This Dining Experience Helps You Connect With Your Food On A Deeper Level

Many restaurants have an open kitchen, where guests can see all the action happening that's no longer behind the scenes, which are sometimes behind glass but often are exposed to the entire restaurant. You can catch a glimpse of chefs working in the kitchen, but that doesn't hold a candle to the experience of watching a meal come to life from a seat at a chef's table. Similar to sitting at a sushi counter watching a master chef prepare an omakase meal, one of the best parts of sitting at a chef's table, sometimes known as a chef's counter, is watching the all the action happen directly in front of you. While it may feel awkward at first, once you settle in, it's not too different from sitting at a bar and watching the bartender craft a cocktail. 

Sitting at a chef's counter usually feels like watching a perfectly-rehearsed performance. Of course, human error exists and sometimes this precisely-choreographed dance can hold missteps, but a little bit of drama also keeps the dining experience exciting. Depending on the setup of the chef's table or counter and where the chefs actually stand, you can usually see all of the food being plated with precision right in front of you, as well as watch it being cooked and prepared before it's garnished on the pass. If service is going smoothly, you may even be able to chat briefly with the chef and gain some insight into the ingredients or inspirations for dishes.

Some restaurants feature bar seating at a chef's counter for no extra cost to the diner, like Dunsmoor in Los Angeles, where the select bar seats are so close to the action that you can feel the heat of the flames roaring in the hearth that brings the menu to life. With chef's counter seating that doesn't have an additional cost, it's merely a matter of booking the reservation well in advance, or getting lucky and snagging the last couple of seats. Other restaurants, however, like José Andrés's Somni in Los Angeles, are entirely dedicated to only a chef's table or countertop, with an extremely limited number of seats, usually accompanied by an expensive tasting menu, often with only two or even a single seating per night. Other restaurants, like two Michelin-starred Atomix in NYC (one of our favorite Michelin star restaurants in the U.S., mind you), feature a chef's counter tasting menu as well as a bar tasting menu, with the chef's counter costing a higher price than the bar seating.

Sitting so close to the action is not only a visual experience, but a sonic one as well, as you can hear almost everything happening in the kitchen. You'll hear the quiet kitchen calls and responses of the chefs, pots and pans being placed on stovetops, and the sizzle of fish hitting hot pans. Keep in mind that chef's tables and counters are usually side-by-side communal seating, so you'll likely be seated next to a stranger, but you're all there for the same experience together.