Best Of 2023 - We Racked Up A $2,500 Lunch Bill And Big Cat Set A Record For Bread Consumed At The Fanciest Restaurant In NYC

Almost exactly six months ago on The Yak, we landed on Rone's name wheel. It landed on Le Bernardin, which is a 3-star Michelin restaurant in NYC. That's the highest rating possible. It's also held that rating for decades and not dipped to 2-star [source: Francis Ellis]. It's also the most famous restaurant in NYC and really the gold standard when it comes to fine dining. So much so, that the dress code was a big change from our usual selves:

Business casual. Jackets are recommended but not required. Athletic wear, loungewear, shorts, T-shirts, short sleeves, sneakers and flip flops are not permitted.

We decided to lean into it and all dressed up. Big Cat even got us all some fancy hats!

And the dress code...it was for real. 

We started out with a drink list. The waitress didn't think one of us just came into millions of dollars in the last week. Boy was she wrong.

At first I was wondering where the bread basket was. But this place was so fancy they brought the bread to you and you picked it piece by piece. 

We went with just the lunch menu as opposed to the Chef's Tasting menu which would've taken far too long. I started out with a crab cake in a red wine sauce with some crusty thing on top. It was delectable. 

For my entree I got a duck which was available upon request. I didn't know how it should be cooked but they recommended medium rare. It was really good. I don't really know what the orange sauce and small veggies were but they were fine. 

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Throughout the whole meal, Big Cat kept getting more bread. He said he wanted to go for the record after his second plate.

While there wasn't an official record, we asked several servers what's the most bread they've seen eaten. The highest number we got was 10. 

Big Cat smashed it with an unofficial 17 pieces of bread eaten. A truly legendary performance. Those big rolls above count as just one piece!

We finished with ice cream, but I forgot to take a picture of them. It was little dollops of ice cream. Very interesting. Everybody got four. That was kind of different.

All in all, it was a great experience with some pals I've now known for 6+ years each. We talked about making it a yearly tradition, so I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Other Le Bernardin notes:

- The service was almost too good. There was someone at our table every 3-4 minutes it seemed. It got to the point where I wanted them to chill out a bit.

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- I didn't personally see it, but Big Cat went to the bathroom and I asked him to take a picture in the hopes of seeing a world class bathroom. He said it was just a regular bathroom. Kind of a let down.

- The bread was delicious, but I wish it was warm. Would've made a huge difference. I still ate five or six pieces though.

- It wasn't as expensive as I would've thought. A pre-fixe lunch was $120 and three courses. Not terrible for the fanciest restaurant in NYC. I would consider going back for a very special occasion. 

Help us pay for this insane meal by buying a Yak St. Patrick's Day shirt.

And catch the full show here: