Innovative + Sustainable + Delicious What a journey! How can i explain the amazing experience i had at Ilis. The restaurant concept farm to table it is unique. You really can feel the flavour of their fresh and top ingredients presented in their maximal expression. The Nordic style of cooking with a Ny twist it is one of a kind. The menu tasting progression from vegetables to proteins play a very important part. It is like a symphony, like if you go to theater and they show you a story. You never feel heavy. We really appreciate the taste of every ingredient until we get to the main course. The ice + fire concept it is so creative! Using nature elements that engage you the whole experience. From when you choose what ingredient you want for your tasting menu through the explanation of every course from cooks, servers, managers, chefs, show the level of commitment they have to create a memorable experience. Sustainability it is the future of our cuisines. And Ilis and Chef Mads Refslund know how to do it flawlessly. i have been visiting many 1, 2, 3 Michelin Star restaurants and 50 best restaurants around the world. And this will be on my top best 3 dining experiences. Thank you and Bravo 10/10

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Dined with them on July 6th, with our original pre-paid reservation scheduled for the day prior. However, the restaurant elected to close July 5th in observation of the holiday. The restaurant made this modification last-minute owing to the unpredictable timing of the 4th of July. As other diners have likely provided, the menu is presented with a market basket of ingredients upon which your meal will be based. Diners are tasked with choosing four items from the list of options to compose their dinner. However, the two most desirable menu items - lobster and shrimp - were sold out. In fact, while we were discussing the menu options another staff person came and took the beats out of the market basket, providing the impression that our food was being sold out from under us as we were ordering. This was reinforced part way through our meal as we were informed that our 'main' choice - the fish - had also been sold out with another server having sold 'ours' to another diner. We were given an off-menu fish as a replacement. I'm unsure as to the preparation of the original fish, but what we were given was hastily grilled, doused with olive oil, chopped up and plated for service feeling distinctly unplanned and under cooked. With an upcharge, we did partake of the young almond & caviar dish, which was a kind of messy and broken mixture of nut cheese and young almonds with cooked/heated caviar on top. Later I browsed their socials and saw this dish on Instagram - looking far different in that it was actually composed and plated instead of slopped into a dish for service. Lastly - appropriate of nothing, the "One House" concept - where the restaurant purports to merge the FOH and BOH with service provided by chefs and the kitchen being in the middle ...I mean, we've all seen open kitchens before so branding it as a new idea just comes off as either conceited or ignorant. Most food came from the back anyway. Overall the quality and attention to detail were lacking, with some unique snubs with food actively being taken from our mouths - figuratively speaking.

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The online reviews are contradictory to say the least but having been now the issue is clearly reviewers' expectations & not the food or service! A lot of them seem to expect dramatic or overly produced dishes but this is more like Single Thread Farms & of course modern Nordic cuisine with a laser focus on highlighting the ingredients & a restrained approach to flavour that I find US palates aren't always used to. I had the market menu where They bring a box of ingredients & list the main ingredients on a menu. Frankly I'm fine with letting a restaurant know my allergies & surprising me but I get that lots of people are more cautious. Besides the four main courses there are a few more dishes. My favourite protein was whole #fluke served as a #crudo & grilled. This counted as two courses The courses I had were 1. Crudités 2.Raw course was an oyster with a tomato and a seafood mousse 3. Asparagus raw, chimichurri and nettle. Called three ways but actually best eaten all together 4.Fava bean and uni on pork skin. DIY with various sauces & this was my favourite dish of the night. It was the most complex but every single ingredient worked in harmony. 5. Whole fluke crudo, I love crudo and this was good 6. Fluke grilled & served with naustrum leaves with remoulade in a shell. 7. Trumpet mushroom grilled in kombu with spinach that is something I've seen in Asia but not in the USA or Europe & is delicious. 8. Squab in black garlic Demi glaze with herbaceous salad squab over cooked but missing something 9. Duck in a similar glaze. I should have just done either the duck or squab. Both were perfectly prepare. Dessert was a sorbetto that wasn't too sweet. There was a non-alcoholic pairing & service & kitchen was exceptional especially the expeditor. I ordered way more food than I needed to. If you are solo dinner the 4 course that come with the market menu is enough, for two people or more I might add another course. I added two more courses. Other reviews complained about the dessert not being sweet but I found it sweet enough and refreshing. I was a solo diner at the chef's counter who got a last minute reservation the night before and it was for 5:45pm which is around 3 hours earlier than I normally eat. I got watch the restaurant go from empty to almost completely full by 7pm. I could see there were so lags happening with servers not getting to the kitchen when the orders were ready but it was very minimal and I think they have worked out much of their timing issue. That said this is fining dining where you are expected to take a pause between course. It will take 2-2 1/2 hours for the market menu. That is on purpose and something to be enjoyed. This is not fast food or even fast causal and doesn't claim to be. If you are not familiar with Noma, Nordic dining, current fine dining trends educate yourself before going to decide if this the right restaurant for you. For my palete this was below Disfrutar in Barcelona and Alinea in Chicago in terms of creativity and taste. I am glad I got to experience and would recommend it for people that enjoy more restrained farm to table fine dining. The space was pleasant if noisier than I prefer.

