Ilis

A Warehouse, a Wine Cellar, and the Nordic Idea of Restraint

Green Point's industrial blocks have quietly become one of the more interesting addresses for serious dining in New York. The neighbourhood lacks the foot traffic of the West Village or the critical density of Midtown, which means the restaurants that survive there tend to do so on repeat diners rather than tourism. Ilis, at 150 Green Street, fits that pattern. The room is a converted warehouse — high ceilings, muted light, the kind of space that demands a menu confident enough to fill it without theatrical distraction. What greets you is not minimalism for its own sake but a specific Nordic sensibility applied to northeastern American product: foraged, farmed, fished, and sourced with a rigour that places it in a peer set closer to Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg or Lazy Bear in San Francisco than to the Michelin-starred French dining rooms of Midtown.

The Menu Format: Structure as Editorial Statement

Nordic fine dining in the United States has often resolved into one of two approaches: the maximal tasting menu that uses Scandinavian technique to dress up luxury product, or the spare naturalist format that foregrounds provenance over pleasure. Ilis occupies a disciplined middle position. Diners choose between a four-course menu with two thematic tracks — Terra or Flora , or a seven-course menu that moves through a fuller sequence. Optional additions include market vegetables at the opening and premium enhancements like caviar or tuna prepared two ways, which gives the format some elasticity without inflating the core proposition.

The sourcing discipline that Opinionated About Dining flagged in their 2025 ranking , describing Ilis as operating "in a world of its own" , reflects a supply chain built around nearby regional producers rather than global luxury imports. Spanish mackerel, lobster, squab, and duck anchor the protein rotation; grilled mushrooms with black garlic and goat cheese yogurt with carrot granita represent the restraint-led end of the repertoire. That grounding in local product, applied through a Nordic technical lens, is what separates the kitchen from the broader class of American tasting-menu restaurants. Compare that positioning to the French-classical authority of Le Bernardin or the ingredient-driven ambition of Eleven Madison Park: Ilis is working from a different set of references entirely.

The Wine Program: Depth, Direction, and 2,800 Bottles

The wine list at Ilis is not an afterthought scaled to match the tasting menu. Wine Director Steven Flores and sommelier team Jason Santiago and Paulo Coelho oversee a program of 885 selections across an inventory of approximately 2,800 bottles , a figure that puts it in the same depth category as serious destination wine programs, not merely restaurant lists. The $75 corkage fee signals a program that expects guests to engage with the list rather than arrive with their own bottles, and at that price point the disincentive is clear enough.

Strength areas , Champagne, Burgundy, France broadly, Germany, Italy, and California , describe a list anchored in classic European regions with room for the kind of West Coast producers that have made inroads at Nordic-influenced tables elsewhere. Champagne as a leading strength is not incidental: it pairs directly with the lighter, acid-driven dishes that define the Flora and Terra formats, and a strong Champagne selection signals a sommelier team thinking about texture and tension in food-pairing terms rather than prestige alone. The Germany weighting is equally deliberate , Riesling's structural acidity and range of sweetness levels make it one of the most versatile pairings for the vegetable-forward and seafood-heavy plates that Ilis produces. Burgundy, both white and red, covers the richer fish courses and the game proteins that move through the seven-course sequence.

For context within New York's fine dining wine ecosystem: programs at Per Se and Masa operate at higher price tiers with lists calibrated to four-figure spend; Atomix has built its natural and biodynamic credentials into a recognisable editorial identity. Ilis sits between those poles , a classically anchored but not rigidly traditional list, priced at $$$ and directed by a team with specific, demonstrable expertise rather than a generic luxury cellar.

Critical Reception and Where It Sits in the Rankings

The trajectory matters here. Esquire named Ilis the number one new restaurant in the United States in 2023 , a ranking that captures first-year energy but tells you little about sustained quality. The more relevant signal is Opinionated About Dining's placement: #131 in North America in 2024, then #61 in 2025. That upward move in a ranking built on repeat critical visits rather than opening buzz is the cleaner indicator of a kitchen that has found and held its footing. OAD's note that the restaurant is "ambitious" and "idiosyncratic" is not casual praise in that publication's vocabulary , it reflects a room that resists easy categorisation, which is precisely what the format is built to do.

