Fanum Taste Tests Gourmet Dishes 63 Stories Above NYC

[man screaming] [upbeat music]

What's up y'all?

This is Fanum.

And y'all know I'm a food connoisseur.

And today we're on the 63rd floor here, up top at Saga.

That's a lot of floors,

you ever been on the 63rd floor?

And I'm here today to try some fine dining

and you know I had to say it twice 'cause they got not one

but two Michelin Stars.

Their 12 course menu is $300 per person.

[money register clicking] But you know GQ got me.

It's about to get fancy bahot.

Let's do it aight. [upbeat music]

Eat.

My ears popping. [bell dinging]

Damn, two stars.

How you doing? What's happening?

I'm welcoming you into Saga

with a little kinda aperitivo cocktail.

We have a bitter Hojicha, which is a roasted green tea,

and then we have a jasmine and green grape spritz.

Butterfly sorrel on top of there.

Is that a real butterfly? No.

[wings whooshing] Oh, yeah.

Oh [laughs].

I'm tryna figure out which one I like the most.

This one or this one.

Oh, what's up?

What's good? How you doing?

I'm well, I'm Chef Charlie,

I'll be cooking your meal today.

Okay. I'm gonna take you

to your table. Yo, let's do it.

Damn this is...

Yo Harrison

I'mma halla at you my boy. [upbeat music]

What do they make here?

[Director] Huh? What do they make here?

Like, what kind of food? Yeah.

[Director] Ask the chef. Aight, bet [laughs].

To start off the pairing,

this afternoon, we have a Junmai sake.

Junmai sakes are a 100% made of rice.

[Kevin speaking Japanese] Do you speak Japanese?

A little bit [speaking Japanese]

Me too. Yeah?

Konnichiwa. Awesome.

Japanese alcohol. That's what it is.

That's fire. Made of rice.

All right, bet. Yeah.

Thank you. [upbeat music]

[throat sloshing] Aight!

What's up, how you--

Good man, how you doing? How you doing?

No menu, no nothing, just getting straight to it?

Yeah, let's get straight to it.

So for your first bite,

you have a little cornbread and caviar.

A little bit of chicken confit and jalapeno,

gold and oscietra.

Cornbread and caviar. Yes sir.

I like what I'm hearing. Enjoy.

I need utensils.

Oh, it's just hands?

What?

Yo, Chef Charlie!

Is this with the hands?

Nah, you enjoy it with your hands.

[Director] Did you wash your hands?

Yeah, I washed my hands, facts I did.

Yes I did.

It got a flower on it.

Ever since that first caviar moment,

I'm kinda like a caviar guy now, you know what I'm saying?

I do that now.

Damn yo [laughs].

Caviar on the top.

Caviar. [upbeat music]

Damn. [Fanum laughing]

Cornbread is always tough, you know what I'm saying?

Especially with a caviar, you pairing two amazing things.

I'm about to put a caviar on a bacon,

egg and cheese [laughs].

And see what that feels like.

Aight, what's next? [Fanum laughing]

So one more bite.

Basically it's like a little salad,

little beet and truffle and a crispy nori cup.

Damn.

The cornbread?

Fire, right?

Caviar, fire.

Like what made you like...

My grandmother used to make jalapeno cornbread growing up.

So that's why we put jalapeno inside of it.

Where you from? Detroit?

Shout out to Detroit. [Chef Charlie laughing]

I ain't mad.

Aight, let me try this out.

I ain't gonna lie, this shit is pretty.

It's like a garden in my hands.

It's a lot of greenery though, you know what I'm saying?

[mouth cracking] [item booming]

[Fanum laughing] Okay, healthy [laughs].

Everything is a small?

They're small bites.

Yo Chef!

He goin' kick me out.

I'mma get kicked out,

like, I can't be doing that.

You know what I'm saying?

I have some respect.

So, is it all like small bites,

you know what I'm saying, like?

No, you start with three small

and then they get larger as you go.

Oh, it gets bigger. Yeah, as you go.

Aight, bet.

Konnichiwa. [throat sloshing]

I swear I only eat vegetables when I do these videos.

