Benu

I must qualify my rating by saying price does impact it. If this were just another restaurant that ran me $ 150 – 200 pp I would say it was a 4−5*. However it ran us $ 800CAD (the Canadian dollar is really in the gutter at the moment) per person. So this is based on the expectation that one would have at this price point.
Food — solid, but maybe 1 (max 2) hits. Coming from a VERY asian food friendly city (I personally think YVR is pound for pound better than HK or any chinese city) I think we made a mistake in saving $ 150pp and not going to something like Saison.
I love century egg so that particular dish drew me and had me excited. But i think there’s only so much one can do with century egg and although I loved the fact that this method of fermenting eggs was incorporated, in the end it was «ok».
Drink — We had the beverage pairing which was enjoyable.
Ambience/​Service — Benu does a more casual service. the waiters are less pomp and polished than expected and the sommelier is nice enough, but comes across as slightly uncomfortable (awkward is not a nice thing to say, but it would be a potential descriptor.) There are pros and cons to this. it’s nice to be able to let loose in a more casual setting, but the con being that it is just not the well-​oiled professional service you might see in other establishments of this level.
My partner and I ended up getting pretty drunk and having a jolly good time, but we both agreed that for $ 1600. we would have loved 4 $ 400 meals infinitely more.
My suggestion. if you have a great Asian food scene at home then you may have similar feelings as I did. However, make no mistake, I 100% appreciate the skill that went into this level of food preparation. But also to be an objective reviewer for $ 1600 for 2 I would say «A-​Ok» (per the guide for a 3 star rating).

My most expensive meal to date & also my first 3 star. I really wanted to love this place considering the hype over chef Cory Lee and the fact that a good chunk of the Benu chefs came from French Laundry. Despite this, none of the dishes from the tasting menu really blew us away. In fact, a good majority of the dishes were simply «good» or even «OK.» Price point is comparable to other 3 stars in the Bay. Our bill for two came out to approx. $ 375 per person for two tasting menus and two glasses of wine.
Benu’s tasting menu lists 11 courses but the «small delicacies» section actually consists of about 3 – 4 bite sized hors d’oeuvres. The rest of the courses are also served in small plates and kind of just reminds me of hipster dimsum. While the presentation was nice, the idea and the taste didn’t seem all that unique.
To put things into perspective, steamed bun is just too plain to be served at a 3 star restaurant so let’s put some truffle in it and serve it with truffle dip! Caviar is a little overrated so let’s put some gold flakes on it to make it fancier. We can’t just serve xiao long bao with pork, gotta put some lobster in it (have to admit this one was pretty good though). At the very least, I was hoping they would wow me with the dessert but again, they did not deliver. The rose sorbet, while pretty, tasted like something I could just buy from a grocery store. The porcupine shaped almond cake was really sweet and smothered in cream. I wouldn’t really recommend Benu especially if you haven’t tried any other 3 stars or even 2 stars in the Bay. My experience at Benu just reinforced my indifference and borderline dislike for Asian fusion.

Meticulous service. Wonderful presentation. Unparalleled valet! They deserve every star.

