The Hidden Michelin-Starred Restaurant Tucked Inside A New York Grocery Store

When you think of the words "grocery store" and "restaurant" together, usually the expectations for the latter aren't high. Sure, restaurants sometimes sell a small line of groceries (during the pandemic, this became quite a trend), but in-store dining tends to be limited to Starbucks or hot dogs from the Sam's or Costco food courts. Michelin-starred dining? Not so much. Except in Manhattan, that is. Tucked in the back of Brooklyn Fare, an upscale grocery mini-chain in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, is a small but very exclusive restaurant that boasts two Michelin stars.

Chef's Table got its start as a cooking school-meets-restaurant in the grocery store's original Brooklyn spot, but when it outgrew its 20-seat location, the restaurant moved uptown to a spot with 18 counter seats and six tables. The chefs in charge are a European duo, Austrian Max Natmessnig and Dutch Marco Prins, who previously worked together at the three-Michelin-star restaurant, Oud Sluis in the Netherlands. Needless to say, such a swanky establishment as Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare requires reservations, and you'll even need to make a deposit: $200 down per person (not including tax, tips, and drinks) to be paid at the time of service. Despite the grocery store location, it's far from being one of the U.S.'s more affordable Michelin-starred restaurants.

Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare doesn't have a traditional, standing menu, since it holds to the chef's-choice concept — similar to a Japanese omakase experience. Menus may change daily, depending on the season, market, the chef's preferences, or other factors. However, the menus tend to be pretty seafood-heavy. The restaurant discloses upfront that it cannot accommodate special diets, including vegetarian, vegan, celiac, kosher, or food allergies, nor is it able to swap out the seafood dishes. Some diners, however, have mentioned that it is possible to request that any red meat or poultry on the menu be replaced with more seafood.

One Redditor posted a list of what they ate on a visit that took place in early October of 2025. The dishes included bluefin tuna, wagyu beef, foie gras with huckleberry mole sauce, beach glass oysters, carabinero prawns, geoduck clams, king crab, rainbow trout, diver scallops, caviar, abalone with matsutake mushrooms, langoustines, turbot and mussels with codium seaweed, and squab. Desserts consisted of green apple shiso and a coconut-flavored Japanese sweet bun called Fujisan bread, followed by small sweets (aka mignardises, in super-fancy menu-speak). This diner even opted for the wine pairing, although they didn't say whether they went with the $280 standard choice or the $580 premium upgrade. Either way, they dropped some serious bucks on dinner that night, but had no buyer's remorse. As they summed up the experience, "Every dish was a hit ... All in all a great experience and a strong recommend."