Maison Sun — Restaurant in New York

Accused my physician black son-in-law with stealing a fork! And when my white, also a physician daughter simply asked the owner to check her purse and herself, the owner, instead of apologizing, asked us to leave. I have never witnessed anything like this before. When there is a missing fork (!), blame the only black guy amongst the dining parties and without any remorse. Extremely racist establishment, be aware.

My daughter’s response to Carlos

To the public at large - this past Saturday, my mother, step father, husband and I went to Maison Sun to celebrate my step fathers birthday. While the food was decent the service was subpar for a “fine dining” restaurant but alas that is not what would push me to write the following review. The owner, Carlos, states that our party of four was “heavily inebriated” which is a gross exaggeration given that the pours as he mentioned were far less than any wine pairing I have experienced at fine dining institutions but furthermore I am not a big drinker and thus would only take a sip and Carlos would take the remainder of my drinks. At the end of the tasting menu my husband and I were chatting and Carlos came up to us and asked my husband (a black man and the only black guest in the restaurant I might add) if he had been given a fork. My husband looked around confused and said no. Carlos asked him one more time as if giving him a second chance to respond and my husband again said no. After Carlos left, my husband said “that was weird, I wonder if we are getting another dish” to which I said “no I feel like he was implying you stole a fork but maybe I’m too cynical”. We continued our conversation and a few minutes later Carlos came again this time saying that the fork count was wrong and that he wanted to ask again if we had the fork. After being asked three times, my husband and I rightfully got annoyed and offended and I said “I’m not quite sure what is going on but it seems like you are accusing my husband of stealing a fork. Is it because he is black and my family is foreign? - if you are so concerned feel free to search us as well as my purse” and I put my tiny clutch purse on the table. This is when Carlos told us “your bill will be covered, leave the restaurant”. I then said “could I please speak to the manager” to which he said “I am the owner, please leave my restaurant”. My husband and I are both physicians in NYC and have been living here for over 5 years and have never experienced something like this before. I was appalled at how openly racist Carlos was by coming up to the one black guest in the restaurant and asking not once but three times if he was sure he didn’t have the missing fork.

As for the bill, what Carlos fails to mention is that we had already paid close to 900 dollars for the tasting menu when making the reservation(to those reading, when you make a reservation you pay for the tasting menu and it is non refundable). During the meal we ordered the wine pairing which was an additional 750 dollars pre tax, however, he is the one who told us to leave the restaurant and that the extras would be covered to which my mother and step father both insisted on paying and when Carlos disrespectfully responded with “leave the restaurant” I told my parents to just get up and leave. I am disgusted by Carlos’s display of blatant racism towards my husband and lack of remorse for making his customers feel so incredibly violated and insulted as human beings. I can assure you that as a four physician household we have no need to steal anything. I will continue to spread the word amongst my colleagues about how racist you are. In the 21st century we should actively work towards not letting racist establishments such as yourself from thriving in any part of the USA, and especially not in a...

A solid 4.5 stars!

I came to Maison Sun for dinner tonight. I'd heard about them a while back when i think they were still in an apartment so when I heard they opened a brick and mortar store I had to give them a try. Overall, it was a good experience. The space is very intimate, chef's counter style. I dined with one other party of three and i think the space holds a max of 10 or so. The host, Carlos, was a very gracious host.

On to the food, it was pretty good! To start we had some light bites. They were OK, wasn't really a fan of the Foie Gras one, the others were pretty decent. I specifically liked the one that tasted like a chicken stuffed with something and the crudo. Moving on to the other courses, I actually surprisingly liked the asparagus soup, which I didn't think I would because it was cold soup but it ended up being pretty good. The tuna tartar was great as well. However, the star of the show was definitely the duck risotto. It was the best risotto I've ever had and my favorite dish of the night. I wasn't really a fan of the main fish dish. It was pretty bland. Just simple fish with cherry tomatoes, sliced grapes, and some type of leafy green. I was expecting a bit more from this dish. The final savory course of the night was the lamb, which was also really good! The lamb was soft, and the potatoes were tasty. On to dessert, I loved the palate cleanser, which was some type of rhubarb and honey fennel sorbet. Surprisingly, the honey fennel ended up being my favorite half. The main dessert was also decent. I just remember it being another type of ice cream, and it had a lot of components like mochi bites, sorbet, and a chocolate disc. It's possible that you may also get an almond macaroon with your meal. It was mentioned at the start of dinner, but I never received one, so it may just be for special occasions, it's unclear.

My only critique/suggestion why I docked half a star is I wish there was a wine by the glass menu because (i) it would make it easier to pick a glass of wine rather than having to try several (ii) it would also make pricing more transparent as while I ended up finding one wine that was decent not necessarily sure I would have wanted to pay the $42 a glass for it. And yes, I could have asked but who wants to ask the price of 5 different glasses of wine in a nice restaurant? It's just better if the price is posted up front so you can decide. Also, I'm sure this was meant as a nice gesture to make the checkout process easier but it's always good to give someone a heads up before you run their card and in this case that wasn't done. Not a big deal but sometimes people use business cards for meals and some, like mine, may have restrictions on alcohol so always good to ask. Finally, did feel a bit rushed out the door towards the end. Didn't get to say goodbye to the chef or the other dining party. To give them the benefit of the doubt, this could have been due to the rain or because they needed to open the door, which they'd locked but not a good feeling after a 2 hour meal.

Overall, I had a great meal at Maison Sun and would...

Only one word to start with describing the whole experience at Maison Sun – exceptional. Carlos has helped create an incredible experience on my proposal date. What I appreciated the most was that he and his team guided me through the whole process with their expertise and with extremely care-taken details considered. I contacted Carlos nearly a month before the day. At that moment, I was searching for a place with both classy yet not cliché experiences. I also wanted the place to be cozy and not with many people (strangers^) around. With that being said, Maison Sun was probably the best option after searching for a couple of days. By the moment I contacted them, I was still a little bit clueless about planning. Carlos replied immediately with a call and comforted me with his warm guidance. As I was targeting the day immediately post-Thanksgiving, although he was thinking of closing down the restaurant at the day, he chose to open the restaurant for the event and gave me an option to close-off Maison Sun just for me and my fiancée with a reasonable and fair price. He further offered me a bunch of extra add-ons (photographer, champagne, flowers, truffles, caviar) at cost, helping me to the great extent planning the whole thing. Now I’m looking back, I can’t be more thankful for all his warm offerings and the resulting time saved. Further approaching the day, Carlos offered me an option to visit the venue a day or two earlier so that I can finally “see” the environment and set it up with my wishes. It was a classy and cozy place and it was easy to set up / decorate with what I wanted. On the day, Carlos was contacting me offline in real-time and carefully set up the place as planned. Thanks to his team, I was giving my fiancée a real surprise until we stepped into the venue. The photographer he found – Santiago – was amazing and took many incredible pictures/videos to capture the good moment. The courses and wines paired were carefully planned and crafted with the chef coming over with a detailed introduction for every dish. I personally like the wagyu beef tartare and satsuma mandarin the best – from my knowledge, they were as good as (even better than) many Michelle 3 Stars I have been to before. He finally surprised me with bottles to go with as a courtesy and provided a detailed tour around the kitchen and the staff team. Again, I can’t be thanking Carlos more for his detailed guidance along the whole event-planning process. He and his team were professional, efficient, and more importantly – let me feel warmly welcomed. THANK YOU Maison Sun for the experience...