Bridges
Sam Lawrence came off Estela and built a one-star kitchen on Chatham Square around a savory Comté tart, which the guide calls a delight and The Infatuation calls the star of the show.
Why go
The menu is short, unexplained and pinned to no cuisine at all. The tart is a custard of Comté in a malted-barley shortcrust under mushrooms, and the mushroom moves with the season while the tart itself stays put.4 The MICHELIN inspector ate it with morels1, Willa Moore ate it with chanterelles in July 2026.2 Sea urchin sits on shrimp inside a custard the review compares to butter. Sardine fillets come over toast with red pepper and anchovy, and a roast duck breast arrives with XO sauce underneath it. The guide writes that the amber-toned room possesses the ease and comfort of a bistro, while the kitchen cooks with noteworthy levels of drive and ambition.
1
Lawrence is Australian and finished his Estela years as culinary director of Ignacio Mattos's restaurant group, which is why the plates read the way they do.3 The room opened in September 2024 in the address Hop Shing, a Chinese restaurant that had been on Chatham Square for decades, gave up in 2020, and Billy Cotton built it out in chrome and concrete against the Brutalist towers next door.4 The star arrived a year after the doors opened, one of four first stars New York handed out that night.5
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Comté tart and the sea urchin custard, then a meaty main to split. Moore rates the custard shamelessly rich and says to plan on sharing it.2
- Avoid: the lettuces with Asian pear and trout roe, which Moore found easy to eat and a little boring2, and which Schneier calls expendable.3
What locals & experts say
- Willa Moore, The Infatuation, 11 July 2026, rated 8.8:
From a former chef at Estela, the food at Bridges is elegant, rich, and demanding of all your attention and then some.
2 - MICHELIN Guide New York: a NEW One Star on the guide's 2025 New York roster, promoted from recommended.7 The inspector:
The tight menu is sparse on words and doesn't fit neatly into the box of any one cuisine but know that inspiration and originality are in proper supply.
1 - Matthew Schneier, New York Magazine's restaurant critic, in October 2024, on where the cooking comes from:
The best dishes at Estela, and here at Bridges, have the feel of well-designed science experiments, small, spare arrangements reduced to their essentials, underpromising and overdelivering.
3 - Nadia Chaudhury, Eater's deputy editor for the Northeast, ate there in 2026 and the tart was her friend's one nonnegotiable order.4
Good to know
- Timing: dinner only.
- Booking: reservations release 21 days ahead. If you miss them, the bar near the entrance holds two booths and twelve stools for walk-ins.2
- Price: Eater's map of the 2025 selection puts dishes at $22 to $536, and the tart was $39 by July 2026.4
- One door: the city's register carries a single permit under this name, at 9 Chatham Square, last inspected in May 2026.
- Vegetarians: Schneier found no vegetarian main course on the card in 2024, and the menu has kept moving since, so call ahead.3
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Omar top 3!"
Verdict
must-visit — Bridges holds one MICHELIN star, and The Infatuation rated it 8.8 in July 2026. The roast duck breast comes under an XO sauce, and the menu explains none of it. The bar's two booths and twelve stools are held for walk-ins, so the room is reachable without the 21-day reservation drop.