Per Se, New York, New York
Per Se is another Thomas Keller spot located in the Time Warner building in Manhattan. Like the French Laundry, Per Se offers two nine-course tasting menus starting at $325, with menu upgrades that can total an additional $315, and wine pairings that begin at $295.
By the way, if you plan to have wine, you might want to take the recommendations offered by your waiter, or know what you want beforehand. At 145 pages, the wine list can take you quite some time to browse. Of course, you can bring your own wine, but don’t think you’ll be saving any money. Per Se permits you to bring up to three bottles, and they have a corking charge of $150 per bottle.
So, your total cost, per person, can range from $325 for the basic menu to as high as $635 without wine, and upwards of $1,000 if you’d like wine pairings. Although the tip is included, the taxes aren’t, so add about 9% on top of that number.
Reservations are taken two months to the calendar date, but we were surprised to find there were tables available on the day of this writing — July 31. Nice to know you don’t have to wait to be fleeced.
