L’abeille à Côte sits between 2 of its sibling restaurants, the Michelin-starred L’abeille and Muku. The host described to me that this particular restaurant was a French Japanese restaurant leaning more towards the Japanese side. Muku was a pure Japanese kaiseki, and L’abeille was a French Japanese leaning more towards French. The cuisine here is described with offering a playful interpretation of the refined. When I took a look at the menu, it was intriguing to see some of the dishes. I made a reservations a few days prior for 6 PM on a Friday evening for 2 people very easily.
Ambiance & Service
When going into the entrance, there are actually 2 doors. The left is the kaiseki, and the right is this restaurant. When we entered this side of the restaurant, it seemed quite small. It probably could seat about 25-30 people. The music is not too loud, and the ambiance is dark but luxury with a lot of dark accents. Wherever you sit, you can see into the kitchen.
The service was very attentive and good. Because the restaurant was so small, they didn’t have an extensive amount of serving staff, so it didn’t feel too congested.
Food
The Ken Forrester, Chenin Blanc, “Old Vine Reserve” ($19) came from Stellenbosch, South Africa 2024. I forgot that I had the 2023 version at The Bar Room at Modern. This was one was similar to that 2023 version, but I felt that it wasn’t as creamy as I remembered. Nonetheless, it had very distinct stone fruit flavors, and it felt very vibrant.
The Lost in Japan ($26) cocktail came with Haku vodka, yuzu liqueur, mandarin reduction, sencha tea, and egg white. I was not as big of a fan about this cocktail, but my partner enjoyed it. I felt the yuzu flavors were subtle.
The Hokkaido Scallops Crudo ($28) came with yuzu leche de tigre and sweet pickles. The scallops were super fresh and sweet. The yuzu leche de tigre was definitely very delectable.
The Crispy Harumaki ($26) came with shrimp spring roll and yuzu sweet chili. The shrimp spring roll was perfectly fried and very delicate. With the sweet chili, I probably can eat this in large batches. It only comes with 2 pieces, so at $13 per piece, it’s definitely very expensive.
The Domaine Faiveley, Pinot Noir ($27) came from Borgogne Rouge, France 2023. I had the 2022 version at Odo. This 2023 version was similar to the 2022. The red fruit aromas were prominent, and it was rich and ripe. In some ways, I thought this was tastier than the 2022.
The Mitsu’s Black Cod ($38) came with edamame, tosazu, and herb oil. My partner loved the edamame and the taste of the black cod. To me, the black cod tasted similarly to many of the delicately prepared miso-glazed black cods at Japanese restaurants. Nonetheless, all the ingredients mixed together pleased the gourmand palettes. The black cod was very sweet and decadent.
The Wagyu Teriyaki Burger ($38) came with housemade potato chips and yuzu dipping sauce. I ordered this medium, and it was very juicy on first bite. The burger was cleanly prepared, and each bite had a lot of umami. Aside from the very punch flavors that danced around in your mouth, the potato chips with the yuzu dipping sauce were just sublime. I was originally planning to order the chips a’la carte, but I decided to order the burger since it comes for free. The yuzu dipping sauce was phenomenal and had this subtle citrus flavor.
The Strawberries on Fire ($24) came with vanilla and almond cream. The strawberries were very sweet and delicious, but I have to admit that this dessert felt a little flat. It was just strawberries with cream. I understand that the strawberries were in season and super fresh, but I felt the preparation was not super exquisite nor unique. Essentially this was just strawberries with some sort of cream.
Overall Impression
L’abeille a Cote was a decent higher-end restaurant that offered pretty good mix of Japanese and French flavors. Because it’s so easy to make reservations, this would be an excellent fallback plan for any night out in Tribeca. I felt the food here was good, albeit slightly on the pricier side.
Yelp & Google Jabs
Small cute space, but I will say I felt the meal was rather rushed. Server came by collecting our plates very quickly
Unfortunately the courses at this restaurant are pretty quick to prepare. I’m sure you can stay for a bit after your last course, but some people like me prefer the courses to be cleaned up quickly. I didn’t feel rushed even with my partner eating 3x slower than me. This Elitist ordered food that was small in portion and also probably had many of its ingredients already primed.
The overall flavors of the dishes were a bit lacking. However I definitely would come back because I really loved the atmosphere. I think the Japanese-French fusion goes hand in hand because they are both elegant cuisines and can lean towards smaller portions.
I felt the food here was good but not great. As an a’la carte style restaurant, I would not expect the chef to spend an extensive amount of time to prepare everything with a big bang of flavors unless they want to oversalt everything. I think this restaurant lives up to its background where it leaned more into Japanese than the French side, as the ingredients and feelings post-meal was light but not indulgently uncomfortable.
Revisions
- Sep 4, 2026 - Initial revision.