New Year’s Unilocal Resolution: Be current on reviews as I’ve let this one slip for far too long…(came here during Game 1 of the NBA Finals to put things in perspective).
This place is probably a must try when in San Francisco. Tucked away behind Hawthorne St. in SOMA, this intimate 3 Michelin star restaurant inspired by head chef Corey Lee will leave you quite impressed with his creations. A seating for their 18 course menu will set you back $ 228 ($ 388 if you opt for the wine pairings). Do call and make reservations in advance; on most occasions their next available date won’t be until 2 months later.
Okay okay… onto the food!
STARTERS
Thousand-​year old quail egg with potage and ginger
Oyster, pork belly, kimchi
Caramelized anchovy with potato salad
Whiting, horseradish, cherry blossom
By far, the thousand-​year old quail egg and oyster with the kimchi wrapper blew me away. Though they were easily consumed in one bite, the flavors were plentiful and you can tell it was carefully crafted with the appreciation for texture.
MAIN COURSES
Caviar, winter melon, chicken cream
Fluke, sesame leaf, daikon
Sea trout with roe, radish, perilla
Asparagus and sesame
Sea urchin, okra, nori
Foie gras xiao long bao
Frog leg, mountain yam, celtuce
Whole baby sea bream, iceberg, black trumpet mushroom, aged tangerine peel
Baby corn, peas, black truffle, roasted hen jus
Beef rib, eggplant, broccoli, ramp, charred scallion
«Shark fin soup», dungeness crab, Jinhua ham custard
If I had to choose, top 3 favorites were the sea urchin, foie gras xiao long bao, and the beef rib, although the truffle was a tad bit overbearing to my liking. Love the fact that the foie gras was not too overpowering, and you know the xiao long bao is done well when the skin isn’t too thick and there’s a good amount of soup once you strategically bite so it doesn’t spill all over the place.
DESSERTS
Shaved milk and honey
Coconut, almond, strawberry
Both of these blew me away! Absolutely the best shaved milk I’ve ever had in my life and the honey was a perfect complement, completely melts in your mouth with all encompassing flavors so your taste buds can take full advantage of their creative menu.
Some additional complimentary items brought out for our group to enjoy was an interestingly shaped chocolate sheet (with poppy seeds?) and marshmellows, a perfect ending to the exquisite dining experience.
Overall, the service was top notch and if you’re looking for a clear balance of flavors and discovery of what Asian Fusion really tastes like, Benu should be on top of your list. The entire meal lasted about 4 hours, so I can see why reservations are so hard to come by. Unlike some venues, Benu only offers one sitting per night. Also, as a side note, the master sommelier here reminded me so much of Daniel Dae Kim (Jin Soo on Lost); the resemblence is uncanny!

Benu sets the standard for what Asian Fusion should be. Asian Fusion has a bad rep in the Asian community because people hate when their traditional dishes are mangled into something else. Benu executes on this pretty perfectly while being consistent with its many, many dishes.
The SO and I came for dinner on a Saturday night at 6pm — reservations were a little tricky. Opentable said there were no spots, but we had a concierge call and we managed to get a spot pretty easily. The place is pretty empty around 6pm so it felt a bit weird because it felt like every waiter could hear our entire conversation, but that wasn’t an issue as we went on – the place gets really packed and filled around 7/​8pm, so maybe that’s just the proper time to dine.
The menu at the time of our dining was:
small delicacies — caviar, porridge, chicken cream /​tuna marrow /​cod milt /​egg /​taro root wrapped in truffles /​abalone /​monkfish /​lamb tartare /​oyster and kimchi /​fish tacos
thousand-​year-​old quail egg, potage, ginger
chilled noodles, celtuce, shrimp roe, tripe, lovage
lobster coral xiao long bao
pine mushroom, sesame leaf, gingko nut, chrysanthemum
butterfish, bellflower root, black trumpet, pear, charred scallion
yam, chestnut, black truffle bun
beef rib, burdock, wood ear, aster leaf
«shark fin», crab, jinhua ham, egg white
fuji apple
dried apricot, osmanthus, almond
There probably isn’t a ton of reason to go into the menu extensively since it changes over time. Overall feeling and experience of the menu is that it’s pretty great. What’s really impressive about Benu is that there isn’t a single dish that fails. With a lengthy tasting menu, you’re bound to get a few duds here and there — usually you ignore it because there are other dishes that stand out, but with Benu, every single dish is masterfully executed. Complex flavors are combined together and give rise to really unique textures that are intellectually interesting to eat. Did you know tuna marrow was a thing to eat? It’s liquid like but maintains some viscosity. The egg yolk we had had a crispy exterior and an interior that popped in your mouth. Or that taro root in truffles is a creamy texture that melts in your mouth with lingering flavors of truffle? Chilled noodles was a delightful interpretation on a classic Chinese ingredient, but elevated immensely with the ingredients and cooking style. Or the truffle cream that came with the truffle bun. It’s just amazing how consistent every dish is.
The menu doesn’t look long but we had 10 dishes come out for small delicacies which was fun. Flavors are great; we were surprised to see how prevalent black truffle was — we got a TON of truffle throughout the meal which was really wonderful. Highlights for the meal were definitely the butterfish, black truffle bun, and dried apricot dessert.
The food here isn’t artistically mindblowing. There are better restaurants for that. But everything is executed perfectly — dishes use simple ingredients to create complex culinary creations. It’s a wonderful interpretation of traditional Asian ingredients and transformed into delicious Asian fusion.
The set menu is $ 248 pp, which after one glass of champagne per person + gratuity comes out to be a little over $ 700. Which is about what you would expect for a restaurant in this caliber. Relative to some of its other Michelin peers (e.g. Sasion, Atelier Crenn), the price is close to Atelier Crenn but much better bang for the buck than Saison. Service is decent, but I found it to be a little stiff throughout the meal. Everyone is friendly though and what you would expect. The pace felt fast throughout our meal, mostly because dishes would be taken away right after I put a bite in, but the whole meal still took a little under 3 hours.
tldr; this is what real Asian fusion is. if you want to go all out for a special occasion, Benu is worth the money and experience

