Blanca

One of the best meal experiences of my life. The drink pairing was so unique and interesting - definitely recommend it.

I came in with admittedly high expectations, but my friends and I all rated Blanca a 5 or 6 out of 10. Good service made up for somewhat uninspiring food.

The first course of citrus and fermented brussels sprouts was delicious, as was the crab empanada. The other seafood courses, including an uni ceviche, were not memorable.

Surprisingly, the pasta courses were several notches below what you might have somewhere like Misi; the flavors were delicate to the cusp of blandness and would have benefited from a stronge point of view.

Overall, the meal felt incohesive and inconsistent. If I was being taken on a journey, I lost the plot. While I'm glad I was able to experience this menu, there are many other similar caliber restaurants I would return to first.

Glad Blanca reopened and finally get to try.
Interesting approach but not sure how I feel about it. It's very "internationally" inspired. Some random thoughts during the meal -

Crab Empanada is the most generous in size dish that I've seen at any tasting menu joint.

Tortilla Bread's texture was very interesting. The crust is much thicker and flakier than usual bread, I enjoyed a lot.

Uni soaked in a bed of leche de tigre, and drizzled with hot sesame oil - not exactly sure how this creation came from but feel like it's random and didn't blend well, uni's flavor was lost.

Seaweed Tortelli was tasty but couldn't taste seaweed.

Korean Spinach suddenly got served?

Feel like traveled the world in this meal but not in a cohesive way. Appreciate the creativity behind it though!

Definitely one of the best Michelin restaurants in the greater New York area. It is a little hard to find at first and the area is trendy but you wouldn't think that it would have such an outstanding fine dining experience.

EASILY the BEST meal I had in 2018, and possibly one of the top 5 meals I've had ever!

Came here with 3 other friends for a farewell dinner for a dear friend - so glad we were able to enjoy this together. Reservations are available 30 days ahead, so be sure to click that button at midnight! They are located hidden behind Roberta's, and the vibe is completely different - sleek, modern, minimalistic, aka really cool! Their tasting menu is $198pp, and you have the option of adding on a wine pairing as well. The sommelier was pretty great, so I thought it was a pretty worthy splurge (it's not unlimited glasses like it was at brooklyn fare when it was still in brooklyn though!).

We had a total of 18 dishes - I felt like it was a great variety of different cuisines, but nothing clashed with one another. The dishes were very well thought out, fine dining without being pretentious! Standout dishes for me were the corn foie gras, goat milk agnolotti, fresh bread, sea urchin pici, and all the fish dishes. The portuguese tart they let you take away with you is the perfect gift/ending to the meal, wish we could actually buy those!

Hopefully i'll get another blanca meal in 2019!!!

Definitely something I have never tried before. Blanca is 2 Michelin-Star fine dining experience located inside and through the Roberta restaurant. The restaurant was beautiful! I love the clean aesthetics: open kitchen, vinyl music, plant walls and wood structures.

I had no idea what to expect, but this definitely blew my mind. Every course is a bite-size intricately-constructed dish.

Some favorites of the night:
Maitake mushrooms with Maine sea urchin - delicious pairing of creamy uni with perfectly crisp and grilled mushrooms.
Hokkaido uni with pici - Super flavorful (with a kick) pasta dish paired with creamy uni and a perfect amount of breadcrumbs. I wish i can eat this all day.
Seasonal vegetables with a tangy broth served with a side of pizza dough bread - This was heaven in a bowl. I actually enjoyed each of the veggies that was presented- it seemed like each of them had a different flavor and the broth was so intense. I loved dipping the bread into the broth. I'm still drooling thinking about it.
120 day dry-aged wagyu - Dry aged? Wagyu? It's like heaven in your mouth. The cut was so melty, soft and juicy.

Unique:
Caviar and parsnip - Very unique flavor combo, salty and refreshing.
Andouille sausage ravioli - Melty filling with a good amount of spice.
Habanada ice cream - I normally can't eat spicy, so I never tried habaneros before. Finally get to taste what it was like without the heat. It was really interesting flavor.

They also gave us goodie bags with the menu and home-made Portuguese tarts.

Our annual high-roller dinner had us trying out another place in Brooklyn, hidden behind a little pizza shop on a graffiti festooned street.

I'm going to start with service. Service. Service. Look, I've been to plenty of hoity-toity 3-Michelin star places, and at best the waiters and waitresses at these places can be described as, "Professional", "Polite", and on rare occasions they might even crack *a* joke. But I've honestly never been to high-class restaurant where I felt like the folks serving me weren't just the staff, but they were friends and we were just chilling at their place enjoying a great meal. Seriously, on service alone they get to 4-Stars, and the food, well gosh it's just a bonus then innit?