The comparison set for Ilis in critical terms extends beyond New York. Restaurants like Alinea in Chicago, Providence in Los Angeles, and The French Laundry in Napa represent the broader category of American fine dining that has moved away from French classicism toward something more regionally and conceptually specific. Ilis belongs to that generation, though its Nordic-American synthesis is less common than the Japanese-influenced or farm-to-table formats that dominate that conversation. Internationally, the ecological and sourcing rigour at Ilis draws comparisons to what venues like Alain Ducasse's Louis XV in Monte Carlo represent in terms of produce sourcing discipline, though the aesthetic register is entirely different.

Chef Mads Refslund: Credential as Context

American fine dining has periodically absorbed European-trained chefs whose credentials recalibrate local expectations , the Noma lineage being the clearest recent example of that pattern. Mads Refslund co-founded Noma in Copenhagen before opening Ilis, which means the restaurant entered the New York market carrying not just individual ambition but a specific culinary genealogy. That heritage is visible in the menu's ecological focus, the restraint in seasoning, and the willingness to foreground ingredient quality over technical spectacle. What Ilis adds to that inheritance is a genuinely American sourcing geography , the northeastern seaboard's fish and shellfish, regional game, and local farm produce , which moves it beyond the transatlantic-import problem that undermines some European-chef ventures in the United States.

For readers cross-referencing from other American chef-driven programs, see also Emeril's in New Orleans and the broader discussion of how European training intersects with American product in 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana's Hong Kong model for international kitchen transplants.

Planning Your Visit

Ilis operates Tuesday through Friday from 5:30 to 10 pm, with Friday and Saturday service extending to 11 pm. The restaurant is closed Sunday and Monday. Address: 150 Green St, Brooklyn, NY 11222. Cuisine pricing: $$$ (two courses from $66 upward, not including beverages). Wine pricing: $$$ (substantial $100-plus bottle selection); corkage $75. Reservations: Advance booking is advisable given the restaurant's ranking trajectory and limited operating nights; check directly via the restaurant's current booking channel. Dress: No dress code specified, though the room's atmosphere aligns with smart-casual at minimum. Google rating: 4.5 from 235 reviews.

For a broader picture of where Ilis sits within New York's dining geography, see our full New York City restaurants guide. For accommodation near Greenpoint and Williamsburg, our New York City hotels guide covers the range of options by neighbourhood. Additional resources: New York City bars guide, New York City wineries guide, and New York City experiences guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do regulars order at Ilis?

The seven-course menu is the fuller expression of the kitchen's range, moving through the regional seafood and game proteins that define the sourcing program. Among the dishes that have drawn repeated critical attention: grilled mushrooms with black garlic (a dish that demonstrates the kitchen's commitment to simplicity over elaboration) and goat cheese yogurt with carrot granita as a dessert course. The premium enhancements , caviar, tuna prepared two ways , are available as add-ons for diners who want to extend the meal beyond the core menu structure. The Terra and Flora tracks within the four-course format allow guests to orient the meal toward land or plant, depending on preference.

What do critics highlight about Ilis?

Opinionated About Dining, which ranked Ilis #61 in North America in 2025 (up from #131 in 2024), emphasises the quality of sourcing, the "eco-chic" atmosphere of the warehouse setting, and the idiosyncratic kitchen identity that resists easy category assignment. Esquire placed it at number one on their Leading New Restaurants list in 2023. The consistent critical thread across both recognitions is the combination of Nordic culinary discipline with American regional product , a synthesis that is less common in New York's fine dining ecosystem than either European-import formats or straightforwardly American tasting menus. The warehouse room, the sustainable sourcing framework, and the wine program's depth are the three elements that appear most consistently in serious critical assessments of what makes the restaurant coherent as a total proposition.