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Cool and special are the go to words I think when I remember my experience. Space has so much drama with the open kitchen Service team is the kitchen staff! To eat try anything and everything. loved the clam juice in a large shell you drink out of To drink have the martini thing with all the fruits on the side.

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They must have put so much money into building this beautiful space but such dysfunction all around. No service, extremely boring food served too cold, cooks running around like headless chickens. Just putting things on whimsical plates or sunflowers doesn't make them taste better.

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The drinks are unbelieveable. The raw bar is unlike anything we have ever had, and every bite was so inventive.

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it's rare to find an establishment that prioritizes preserving the flavor of the high quality ingredients rather than lathering it in dairy and butter. My wife and I enjoyed all 12 courses, the presentation was gorgeous and I would highly recommend it for a special occasion. Service was great and I highly suggest the wine pairing!

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Slow and poor service, overcooked seafood , overall bland and gimmicky. Good ambiance/vibe.

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The ambiance and food were very high quality, I had the menu where we select our ingredients for the night. The cocktails and drinks were a bit pricier than other restaurants but the waiter topped off my red wine glass for free. Otherwise a lot of what I ordered were grilled selections and they were cooked perfectly. Not sure if the price tag is worth it to go again but it is the price of everything in Brooklyn and to feel the Copenhagen Noma esq vibe.

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The space is beautiful and overall the food is quite good, but the meal had some hiccups. We went for the market menu. As described I thought we would have some choice as to what items we received, but there was no choice offered. Instead, they proceeded to bring us seafood for EVERY SINGLE course - no vegetables, no meat, just fish preparations. I like fish and the dishes we received were quite good, but they all started to feel quite similar and the meal concept felt poorly planned given lack of variety. As a person with a serious sweet tooth the desserts also need work. Aside from a special birthday dessert they were just bad. I know they offer an a la carte bar option that would be my choice going forward.

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so far... complex, unexpected presentation and flavor, beautifully orchestrated together. We need this in NY, finally a cool place to eat something that is not on everyone's menu. BRAVO !!! #madsrefslund #ilis #bestmeal #luckynewyorkers #superlicious #giantclamswithseasoned cold clam broth #whelkwithwhippedpotatos #livescallops RUN before it becomes impossible to get a reservation ;) impossible to even sit at the bar

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We ordered the fluke, apple, mushroom, eel, antelope and duck dishes. The eel and antelope were home runs and some of the nicest dishes I've ever tried. The dishes were on the slower side to come out, but the ambience in the dining area meant we lost track of time anyway. We didn't want to leave and ended up having some more drinks in the lobby afterwards.

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.. the vibes are in my opinion super fun, though there is an element of pretentiousness there for sure. Unfortunately I couldn't really drink but this would be a really fun spot to get tipsy in, music was awesome. The food was very inventive, and artfully presented, but there was also an element of being overly designed and trying too hard there. Note I have eaten at Noma in Copenhagen, and I totally get the connection and style of dining, but somehow it came together much better and felt more effortless, unique and less staged at Noma (the incredible technique, natural setting and use of very unique ingredients like edible wild flowers certainly helped there). One thing to note is that the food also feels a little bit like diet food, I like a light meal but carbs at Ilis were almost entirely lacking. Despite all this, I would have gone for a 4-star rating if it weren't for the service, which was very friendly but painfully slow and poorly paced. Perhaps if you are drinking heavily with a larger group, this might not be an issue, but close to 4 hours for dinner when you are a couple, and with several nudges to the staff, isn't ideal. I am not sure the concept of having a different staff member bring each dish is really doing it for them, need to re evaluate logistics here.

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ILIS in Greenpoint Brooklyn, for my money the finest new restaurant in NYC.It was a rainy evening as our quartet set off to Brooklyn to visit this ,for the moment under the radar newcomer in New Yorks culinary landscape.A converted rubber factory building gloriously reinvented as a wonderful dining space, the attention to detail especially the artwork , brickwork wall and the curated furniture enhance this handsome room.An open kitchen concept ,I spotted Chef Mads Reflund like a conductor directing his orchestra. The food is mostly locally sourced.The huge clams presented as a briny drink like an upscale Bloody Mary were just delicious, so were the scallops on the shell,the trout presented on tree bark.Delicious food with other worldly plating.My favorite was the duck and the duck leg spiced presented akin to a kebab.Best dessert was a simple but scrumptious ice cream topped with caviar.Kudos to the team ! just a marvelous dining experience.

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