Ari and the team there are incredible. Run, dont walk, if you like incredible service, style, and top quality (sea) food & drink. These guys really go out of the way and deserve all the kudos. Bonus points for the soundtrack, grapefruit and carrot cocktail, and great raw eats (kanpachi with vadouvan was stellar).

Knowing this spot is behind the same team as Carbone and The Grill, you can have good faith that the food will be good to great, at an elevated price. Out of the 3, this was the most pricey, granted I had a full dinner here rather than a few cocktails and bites. Luxurious pricing for luxurious eating (see pics for pricing). At $20 per cocktail we only tried the coconut (comes in a real coconut) and peanut butter, both really good and the peanut butter surprisingly complex and interesting. Then to our bites... Clams and Oysters (3.5/5): I'm not the biggest fan of these anyway, but I liked the sweet neck oysters more than the walrus, and the clams definitely were fishy for me. $4-6 pp Trout roe toast (3.5/5): stunning to look at, yummy to eat but surprisingly lacked in actual trout roe flavor. I wanted a little more pop. $22 for 1 order of 2 pieces Uni toast (4.5/5): I appreciated how much santa barbara uni was on here. It is not the highest quality as like a high-end sushi restaurant, but there was no bitterness and I still loved my 4 bites. $30 for 1 order of 2 pieces Goldeneye Snapper (4/5): this buttery fish was just barely seared and paired with smoky japanese mushrooms. Simple great ingredients. A little heavy-handed with the olive oil. $42, comes with 6-7 thinly sliced pieces. Beef Carpaccio (5/5): a hefty amount of sea urchin and caviar dotting a blanket of ultra high-quality incredibly tender beef, this may be the most luxurious thing I've ever eaten. It is an incredible combination served on buttered soft toast. If you're only going to live once (or at least eat here once), get this. $105 for a very large plate. Shareable between 2-4. The interior is beautiful, dimly lit, old world extravagance. Would I come here again? Very unlikely unless it is for a special occasion or on someone else's tab. Was the meal worth it? Depends on what you order. The toasts are quite reasonable, the carpaccio extravagant but probably also takes into account the ingredient quality. Zz's is an experience that made me feel like I was part of the rich club for just a moment, and I definitely did not regret the indulgence.

You feel like you've stepped onto a movie set in this hideaway tucked in Thompson. Everything about this place is rich: the foods, the prices, the people. But for the price, a lot was less than stellar; too many clashing flavors in most of the dishes. Even the flaming Coconut cocktail looked good but didn't taste good, and that seems to be a theme here. The absolute must gets: all the toasts (uni, tuna and fish roe), the tuna carpaccio with foie gras, and the apple cocktail with shiso and basil. The toasts are served on this bread that could not be more toasted and buttery. So delicious, of course. Due to the price, I wouldn't come here again, but for a special occasion, very sexy date (or work-expensed meal), this is still a very fun experience.

Right next door to sister restaurant Carbone, look for an unassuming entrance with a host standing outside with a list (I'm assuming with names of all the people who have reservations for the night) and windows with a bright blue neon "ZZ". This is a reservations-only, speakeasy kind of place, so remember to email ahead of time to secure a spot. My BF called the day of to surprise me before he left for a long trip overseas and was lucky enough to score some seats due to a cancellation; I was pretty excited to try another michelin star restaurant! The entire place probably only fits about 10-12 people, with a combination of tables and bar seats. There is only one waitress and one bartender from what I saw. They have one menu with their cocktails on one side (all $20!), and food on the other. Along with that comes a teeny menu for oysters that you can mark up with a pencil (you can order them siberian style that comes with caviar, etc for $6 each). Here is what we got to share: TOASTS (comes with 2) Trout Roe - $22 What a sight! These two trout roe toasts were literally glistening in the candlelight. They overfill it, which is awesome, so each bite comes with a ton of flavor. You can really taste the ocean here without it being too salty. YUM. Uni - $30 Not sure if it's because I'm kind of uni-ed out (I still love it but now it's everywhere!), I wasn't HEAD OVER HEELS in love. Still, it was really good, and has a slightly different texture since it's on pretzel bread. SEARED Live scallop, sicilian pistachios, brown butter - $18 I really liked the toasty nutty brown butter taste, but felt like there was too much of it. Makes it a bit hard to taste the live scallop. Came on the half shell. CRUDO Saba mackerel, mint, radish - $29 Pretty good! The mackerel was less fishy than what I remember mackerel to taste like, which I enjoyed. The mint was a great pairing. TARTARE Baby yellowtail, golden beets, Vadouvan - $27 This dish was a standout, but I hated how little of it there was on a gigantic plate. I would've preferred it to be colder too (this was more room temperature). At first, I totally hated on my BF for ordering this dish since it's just yellowtail tartare (which seems like something you can get at a japanese takeout), but the vadouvan indian spice is just genius and really made this dish unique. Not sure I've ever tasted yellowtail like this before! CARPACCIO Chianina beef, sea urchin, caviar - $105 I mean, if we're only here once, might as well #YOLO and go all out, right? I'm actually quite regretful that we got this dish (and I seriously hate saying that) since it's priced so ridiculously, and didn't meet my expectations. Perhaps it was too hyped up in my mind? The beef carpaccio, which takes up the entire plate, really needed seasoning (tastes like nothing unless you spread out the little blots of caviar. I would have wanted maybe sea salt?). Uni was good, caviar was good, and there was also a lot of lobster all over the dish even though it doesn't mention it on the menu. It's a lot of high quality good ingredients, but I'm not sure it all came together. Comes with square pieces of toast, which were delicious by the way (haha easily impressed) - it tasted buttery and subtly sweet. I reeeeaaallllyyyy wanted to get the buddha and coconut cocktails since they come in novelty "glasses", but unfortunately the flavors didn't catch my eye. If I'm going to spend $20 on a drink, I better like what's in it rather than what it looks like! PEANUT BUTTER Bourbon, pineapple, banana AH this was pretty delicious and unique!!! When I ordered it, I had to get reassurance from the waitress that this wasn't too weird haha. The peanut butter really came through and smooothed out the bourbon. I think she mentioned that the bartender was from hawaii so he added this drink recently stemming from his influences from over there and this peanutbutter/coconut cream that he had found. PEACH Cognac, ginger, bitter apertif Tropical drink - good but not as special. Good if you like fruity/beachy drinks! PISTACCHIO Gin, Honey, Cumquat I thought this was pretty unique too. A little too sweet for my taste, but I love how I get to taste new flavors :) Love the smell of pistacchio too! Some things I didn't like: 1. Price - I am totally willing to splurge on a good meal, but I felt like this was overpriced. Yes, it's all seafood and it tasted fresh, but it still doesn't justify the almost $200 bill per person. 2. Pace of meal - Dishes came out SO SLOWLY, which I totally do not understand. Each plate is already so small, and it's pretty much all raw... Great intimate date spot if you're looking for a fancy night out!