Per Se opened in February 2004 on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, with Central Park visible through floor-to-ceiling windows and a kitchen designed by Thomas Keller as the East Coast expression of everything The French Laundry stood for. Three Michelin stars have been retained since 2006. Twenty years later, the dining room still radiates class and comfort, the service team is still choreographed with effortless precision, and Oysters and Pearls is still the most celebrated opening bite in American fine dining.

The Restaurant


The only American chef to hold three Michelin stars at two restaurants simultaneously.


Thomas Keller is the first — and as of 2025, the only — American-born chef to hold three Michelin stars at two different restaurants simultaneously. The French Laundry in Yountville, California, has held three stars since the inaugural California guide. Per Se has held three stars in New York since 2006. The same chef. The same philosophy. Two cities, two distinct expressions of what a three-star American restaurant can be.


Keller opened Per Se with Jonathan Benno as chef de cuisine — a name that would go on to define the fine dining landscape at Lincoln in New York before his own restaurant career. The current kitchen has evolved through multiple chef de cuisine tenures, each time maintaining the fundamental Keller approach: seasonal sourcing, classical French technique, American ingredients, and the specific culture of relentless improvement that Keller has instilled in every kitchen he has built. The menu changes daily. What remains constant is the standard.


The dining room — designed with Central Park views through blue-steel windows, warm neutrals, and natural elements — seats 64 in the main room, with a separate ten-seat private dining room, a lounge, and a bar. Gratuity is included in the price of the meal. The dress code requires jackets. The atmosphere is one of quiet, unhurried luxury — exactly what the words "class and comfort" in the Michelin Guide's description actually mean when you are inside the room rather than reading about it.

The Philosophy


Respect for ingredients. Mastery of technique. Constant improvement as a way of life.


Thomas Keller's culinary philosophy is built on a principle he has articulated in multiple forms over decades: constant improvement. Not novelty, not experimentation for its own sake, but the daily refinement of what you already do until it reaches a standard you had not previously imagined possible. This is the philosophy that produced The French Laundry's legendary status, and it is the philosophy that Per Se was built to express in New York. The Michelin Guide description — a mature study in confidence and class — is exactly right.


The menu at Per Se offers a nine-course chef's tasting menu and a separate vegetarian tasting menu (added in 2017), both sourcing the finest seasonal ingredients and preparing them with what the Guide calls razor-sharp refinement. The French kitchen closely aligns with the seasons: what appears on the menu in March is different from what appears in October, not because the format changes but because Keller's sourcing principle demands that only the best available product of the moment is served. The suppliers are named on the menu. The sourcing is the argument.


An experience at Thomas Keller's Per Se is one to be savored, recounted and remembered. What happens in between is a mature study in confidence and class.

MICHELIN GUIDE USA
The Signatures


Oysters and Pearls. Central Park through the windows. Twenty years.


Oysters and Pearls — The Signature


The most iconic dish in Thomas Keller's repertoire: Island Creek oysters warmed in a sabayon of pearl tapioca, topped with osetra caviar. The combination of cold and warm, saline and rich, textured and silky, has defined the opening of the Per Se meal since 2004. A dish so frequently celebrated that it has become a benchmark for American fine dining. It reliably and thrillingly earns every word written about it.


The Nine-Course Tasting Menu


A seasonal progression that changes daily based on what Keller's sourcing team identifies as the finest product available. Each iteration is documented and refined by the kitchen team. The menu's structure is consistent — opening savories, fish courses, meat courses, cheese, dessert — while the specific preparations change constantly. No two consecutive visits produce the same menu.


The Vegetarian Menu


Added in 2017, the vegetarian tasting menu at Per Se is not a concession to dietary restriction but a parallel creative project: the kitchen's best thinking about seasonal vegetable and dairy cookery, executed at the same standard as the main menu. Keller's respect for ingredients extends explicitly to the vegetable kingdom. The vegetarian menu is a complete argument on its own terms.


The Central Park View


In a city where space is luxury and views are currency, Per Se's floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Central Park are among the finest dining views in Manhattan. The park in all its seasons — autumn foliage, winter bare branches, spring bloom — is visible from most tables. Request a window position when booking. The meal is already worth the journey; the view adds a specific pleasure that belongs to this address alone.


The Service


The Michelin Guide notes an effortlessly choreographed service team that lends a personable, gracious touch to the dinner. Keller's kitchens are famous for producing not just great chefs but great front-of-house professionals. The service at Per Se is warm and attentive without hovering — it adds to the meal rather than imposing formality on it. Gratuity is included in the prix fixe, which affects the dynamic between staff and guest in a way that consistently reads as more relaxed.


The Grand Dessert Finale


The Michelin Guide describes the grand dessert finale as a reliable and thrilling bookend to the meal — the counterpart to Oysters and Pearls at the opening. The pastry kitchen at Per Se has maintained a standard of precision across multiple pastry chef tenures that treats the sweet courses as the culmination of the meal rather than its afterthought. Multiple preparations, multiple textures, the full range of the pastry kitchen's capabilities.

Before You Go


Everything practical, plainly told


  • Address: 10 Columbus Circle, 4th Floor (Time Warner Center / Deutsche Bank Center), Upper West Side / Midtown, Manhattan, New York, NY 10019


  • Phone: +1 212-823-9335


  • Website: thomaskeller.com/perseny


  • Getting There: 59th Street–Columbus Circle subway station (A/C/B/D/1 trains), directly below the building. The restaurant is on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center (now Deutsche Bank Center). Take the dedicated elevators in the main lobby. Per Se's entrance is through the building, not from the street directly.


  • Bookings: Via Resy at resy.com or by phone. Reservations open on the first of each month for the following month at 10am Eastern. Weekend dinner tables are taken quickly; book at the earliest possible moment. Per Se accepts a small number of same-day reservations for cancellations — check Resy on the day if your preferred date is sold out. Jacket required for the dining room.


  • Price: Chef's tasting menu: $390 per person for food. Vegetarian tasting menu: $390 per person. Wine pairing additional (select, classic, and prestige tiers). Gratuity is included in the prix fixe price. Total with wine pairing runs approximately $600–$800+ per person. The lounge offers a separate à la carte menu that does not require a reservation.


  • Dress: Jackets required for the main dining room. The most formal enforced dress code of any New York three-star restaurant. Business casual is the minimum; formal or business formal is appropriate and consistent with the room's atmosphere. Per Se is the kind of place where dressing for the occasion is part of the occasion.

Per Se isn’t a meal—it’s a masterclass. A place where Central Park’s beauty mirrors culinary artistry, where every course is a love letter to technique, and where Thomas Keller’s mantra—“What’s in the best interest of the dish?”—echoes in every bite. For those who believe dining is theater, this Columbus Circle icon is where New York’s skyline meets gastronomic immortality.