I suspect many of you have watched the same movie recently. It’s the seventh movie in the franchise (sixth if you’re a hardcore fanboy) and it’s about some guys and a labradoodle in space messing with some narcissists.
You know that feeling of amazement and youthful wonder that you felt?
That was my experience at Benu. For course after course, this kept happening. This never happens.
You know how the food in your memories never lives up to the actuality if you find that food again?
The cod milt reminded me of dinners when I was very young, when my mother used as much of the fish as possible. The bread was like the bread and honey I resorted to at 5am in my dorm room the night before an exam. The quail was like the roasted songbird I ate as a child on a smoggy street corner in Bangkok. The pear sorbet reminded me of the first time I tried ice cream, which had to be purchased by my uncle and eaten in secret (ice cream was for lazy kids, so my parents’ logic went).
The food stood up to my memories. Nothing else can do that. Over the course of three hours, I relived my best food memories, as interpreted and improved by Corey Lee.
As a rule, I never repeat restaurants. I’m making an exception.

It begins before you eat, before you are even seated. Before the host greets you and takes your coat. Even before you set foot in the restaurant you’ve already witnessed the extraordinary as the path you take leads you past a significantly sized building, baring all through glass. Clean, glistening white, streamlined, without excessiveness, but entirely full of chefs. I just couldn’t help but to stop for a moment, realizing that their concentration and deliberateness captivated me. All this manpower was here to serve us, and the few others lucky to dine tonight.
From the moment on that we stepped over the threshold only three things occurred, continuously and constantly. My gf and I enjoyed each other, we ate (of course), and the waiter and his staff looked after all our needs. Just those three things. Just our own world, created for us around our table, and for those couple hours we sat, nothing else mattered.
The food was transformative. Of course, I expect nothing less of such a name. I’ve eaten Chinese food all my life – my mom cooked every single meal, breakfast included, even elementary school lunches included. That smelly food costed me bully-​inflicted blood. And after I left the nest, I had another decade and a half of a variety of Asian cuisine. But, after a life of Asian eating, I still have never been so profoundly pleasured by Asian food. Until now.
Typically at this point in the review I would list all the items I’ve eaten and give detailed tasting notes, but they served us 25 different different plates…
…Twenty… Five… Different Plates…
Yes, 25. Plus or minus one or two depending on how you count, but still it’s an amazingly incredible amount of variety. Remember that building I mentioned full of chefs? – this is why. Clearly it would take a huge expert staff to pull off a 25 item meal. Never have I had so many different foods at one sitting. Ever.
So, it would not be possible to list it all due to Unilocal’s word limit. But here are some of the most memorable plates:
First off, half of the dishes are served during the «small delicacies» phase. I count 11 individual dishes served at that time, of which some of my favorite include:
1. Daikon Porridge: It’s simple and beautiful. White snow topped with gold flakes and black caviar. I didn’t know it was daikon before I asked, but the texture was extraordinary.
2. Tuna Bone Marrow: Very strange indeed. A translucent and clear «yolk» sitting in brown soup. Bone marrow? We thought about it a bit and finally realized it was referring to the intervertebral discs along the fish’s spine! Wow, that’s really creative.
3. Egg Yolk: Wow. The most memorable for me of all the appetizers. The yolk is served bare and deep orange. Somehow though the outside is crunchy and the inside like syrup. Tastes amazing.
Some of the main dishes:
1. Chilled Noodles, Celtuce, Shrimp Roe, Tripe, Lovage: Best chilled noodles ever. Clearly influenced by Korean chilled noodles, but taken many heights greater. For one, it’s served mixed in with crushed ice! And of course tons of other fancy stuff inside. Tastes absolutely amazing.
2. Lobster Coral Xiao Long Bao: I am certainly a lover of steamed dumplings. Have tried many, including truffle dumplings from Din Tai Fun at Taipei 101. But this one blows me away. The skin is so extremely delicate. I do wonder though how those that aren’t skilled with chopsticks eat this one – even despite the custom service hardware it’s still extremely hard to pick up without popping. And you do not want to pop this! The «soup» inside is crazy good. The best steamed dumplings ever.
3. «Shark Fin», Crab, Jinhua Ham, Egg White: A disappointment!!! Coincidentally I just heard the chef Corey Lee talk on NPR about his fake shark fin and that he has served this many years, and thus people must love it. But, well, it just isn’t as good as the real thing. The fin is closer to noodles to me – a little over stiff. I dunno. And the soup wasn’t as tasty as the standard rich soup. Oh well.
Oh, and I loved the dessert! The most memorable was:
1. Shinko Pear: I think this might be the very best sorbet I have ever had. The Asian pear taste is strong, and so effervescent and lovely. The presentation, the snow white creamy sorbet shaped as a blooming rose, is so simple and elegant. And that sorbet, so extremely smooth and creamy. The result of absolutely perfect technique.
As I savored the last bites of our extraordinary dinner and experience I sat there for a moment, truly happy. Twenty five beautiful dishes. My beautiful gf beaming with pleasure to the front of me. And memories to last my life. Pure bliss.
We stood up, and walking to the door we found both our waiter and the host holding our coats outstretched, greeting us for a final time at the door. All bundled up again, we walked out.
Thank you Benu.
⁵⁄₅
#chinesefusion #japanesefusion #koreanfusion

