These two new tasting menu restaurants are already playing for keeps, the kind of places that would fit right in on 50 Best or Michelin lists. They also are my number one and number two new restaurants of 2025, respectively. My full top 12 restaurants and bars here.
Wolfsbane Is Immediately Firing On All Cylinders, Dogpatch
Wolfsbane opened October 15, 2025, from the couple behind Michelin-starred, now-closed Lord Stanley, Carrie and chef Rupert Blease with chef Tommy Halvorson, formerly of Serpentine. This thrilling new tasting menu restaurant is housed in the lofty-but-seductive Dogpatch space that was long home to Serpentine, briefly to Michelin-starred Anomaly.
I’ve had many beautiful meals at Lord Stanley since it opened, especially appreciating their chefs’ residency format as Turntable at Lord Stanley, including pop-up window where each chef offered casual take-out alongside upscale tasting menus inside. Blessedly, I hear they’ll reinstate Turntable aspects (of sorts) as Wolfsbane hosts visiting chefs.
Dare I say: at first visit, I already like Wolfsbane more than Lord Stanley. Chefs Blease and Halvorson are already executing on a scale that immediately makes me say “two Michelin,” if I’m comparing quality with the few thousand Michelin restaurants I’ve dined at globally. I could see them getting there if they keep this up. That’s saying a lot in one of the best dining cities in the world, silly with Michelin-starred, brilliant tasting menu restaurants.
Read the rest on Substack: Michelin-Star Chefs Transcend in My Top 2 New Restaurants of the Year: Wolfsbane & Lore