So, 23 courses, I'm not going to enumerate them all, because unless you go within like 4 weeks of this review, they'll be gone. There were some rockstars: Polenta-Uni, Mandarin Orange-Caviar, a firecracker ravioli. There were some dishes that were "Fine", like a pasta with red sauce that felt familar, a room temperature waygu, and a soup that was missing a little something. They also served an IPA (a drink which I loathe) that was exceedingly good.

The only MISS for me, no chocolate dessert, or true pastry like thing. I. Need. Chocolate. But I won't knock them too hard, the desserts that were served were good, I was just having a hankering.

There were other cool things about this place, the deco was understated, and didn't feel pretentious, the seats were old leather Corvette buckets that were comfy (although my friend opined that there wasn't lumbar, pfft) and the music was top shelf, a communal vinyl collection being spun on a nearby record player.

There are no shortage of remarkable eateries in NY, Blanca gets the rare distinction of being a place I want to go back to, not because of the food, but because I felt welcome.

Well hello you naughty little secret at the back of Roberta's !


If you want to a do a tasting menu without the foo foo white table clothes and romance this is the place.

Date night or a splurge with a friend this place of amazing.

I highly recommend the wine pairing !

Great tasting menu and one of a kind experience, felt like we were invited to eat at a secret location.

It is tucked away in the back of a pizzaria, but just walk through the main entrance and ask the hostess and they are more than willing to walk you over.

My wife and I went to Blanca to celebrate our anniversary and it was an amazing experience. With a limited seating per night, we were able to have an intimate dining set fused decadent and delicious food. It's not a surprise Blanca is Michelin star rated :)

The whole dining experience ran about 2-3 hours and the dress code was dressy casual, very enjoyable and comfortable at the same time.

Every dish was presented expertly with an intricate description and story. Our favorite is by far the ribs!

Highly recommend and we will definitely be back!

Love this very brooklyn dining experience. Hidden in the pop pizza place with graffiti on the street outside. Very casually wore staff. Loud hipster music. Not special ingredients but cook them into a different level. First time saw a plate of potato as one course, and first time eating with hands at a non-sushi Michelin restaurant.

Food is delicious too! We had 18 courses, and I can pretty much remember all the courses without looking at the photos, which is quite rare. Lol
My favorites:
Barbecue ribs. This is the best barbecue I've ever had!! The chef cooked it for at least 30 mins, on and the off the rack. Perfect seasoning, well balance of sweet and savory. LOVE It!
All the pasta dish. Never had that much pasta dishes in a fine dining menu, but they are all really good! The sauce, the texture of the pasta. Would love to have a plate of them!

Drawbacks: we left feeling like we can have another slice of the pizza outside, and I don't have a big appetite. Usually I would be extremely full after the fine dining meal. Well, maybe that's the point of restaurant being in the pizza place?
The desserts were very simple too, and kind of repetitive. Just many, many sorbets.
There were only two protein courses in the 18 courses menu. Although the short ribs were really good, feeling like we could have one more protein.

Blanca has been on my list forever, I used to live in Bushwick way back when Blanca first opened but never got around to it. Fast forward 5 years later - my fiancé took me this past weekend for my birthday... and now I'm a huge fan!

Yes, the portions are small, some may say tiny. They're a few bites each at most, and I think by design, to leave you wanting more. If you have a big appetite, eat a big lunch and quit your complaining about the portions being tiny. :) That's exactly what we did and we left happy and full.

We had 18 courses and each was unique and delicious. Our tasting had two uni courses, some may not have any because the menu always changes. I know some people hate uni but I looveee it so no complaints here, I was in heaven.

Some of my favorites w/ pics:

miatake mushrooms with uni powder, Asian pear and a good portion of uni from Hokkaido (stuff of my dreams)

caviar with pine nut purée and a slice of a small citrus fruit (looked like a little tangerine, forgot the name but the combo was so. good.)

aged wagyu beef with fig (this was amazing, also the stuff of my foodie dreams)

uni pasta (with another type of smaller smoother uni)

one bite of a surprisingly tasty spicy pork (nduja) filled ravioli, which fiancé raved about, and was so sad that the portion was one ravioli. He said he could eat a bucketful lol

Anyway, the food was delicious and quite an experience (for example, a goat milk filled ravioli that exploded in my mouth... mmmm). I would definitely go again. The damage was $620 which was including a bottle of $180 champagne (a girl has to have a bottle of champagne on her birthday, right?!). I think all in damage for two was $740ish. You can get a wine pairing for an extra $98 per person but we skipped it because there was no way we were drinking 10+ glasses of wine. #keepinitclassy