START
Here are some of the most impressive and delicious tasting menus you’ll find in the United States, from Milwaukee to San Francisco.
Tasting menus elevate cooking to an art form, and the chefs behind them are doing more than just making great food—they’re telling personal stories through each plate and crafting an immersive dining experience for guests. While some tasting menus can cost upwards of $500 per person, there are plenty of incredible less steep tasting menus all across the country. Here are our favorites for under $100.
Top Picks for You
1 OF 9
Birch
WHERE: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Chef and owner Kyle Knall keeps things flexible at Birch, allowing diners to order a la carte or enjoy a seven-course tasting menu for $86. Get the tasting, and try to snag one of six seats at the chef’s counter with front row views of the open hearth kitchen. Knall’s food is distinctly Midwestern, elevating ingredients like Lake Superior walleye with classic French sauces, and using locally milled heirloom grains for fresh pasta and bread. Knall has a deep respect for the farmers the restaurant works with, shouting them out on the menu, including Stone Bank Farm, where he serves as culinary director.
INSIDER TIPBeverage pairings are available for an additional $66 and the lower proof hybrid pairing mixes traditional wine with fun housemade low- and no-ABV concoctions like a sweet pea shrub spritz.
2 OF 9
Moon Rabbit
WHERE: Washington, D.C.
Chef Kevin Tien’s modern Vietnamese restaurant has a Cajun flair, inspired by his childhood growing up in Louisiana. You can’t go wrong with any of the a la carte dishes at Moon Rabbit, but if you’re feeling indecisive, the “chef’s visit to Vietnam” five-course tasting menu is the best value dealer’s choice selection of the restaurant’s greatest hits including amberjack crudo with turmeric coconut mousse, wagyu beef stuffed perilla leaves and lemongrass Berkshire pork chop with sticky rice. Typically, diners are treated to some extra off-menu surprises.
INSIDER TIPPastry chef and partner Susan Bae’s desserts are wildly creative and out-of-this-world good, including a seaweed dessert with pandan panna cotta, coconut creme, coconut granite and chocolate streusel, so pace yourself.
3 OF 9
Sifr
WHERE: Chicago, Illinois
Chef Sahil Sethi blends Middle Eastern and Indian flavors at this lively restaurant, reflecting his career in the Middle East and Indian heritage. The $60 four-course tasting menu at Sifr begins with charred green chickpea hummus, tangy house pickles, and warm sesame nigella pita to snack on, with choices for all the following courses. Kebabs are all excellent, and the maitake mushroom kebab boldly seasoned with za’atar is a sleeper hit, and meaty enough to satisfy carnivores. Iranian chicken fasenjan stew is a sweet and sour delight and vegetarians will enjoy the perfectly charred hearth-roasted cauliflower.
INSIDER TIPThere’s a heated and enclosed rooftop open year-round with great skyline views.
4 OF 9
Taste of Beauty
WHERE: Orange County and West Hollywood
This vegetarian Chinese restaurant offers an eight-course tasting menu for $99 rooted in Zen Buddhist tradition, with both vegetarian and fully vegan menus plated so beautifully it feels like you’ve been invited to dine at the imperial royal court. Each course at Taste of Beauty is inspired by a different landscape, like fried elm ear mushroom with cumin and crispy chili pepper representing the desert or layers of sea asparagus, sea grapes, red coral moss and konjac representing the ocean. Expect to try lots of different mushrooms, including varieties like snow fungus that you may have never tasted before. There’s also an abbreviated five-course menu for $69.
This vegetarian Chinese restaurant offers an eight-course tasting menu for $99 rooted in Zen Buddhist tradition, with both vegetarian and fully vegan menus plated so beautifully it feels like you’ve been invited to dine at the imperial royal court. Each course at Taste of Beauty is inspired by a different landscape, like fried elm ear mushroom with cumin and crispy chili pepper representing the desert or layers of sea asparagus, sea grapes, red coral moss and konjac representing the ocean. Expect to try lots of different mushrooms, including varieties like snow fungus that you may have never tasted before. There’s also an abbreviated five-course menu for $69.
5 OF 9
Adams
WHERE: San Francisco
This husband-and-wife restaurant by David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher is among the most affordable Michelin-starred restaurants in the Bay Area. There are three menus at 7 Adams, all well under $200, and the 5-course tasting menu is just $87, with choices for pasta, main course, and dessert. If you’re dining with a companion, ordering all the options and sharing is the best move. The menu changes all the time, but recent highlights include Snake River Farm pork loin with black garlic sausage and fermented plum mustard and plankton cavatelli.
6 OF 9
Bresca
WHERE: Washington, D.C.
Bresca is one of the best value Michelin-starred restaurants in Washington D.C., offering a $95 four-course menu, while leaning into nostalgic flavors like a Nutter Butter-inspired foie gras PB&J and an irreverent rendition of McDonald’s “Filet O’ Fish” sandwich reinterpreted with smoked trout roe and tartar sauce. Guest favorite dry-aged duck with foie gras sausage is back on the menu for autumn too. A flurry of complimentary snacks from the kitchen welcome guests before the first course arrives, and there are a few extra sweet surprises at the end too.
INSIDER TIPBresca also recently launched a three-course $65 menu so that diners can enjoy restaurant week pricing year round.
7 OF 9
Birdie’s
WHERE: Austin, Texas
Birdie’s describes its food as “fine casual,” and the counter service restaurant recently switched from a la carte to an $82 prix fixe tasting menu to give chef and co-owner Tracy Malechek Ezekiel more creative freedom to explore new ingredients and techniques in the tiny kitchen. The menu changes daily, so it’s always a surprise, but the team will happily accommodate pescatarian and vegetarian diets. The first four courses are typically served family-style and then diners can choose their main course and dessert.
INSIDER TIPTry the soft serve gelato for dessert. Flavors change seasonally but usually there’s a generous amount of excellent olive oil drizzled on top, and it’s become one of the most photographed dishes on the menu.
8 OF 9
The Lodge
WHERE: Big Sur, California
Chef Kyle Walker is passionate about sourcing hyperlocal ingredients at The Lodge at Treebones Resort, and even grows many of the vegetables and herbs on the $95 four-course chef’s menu at the woodland resort’s on-site organic garden. Walker estimates that around 70% of the ingredients he uses are from within a 100-mile radius, including mushrooms from local foragers and halibut, rockfish, tuna, black cod and crab from local fishermen, whose boats you can often see in the ocean in front of Treebones. There are choices for each course, and while you might not associate pizza with tasting menus, the wood-fired sourdough pies here are to die for, topped with local cheese from Stepladder Creamery in Cambria.
9 OF 9
Mr. Kim’s
WHERE: Tulsa, Oklahoma
James Beard Semifinalist Ben Alexander was adopted from Korea as a toddler and grew up in the United States, so his Asian-inspired steakhouse Mr. Kim’s in downtown Tulsa is an amalgamation of his ethnic heritage and taste memories. The $75 chef’s choice menu includes a selection of appetizers, like quail egg sake shooters and sweet spot prawn ceviche, followed by a selection of meats to be grilled at the table in the style of Korean barbecue, served alongside ssamjang (a spicy Korean fermented bean paste sauce), lettuce and shiso mint for wraps, cabbage salad, and a selection of banchan, or small side dishes. Full and happy is how you’ll feel after a meal here.