Buddha Lo has won Top Chef twice, which already puts him in rare air. Now he's operating the only restaurant in America with the legal authority to serve beluga caviar—a distinction that alone would warrant a reservation, even if the food were merely competent. It isn't. Huso, which opened in February inside Marky's Caviar's Tribeca retail space, is the physical manifestation of what happens when a decorated chef gets proper infrastructure and a singular obsession with caviar and luxury ingredients.
The setup itself is worth noting. For years, Lo ran his intimate Upper East Side location from what he describes as a makeshift kitchen tucked into a retail space. It was the culinary equivalent of a guitarist practicing in a closet. Now, with 28 seats across two levels and a complete kitchen, Lo has graduated from constraint to possibility. The 12-course tasting menu at $265 per person isn't cheap, but it's the price of watching someone operate without compromise. Robb Report's inclusion of Huso among its 10 Best New Restaurants in America suggests the restaurant establishment agrees.
What you'll encounter is caviar deployed not as a trophy but as a textural anchor throughout the meal. The white truffle mountain arrives as visual theater. The everything bagel tart riffs on Jewish deli tradition with the irreverent confidence of a chef who doesn't need to apologize for his references. Dry-aged duck with beet and shiso brings umami depth. Beef tartare in pastry shells topped with truffles demonstrates that Lo understands the marriage of delicacy and richness. Even the Dirty Rich Martini—a cocktail that somehow contains caviar—signals this isn't a place interested in subtlety disguised as refinement.
What distinguishes Huso from the caviar-service model is that Lo treats caviar as an ingredient rather than an endpoint. It's woven into a narrative that also includes seasonal produce and technique-forward preparation. This is what separates occasional splurge restaurants from ones that actually matter. The expanded space allows him to execute on this vision without the kitchen bottlenecks that plagued the previous location. He's no longer improvising; he's performing.
In a city crowded with fine dining that confuses price with substance, Huso arrives with credentials and execution. Lo's two Top Chef wins weren't gifted. Neither is his access to beluga. What you're paying for is a chef who has spent years thinking about how to build a meal around an ingredient most restaurants can't legally touch, finally given the stage to do it properly. That's not an occasion—that's an obligation.