I dined at a 3-Michelin-star fine-dining restaurant for the first time. Here are 7 things that surprised me.

• I recently dined at Eleven Madison Park, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City.
• Eleven Madison is a primarily plant-based restaurant that now also serves meat.
• I was mostly surprised that I enjoyed the vegan dishes just as much as the meat courses.

I recently dined at Eleven Madison Park, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City, which recently revamped its menu to include meat and seafood options after years of being entirely plant-based.

I’ve eaten at award-winning restaurants before — including one with a Michelin star and another with a James Beard Award — but this was my first time dining somewhere with the coveted three-star distinction. According to the Michelin Guide, that honor is reserved for chefs “at the peak of their profession” serving dishes “destined to become classics.”

Over the course of my three-hour, eight-course meal at Eleven Madison Park, several things surprised me, from the sheer number of staff attending to our table to the fact that we didn’t see a menu until the very end of the night.

Here are seven things that surprised me about eating in a three-Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurant for the first time.

Check-in felt surprisingly personal, like the staff already knew us.

When we arrived for our 5:45 p.m. reservation, we barely had time to utter our names before the hostess smiled and led us straight to our table, a booth located in the corner of the restaurant.

There was no tablet or clipboard in sight — just seamless recognition from the hostess once we gave the name on our reservation. It felt as if the Eleven Madison Park team had memorized every guest on the list of the night’s bookings.

It was a small but striking detail that made the experience feel intimate and thoughtful from the start, especially considering the restaurant was fully booked for the night.

Each course was a surprise, revealed only as it arrived.

When we sat down, our server offered us a choice: We could look at the night’s menu or be surprised by each course as it arrived. We chose the latter, letting the staff explain every dish along the way.

Eleven Madison Park now offers two tasting menus: One is fully plant-based, and the other includes select meat and seafood dishes.

Of the eight courses we tried, three could feature animal protein if we chose to do so. My companion chose the vegan menu, while I opted for the meat-inclusive version. The courses alternated between warm and cold, making the meal feel varied and balanced.

At the end of the meal, we were each given a printed menu outlining our respective tasting menus — a final, elegant touch that tied the experience together.

There was a team of staff waiting on us, with each focusing on a different course.

One thing that immediately stood out was the large number of staff members working in the dining room. Each course was delivered and explained by a different server, creating a carefully choreographed dining experience.

We’re both accustomed to having just one or two servers attend to us during a meal, so the number of people involved took us by surprise. The staff were also extremely knowledgeable and able to answer any question we had about the sourcing of each dish’s ingredients or its flavor profile.

In addition to our multiple servers, there were also a few dining room managers who took the time to greet and chat with us about our experience throughout the meal.

We were told that there were about 40 staff working in the dining room and 40 working in the kitchen.

The entire tasting menu took about three hours to complete.

When we arrived, we anticipated being there for at least a couple of hours. However, the entire tasting menu ultimately took 3 ½ hours to complete.

I can’t remember the last time I was at a restaurant for that long, but it surprisingly never seemed to drag — each course was paced out so well that we were never anxiously waiting for the next course.

The bread course surprisingly turned out to be both of our favorites.

For our first course at Eleven Madison Park, we each received a laminated bread roll, accompanied by onion butter and a roasted onion broth. The laminated bread looked and felt more similar to a croissant than a traditional bread roll we typically get at restaurants.

A shock to us both was that the bread course — arguably the most humble of all the ones we tried — turned out to be our favorite. The deep caramelized onion flavor was delicious, while the perfectly airy middle was stretchy and fluffy, balancing out the flaky, salty crust.

Other highlights from our meal included a smoked Hasselback potato with potato purée and “land caviar,” as well as both of our main entrées: for me, the chef’s signature lavender-honey duck, and for my vegan dining partner, a mushroom-based dish that closely resembled steak, leading her to think she had been served the wrong dish.

The meat courses were presented subtly — we thought this could have been to appease nearby vegans.

Eleven Madison Park announced in August that, starting October 14, it would resume serving meat on its menu after going fully plant-based in 2021.

Two of the three meat courses I was served were plated with surprising restraint — almost as if they were designed to be palatable to the vegan diners sitting nearby.

The lobster, for instance, arrived tucked beneath a thin, golden disc of squash, and the scallop was also artfully plated so that the seafood was not on full display.

Still, not every dish was plated with the same consideration for meat-averse diners. When the signature lavender-honey duck appeared at our table, my vegan dining companion felt a wave of sadness and frustration.

To her, seeing the duck underscored how Eleven Madison Park’s shift back toward including meat on its menu can risk alienating the very diners who once defined its identity as a plant-based restaurant.

The restaurant has said its shift back to offering meat is part of a strategic move to be more inclusive of various dietary preferences.

“I know that the best way to continue to champion plant-based cooking is to let everyone participate around the table,” chef Daniel Humm told The New York Times after announcing the change in August.

I was surprised to like the vegan dishes as much as the meat courses — and maybe even more.

Despite living in New York City, where there are numerous vegan and plant-focused restaurants, I don’t typically seek out vegan restaurants.

As a self-proclaimed meat lover, I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed Eleven Madison Park’s plant-based dishes — in fact, I enjoyed them just as much as the meat-based courses.

The three meat dishes I tried were all flavorful and beautifully executed. However, I realized I would’ve been perfectly happy with the all-vegan tasting menu, which had just as many dynamic flavors. As a result, I would be much more open to eating at a vegan restaurant after this experience.

For my vegan dining companion, that was the most rewarding and surprising part of the night — seeing me discover how inventive, satisfying, and genuinely delicious plant-based fine dining can be, and being more open to trying it in the future.

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