How to book Aska

Aska is the restaurant of Swedish-born chef Fredrik Berselius, who first opened it in Williamsburg in 2012; the name is Swedish for "ashes"¹. Within a year it had a Michelin star, and Bon Appetit named it one of the ten best new restaurants in America¹. A 2013 Time Out review of that first location called the cooking "masterfully done"⁶.

In the summer of 2016 Aska reopened in a bilevel space inside a restored 1860s warehouse near the Williamsburg Bridge, with a main dining room, a garden and a cellar bar, and within months it earned a second Michelin star¹. The Michelin Guide still lists it with two stars and files it under Scandinavian and contemporary cooking⁵. The dining room is dark and small, with about ten tables facing an open kitchen^1,4.

Dinner is one tasting menu of 12 to 14 courses at $375 per person, built on ingredients from New York and the Northeast and shaped by the chef's Scandinavian background, with optional wine pairings at the table^1,2. Staff forage some ingredients themselves, such as lichen from Harriman State Park⁴. A meal usually lasts 2.5 to 4.5 hours, and reservations are required, made through OpenTable, and cannot be cancelled³.