As one of only two Three Michelin Star rated restaurants in SF, I knew I had to try Chef Corey Lee’s restaurant ASAP. While the décor and ambiance was very plain and minimal, the food was not.
The first 5 – 6 courses of small delicacies were exquisite, delicious and beautifully presented. On to the main courses of thousand-​year-​old quail egg, foie gras xiao long bao (my favorite, absolutely amazing course) and «shark fin» soup, it was clear each dish was sophisticated, creative, and thoughtful. One of the last courses… ‘shaved milk and honey’ was one of the most unique desserts I’ve seen at a Michelin Star restaurant.
Overall, dinner at Benu was pretty amazing, and one to experience. Corey Lee definitely has taken asian fusion to another level.

Strange, I thought I wrote a review already! Anyways my girlfriend took me here on my birthday in March. The service was outstanding! The food was delicious and really creative. The timing of all the dishes came out right as well. There were a lot of dishes that blew my mind away and that is the reasoning for the 5 star review. They also made a special menu for my birthday and came out with a special music box that played the tune of «Happy Birthday» which was nice. A very memorable birthday dinner!

Amazing!
One of the eat meals I’ve ever had. My favorite bites were the white truffle with taro root, shrimp with cucumber, and xiao long bao. Service staff was gracious and helpful with the wine. The pottery was gorgeous.

My fellow foodie and I decided to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary at a Three-​Michelin Star Chinese Restaurant, Benu. At first impression while driving outside, you can see the huge kitchen and chefs from outside through the windows! When we first walked in the restaurant, we noticed the décor was kept to a minimal. There were only two paintings on the wall. The tables are all set really far apart, which in an establishment in San Francisco will seem like such a waste of space but that’s what made our experience even more memorable. We were able to talk and laugh freely without having to worry about others hearing our conversation or overhearing others.
Food: First glance at the menu, there seems to be 11 courses but it’s way more than that. The label «small delicacies» as the «first course» were 10 course alone which included caviar, abalone, bone marrow, etc. We enjoyed all of it!
Service: The food came out quickly in consistent, comfortable intervals. Everyone were so nice! They came out and presented each dish with enthusiasm. No one seemed snobby or pretentious and they were totally ok with talking and laughing with us. One thing that tripped me out about the restaurant were the utensils; they had a 5-​prong fork! It looked so weird! Lol Anyways, the restaurant had bad lighting for photos but the staff volunteered to keep taking pictures for us anyways to try to find the best lighting. Lol — thanks everyone.
Overall, it was a really great experience — what was lackluster in décor they really made it up in well arranged presentation (of space and food), and in flavor.
Random: I love tripe and chrysanthemum and it’s bizarre they utilized both in the menu! Totally unexpected.

