Estela
An endive salad with walnuts, anchovy and blue cheese that Ruth Reichl calls the apotheosis of salad, served up a flight of stairs on East Houston, seven nights a week and late.
Why go
Ignacio Mattos opened this in 2013 and is still the chef, with Timothy Tubbs running the pass.1 The MICHELIN inspector writes that it continues to set the standard for confident, ingredient-driven
cooking, and the star holds.2 Reichl's sharpest observation is about how Mattos builds a plate: most of his dishes keep their flavors distinct and separate, and the black rice with squid is the one where he lets them blend. That is a useful thing to know before you order.
Pete Wells reviewed the room three months after it opened and spent his best paragraph on burrata over charred bread in a green liquid pressed from lovage, sorrel and celery, which he read as a rich cheese being brought to heel.4 Thirteen years later Ligaya Mishan put it 34th on her hundred best restaurants in the city and heard the same thing in it.5
Order this / avoid
- Order: the endive salad. Ruth Reichl, March 2024:
his wonderful endive salad with walnuts, anchovy and blue cheese. To me, it's the apotheosis of salad.
3 Then the ricotta dumplings with mushrooms, and the black rice with squid. - Order: the beef tartare with sunchokes, which is the other dish that has never left.6
- Avoid: treating it as a dinner-only room. Lunch and a midday service run Friday to Sunday, and the midday sitting between them is the quietest way in.
What locals & experts say
- Ruth Reichl, critic, 2024-03:
it's completely delicious and beautiful (his food creations are generally beautiful).
3 - MICHELIN Guide New York: one star in the 2025 selection, Contemporary American.7
- Pete Wells, in the New York Times in September 2013, on what Mattos was doing that nobody else was:
Mr. Mattos is not trying to shock us, but he is not trying to pacify us with the tried and true, either.
4 - Ligaya Mishan, the Times' co-chief critic, at No. 34 in May 2026:
More than a decade on, you can still sense the rebel beneath the polish.
5
Good to know
- Timing: dinner every night of the week and running late. Lunch and a midday service on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.1
- Booking: recommended, through OpenTable per the restaurant.
- One door: the city's register carries a single permit under this name, at 47 East Houston Street, last inspected in June 2026.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Recommended as a chef late night favorite"
Verdict
must-visit — Ask for the bar when you book. It is the seat this room is best in and the one a pair can usually get.