but we were stuffed after everything. It's definitely a great brunch spot and I would come back here to try their dinner.
Side note: they accidentally gave me dinner menu after we sat down. The oysters on the dinner menu (with everything else in description stayed the same) cost $23 vs. $18 on brunch menu. Good mark-up strategy since people are more likely to spend more on dinner, but from a diner's perspective, it's a kinda a rip off and makes me wonder what else they mark up on dinner menu…
LOVED my dinner at Estela. It's my ideal kind of restaurant: charming elegant ambience, friendly service with great recommendations, and fantastic food. We went right at the beginning of dinner service and the staff was wrapping up a photo shoot- maybe because of their recent placement in the worlds top 50? Anyway it was nice seeing the whole team having fun.
The menu showcases the ingredients in familiar ways with a twist, traditional with a bit of a surprise. I loved the beef tartare, which has crunchy sunchokes mixed in; fried arroz negro is like the best bits of crispy rice in a paella; the ricotta dumplings are heavenly, how are they so fluffy?? The celery salad is quite pungent in celery/lemon flavor, very refreshing and actually convinced my friend that maybe celery isn't so bad. Burrata is always a good choice, but they serve it on some magical bread and green juice and bam I fell in love with cheese all over again. Lamb ribs are tender with an Asian spice flavor profile. For dessert, the chocolate cake is a must for chocolate lovers- a concentrated dark chocolatey cake hidden under barely sweetened cream masquerading as tiramisu. Not sickeningly rich, and perfectly satisfying. You should also order ice cream because where else will you get parsnip ice cream?
From the variety of dishes I ordered, I'd say you can't really go wrong (but definitely order the ricotta dumplings)! Everything was creative and delicious and beautiful. It's hard not to love this place.
Summary: Great vibe. Trendy without pretense. Get the Wagu Beef and the Squid rice. Four is the perfect number for dinner here.
Atmosphere: It is dark and trendy and there is that buzz in the restaurant that makes it modern and alive. That said, I could not hear the conversations of nearby tables. Of course, I arrived very early so it may be that I was not near anyone. Some of the tables are rather close together. While they can do larger parties, I think I saw an 8 top, the restaurant is tiny. I think if you had more than 6, it would be a bit of a squeeze. Four is really the perfect number to enjoy the majority of the menu but still not feel like you're too big a group for the place.
The Service: Staff is hipster without being obnoxious. You're treated like a good friend is trying to help you navigate your stomach adventure for the evening. They are present for the most part and on top of things. The restaurant is small enough where you can quickly flag staff down in case you are missing something. Staff knows the menu quite well and can make suggestions. The night I went it seemed everyone was having a birthday, myself included and staff was great. You know it's a good spot when you have a lot of Cancerian (the sign known for food) birthdays celebrated in a restaurant.
The Food: This came highly recommended by a professional food critic friend of mine and I can understand why. At the same time, I think the chef tried to hard to be unique at the expense of going against the food's natural flavor.
Crab appetizer – 3 stars because of good ingredients, but overall a miss. This was not on the menu and I can understand why. The custard on the bottom was amazing. This is one chef that knows how to make a custard. But rather than bring out the flavor of the crab, he instead chose to use celery salt and create a bitter salt mixture for contrast and failed. You really have to be super sick of crab or be really into the bitter of herbs to have loved this one.
Endive Salad – 3 stars. Staff really loves this one, but it's too hearty for a spring or summer menu. The Salad has a delicious citrus dressing that tell me staff knows what they are doing. The roasted walnuts and perfect selection of cheese mix well together. The endives are fresh, but chef could do something to manage the bitter of that veggie a bit. Together these ingredients plus plating don't do it for me. The endives with dressing come strewn across the top. Once you start eating it becomes clear that chef wanted you to put the mixture in the middle. The bitter of the endive with the umami of the walnuts with cheese and the sweet/sour of the citrus is just a mess in your mouth that could work for the fall or winter, but is just too much for a hot summer day. Pass until the temperatures dip below 60 degrees.
Arroz Negro with Squid. 5 stars. This plus the vibe and service is why I am giving you 4 stars. If the best Italian Risotto married the best Korean bibimbop and had a baby, this would be that child. The expert choice of black rice holds the crispy fried aspects of frying the bottom of the rice better than traditional sushi rice. The flavors are delightful. I could eat this every day.
Wagu Beef – 5 stars. Interestingly, I've seen anchovies on top of beef before in my food adventures in Copenhagen, but such a better execution at Estela! I think they must drain the anchovy so it doesn't over power but l lightly seasons a flavorful perfect size slice of wagu beef. The onion accompanies the beef such that I suggest you put it on top of the beef and eat it together. Superb!
Chocolate Cake – 1 stars. Seriously… I considered giving you 3 stars as an overall rating for this epic failure. Chef used the most divine coco and a neutral palate whipped topping and proceeded to destroy this dessert by using rock salt which was un-uniformly present in the crust. Thank god for this poor execution or I might have passed out from the saltiness of it. Salt in chocolate can be innovative and in the center in moderated amounts delightful. But the crunch of straight rock salt as a way to enhance a dish that only has the bitter of chocolate in it? Only possible if I am severely short in electrolytes, which I actually am. Chef used nearly no sugar, and I like that, but geesh! Just serve a plate of rock salt if you want me to eat rock salt.