***************************** 1446 ***************************
I’ve been here enough, but never wrote a review until now. The reason, Chef Corey Lee food has been evolved so much over the year to perfection now, and along with Master Somm Yoon Ha wine list, everything comes in harmony now.
Chef Corey Lee has received a James Beard Award, was named Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef, and became a goodwill ambassador for the city of Seoul, Korea– an honor given to leaders in various fields. He’s an alum of The French Laundry and he surely made a name for himself which has been a 3 Michelin Stars, what an incredible achievement. «10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride» by The New York Times, you know I travel for food right? Luckily Benu is in the Bay Area, I can save the airfare.
And don’t let the Asian influence style fools you, Chef Corey Lee food is nothing shine of deliciousness. I’ve been to quite a few restaurants, but this time, chef blew me away.
I came back after struggling to score a reservation. This Fall 2015, I was glad to see the menu. We had tried literally over 20 dishes, with wine pairing by Master Sommelier Yoon Ha himself. I got to meet chef Corey Lee finally and toured the kitchen. I’m a fan of them both.
The food was exquisite this time. We tried from caviar, truffle, thousand years egg, abalone, lobster coral Xiao Long Bao, shark fin soup, sea cucumber, uni, steak and much more. Every dish was exquisite, and for $ 249 per tasting menu + 20% service charge, this is 1 of the best tasting menu, and bargain for what you get. This was the BEST tasting menu for the value that I spent in recent years.
The multiple desserts came later and I was beyond full. Everything was delicious, elegantly plated on every course. I love the Sake and Tea pairings along with the wines. We must have tasted 10 different wines here and more.
I normally would have written a longer review… But I feel as this leave my friends who haven’t tried BENU yet, have something to desire for… I can’t wait to score my next reservation this Holidays 2015 season.

If Michelin Guide gave out 4 stars this would be one of them!
Atmosphere: ⁵⁄₅ Benu is a fairly small restaurant. It has a modern and sleek vibe, and is well lit. The outside patio in front of the entrance is great for pictures and really makes you feel like you’re away from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco.
Service: ⁵⁄₅ We were greeted at the door by last name (I’m assuming we were the only ones coming in at that specific time? I was impressed!) and were walked directly to our table. Our server was friendly and very knowledgable. I was particularly impressed with the sommelier who not only knew about wine and made perfect pairings for us, but knew fun facts about the region in which our wine was produced!
Food: ⁵⁄₅ Each dish was presented perfectly and explained when placed in front of us. From start to finish it was about 20 courses (I include every dish as a new course). Every single course was exciting and different! I had several favorites, but one that really stood out was the white sturgeon caviar! Wow wow wow!
Overall: ⁵⁄₅: I have extraordinarily high expectations for Michelin star restaurants when it comes to service and food and Benu did not disappoint. I will certainly be coming back!

I’ve been wanting to come here ever since a classmate of mine raved about it 3 – 4 years ago. My date surprised me by taking me here to celebrate our anniversary and for passing my boards which I’d been slaving over the past few months, so this a nice reward. He managed to make reservations on a Saturday night just 2 – 3 days before.
The dishes at Benu take you on a culinary adventure. I must have been smiling like a little kid in Willy Wonka’s factory, excited about each innovative dish they brought out. They used ingredients I know well, but in such a unique and thoughtful manner. There were multiple textures and tastes with each morsel. I was nervous about the raw chicken egg, peidan, and kombucha. I never grew to like them, but somehow they prepared it in a way that tasted surprisingly delicious! And who knew the taste of pine could be delicious with eggplant. The pine mushroom broth reminded me of the pleasant aroma in great grandaunt’s home. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but one of them has to be the «shark fin» with the creamy egg white, which looked like a gorgeous amber jewel embedded in the earth green china.
After eating 5 – 7 little dishes, I thought I would need a big burger after this dinner, but don’t underestimate. Those beginner courses purposefully tickle your palette leaving your to hunger for all the rest. I was very full by the time we reached the last 3 – 4 dishes!
All together, it costed around $ 660 with the service charge, but we rounded it up to 700. My date who thought he wouldn’t care for fancy dining with tiny dishes now has a different opinion. We were both appreciated this dining experience, which was incredibly beautiful and scrumptious from beginning to end.

Corey Lee’s kicking a ton of ass right now– and an evening spent here showed me how and why. With one innovative, creative, beautiful dish right after the other and a gorgeous downtown location, this is a place for a truly special meal or celebration. Be warned: it’s a set menu, it’s perfectly thought-​out, it takes several hours, and it’s damn well worth it.
Benu pulls off «Asian Fusian» to a degree I’ve never seen before– he uses ingredients I had never even heard of, let alone tried, like celtuce, Jinhua ham, «1,000-year quail egg,» and many more.
Service is polite, if a tiny bit distant (but, that could be because we had a late seating…) The wine list is perfect, and there are some real all-​stars on their pairing. I’d recommend it.
For a dorky course-​by-​course review, I humbly invite you to check these out:
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Benu is a restaurant run and owned by Corey Lee. Corey Lee is the former Executive chef of French Laundry and David Chang said his game is like no other. David Chang said he aspires to be like Corey Lee in a Lucky Peach article but realizes he would never be any where near Corey Lee’s level. Benu is one of the two restaurants in the city with 3 Michelin stars and the other being Saison. It’s a new minted 3*.
Benu was last on my list of US 2015 3* Michelin restaurants and I’m glad it was last. The restaurant and kitchen was absolutely gorgeous. I have to say it’s easily in my top 3 restaurants in terms of décor and ambiance. The simplicity of the layout and the courtyard made you feel like you were not in the city. It’s a very Asian influence designed.
The kitchen was spotless and all white. We were given a tour of the kitchen and had the honor of meeting Corey Lee. We were only two tables of the night to be given a tour of the kitchen, which was pretty bad a$$ in my opinion. He was a really nice guy, had jokes and really down to earth.
The service was definitely 3* Michelin standards. Benu had its own way of delivering dishes and explanations to the dishes. The staff was all nice, professional and from all walks of life. They had a sense of humor too and joined in on our jokes. They seemed like normal folks doing keg stands on the weekend.
Now, the food. Benu only has one tasting menu and it was absolutely superb. It’s a very Asian influence and some Asian classics appear on the menu. Corey Lee pretty much takes classic Asian cuisine to the next level. By next level, it’s your Asian grandma’s favorites with a modern twist. Let’s say this. I would rank Benu in my top 3 dining experiences in the United States. If anything, it would be #1 based on only the food. My favorites:
1) Lobster Coral Xiao Long Bao — Din Tai Fung brought Xiao Long Bao to the mainstream. Benu takes it up another level and brings Xiao Long Bao to fine dining. There are two stand outs of the XLBs for me, which are Hutong in Melbourne and the original Din Tai Fung. However, the texture of Benu’s XLBs was f*cking amazing. It literally melted in my mouth and soup was the perfect temperature. F*CKING AMAZING, SON!
2) Cucumber, Peanut, Black Truffle — This was amazing. No seriously. It was simply amazing. Easily top 10 dishes I’ve eaten in my life. It was a bun served with a black truffle pâté sort of spread. It was the perfect combination of bun and spread. The complex flavors of the spread with the soothing familiar taste of the bun was a party in my mouth. I know the joke that’s coming so hold the jokes, fellas
3) «Shark Fin», Dungeness Crab, Jinhua ham, Egg White — The silky slurpee flavors of this was divine. The complex flavors and the texture of the dish was mind bogging. Shark Fin soup is one of the staples of a Chinese menu and Corey definitely out does himself with thiss dish. It’s like the Rock and Hulk Hogan had a baby. The dish was very comforting and reminded me of my youth when we used to go slaughter sharks and club baby seals back in Vietnam while the Viet Cong was having their guerrilla war against South Vietnam.
Overall, Benu takes some classic Asian dishes and adds steroids to it. It’s one of those situations like the Apple iPhone. There were always smartphones around but Apple took it to another level. It’s like how Ryugin in Tokyo does it’s modern take on traditional Kyoto Kaiseki. You have to appreciate the classics with a modern take on the dishes. In my opinion, I would have to say Benu easily falls in the top 3 2015 US Michelin 3* restaurants. If anything, it would be an easy argument for #1.
US 2015 Michelin 3 Stars Count: 12 Down. 0 More.
2015 Michelin Rated Restaurant Count: 25
San Pellegrino 2014 World’s 100 Best Restaurants Count: 14
San Pellegrino 2015 World’s 100 Best Restaurants Count: 15

Recommendation: Prior to dining at Benu, budget approximately $ 100K (cost of a 4 year education at a top culinary school) or stage for chefs on the caliber of Michel Bras, Anne-​Sophie Pic or Thomas Keller, et al.
Why? Because if you don’t make the educational investment, dining at Benu will likely go waaaay over your head. You *cough* may think things like:
1. This tastes EXACTLY like shark fin’s soup… poor sharkie… but is it really? IS IT???
2. This is the tastiest mother-​F-​ing sausage bite with basil on a stick ever. WHY.
3. ToFU!!!
Appreciation of Benu and the profundity of Corey Lee’s food requires you to put in the time learning about the stealth max skilldom happening in that sparklingly immaculate kitchen, homey. The food is brilliant. The service is brilliant. The space makes me want to hug Rem Koolhaas. It’s gonna cost you – and not just money, baby, brain cells. Dinner here is like cramming in a PhD in The Culinary Future in 3 hours. My brain hurt. My tummy hurt so good.
So study up and digest Corey Lee’s cookbooks or at least google it if you’re not feeling particularly scholarly. You’ll thank me later.

This is my first experience at a 3-​Michelin star restaurant and I can say I’m pretty blown away. I wrote my reviews for each course (17 total + extras) in my pictures so I won’t write such a lengthy review here. Parking is tough, but they have a small lot and a valet guy in front.
Some of my favorite dishes were the thousand year old egg, caviar, beef ribs, and xiao long bao. There were such complex flavors in mos dishes that complimented each other very well. The different textures were delightful and I rather enjoyed eating slowly, savoring every bite.
Eating here was definitely an experience and makes me want to check out other 3-​Michelin star restaurants to try, especially different cuisines. If you have the money, definitely check this place out and make reservations in advance!

Phenomenal. If I ever have money (lots of it), this is the place I’d want to eat at (all the time). Almost all of the courses are superb (15 out of 17). The foie gras XLBS are the best ones I’ve tasted outside of China. The duck in black truffle oil is mind bending. So so good.
So by the time you get close to the end of the 17 courses, you’ll likely be feeling pretty stuffed. Then you taste the faux «shark fin soup» and it’s like a reset button. It lifts you up, refreshes you, and makes you feel all right again. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you think… maybe I could eat more. And then the dessert comes. Nope. Done.

If you want to make your girl’s panties drop, take her here to be wined, dined, and sixty-​nined!
No, just kidding, this is a very classy establishment who recently earned 3 Michelin stars with impeccable service and amazingly crafted dishes that are out of this world! I actually made the reservations and my boyfriend and I came here to celebrate my birthday. It was so awesome that they personalized our menus to wish me a happy birthday! I love little details and sweet personalized gestures like this from restaurants. All they waiters knew and each of them who came to serve our table wished me a happy birthday. I felt so special!
This is why I am not a chef because I am perplexed by how Chef Corey Lee can come up with such dishes and pairings with Asian food! Fused perfectly together was the Foie Gras Xiao Long Baos. Who would have thought of that! Xiao Long Bao is a very tricky dish to make, because it’s not really a bao (bun), but technically a dumpling, it’s really a soup dumpling with meat and soup wrapped in a small pouch. Benu nailed it! It tasted delightful, the vinegar brought out the sweet and savoriness of the foie gras. It was served perfectly with chopsticks and a spoon to catch the soup drippings. One of my favorites on their menu that night.
To name all the dishes from beginning to end would simply spoil your experience if you decide to come, so I will leave some mystery, and review a few more of my favorites.
Monkfish liver, feuille de brick, crudités — beautifully crafted on this crispy shell, the monkfish liver was presented in a small rectangular brick. It was flavor explosion in my mouth.
Frog Leg, mountain yam, celtuce — I’ve had frog legs before and they were quite tough to eat because of how muscular and lean the meat is. Not these! It tasted fresh, smooth to the touch and flavorful, almost like sashimi.
I was impressed by the sprouted bread (not listed on the menu) with ginseng honey butter! They shape the butter into a honey-​comb shape and pour honey infused with ginseng! What!!! Mine=blown.
Favorite drink pairing was the Rodenbach, flemish red-​brown ale from Belgium. Who’s had sour beer before?! This one is so yummy I want to get my hands on more!
At the end, they surprised me with a music box where I wind myself, It’s plays the «Happy Birthday» song and when you’re done, your server will open the box and reveal a little cheesecake! Awwwww! Cutest ever!!!
I had an amazing time and wonderful dining experience at Benu!