I should be eating more veggies though,

like veggies are good for you.

How you doing so far? I'm doing amazing.

More flowers!

What is it with the flowers?

[Chef Charlie laughing] It's like a silent...

But I think it adds like some beauty,

some femininity to the food.

I think it's also funny 'cause most guests are like afraid

to eat 'em or people are always like,

Can I eat this?

I'm like, Yeah, of course. Is this a violet,

is what they call it? Violet, yeah.

A violet.

Is every dish a different type of flower?

Not every dish,

usually like on a larger plate,

just little bit less flowers.

So, this is your last... [item hooting]

Finger bite. Oh, my God.

I thought it was the last meal of the day.

[Chef Charlie laughing] Fam, we just started.

I was about to okay... Isaki tempura.

Shrimp. With a little bit

of tartar sauce. Thank you.

Okay, soft like a bubble bee gang [laughs].

[upbeat music] Oh wow.

Oh, my mouth is watering [laughs].

Hold on, gang. [upbeat music]

Oh man, that's fire.

Damn, only one of them though?

Two of them would've been kind of...

Three of them would've been a little hard too, chat.

I like shrimp a lot,

well I guess tempura.

I like tempura a lot.

Chef!

Is there any chance that you have another one?

Absolutely. You da bess bro [laughs].

You heard.

Might need more sake though.

Yo, big Kev!

Get me right. What do you think so far?

I need a little re-up, though.

[throat sloshing]

Little bit goes a long way.

W Kevin in the chat and he know Japanese.

How's the sake? Had to re-up.

Yeah [laughs]. Just like this.

Had to re-up again, you know what I'm saying?

Respectfully.

Chef doing it big but we doing it bigger.

[upbeat music] Oh, my God.

Hello [laughs].

Cornbread caviar.

I'm a massive fan, anything cornbread

so you goin' get that... [item booming]

Explosions all around.

Yeah, we moved on to,

I'mma call it the Garden of Eden.

Once again, I'll be transparent with y'all,

I'm not a big fan of greenery

but it was good though, you feel me?

That one's more like wow 'cause you shocked me.

I'm a little shaken up,

I ate that, whoa, hold on.

Okay, cool.

The shrimp tempura with the sauce though?

Different, I call that elevation.

Each dish has the femininity.

That's how I'm feeling right now, you know what I'm saying?

Extreme explosions like all around.

I'm not even gonna do,

the hand motions

'cause that's how I really feel about this one.

It was soft but also crunchy.

The sauce added to it

and that little violet on top was like...

[lips sloshing] [bright music]

I fuck with Kev. [Kevin laughing]

You fuck with me bro?

Absolutely man. Hell yeah.

[Kevin] Yeah.

Yo, movie. [throat sloshing]

Imagine you in the trenches and Kev just show up, boom.

Just spawn in, Sake niggah.

Nah, man just... [Fanum laughing]

And who's this? This is, some silverware.

[Kevin] Oh. Yeah.

Nah, it actually has cuts though.

Is there use for this?

It's like a flower spoon, maybe?

Yo, why don't we put that [indistinct].

Just to, keep it elevated.

[Kevin] Elevated in life. Exactly.

Exactly, yeah.

We already know.

Y'all gotta catch up 'cause we already [indistinct].

You feel me?

I'm learning as I go chat [indistinct].

[upbeat music] Okay, bigger plates.

This is a shima-aji, just lightly cured.

A little bit of pickled apple, shiso soru and kambu.

What is this? [Chef Charlie laughing]

I don't know what I'm looking at.

It's raw fish and apples.

Is it a Japanese fish? It is.

A lot of Japanese.

Shout out to Japan bro.

I would recommend going with a sauce spoon.

Sauce spoon, you know what I'm saying?

That's fire, okay.

Sauce spoon, you heard, shit different.

Look at this bro.

You know what I'm saying?

Oh, matter of fact, I can't do that.

Nevermind, this is real.

Is that a three leaf clover? [upbeat music]

[Fanum laughing] It resembles,

like jello fish.

Yo, don't compare the shit to no fish dick.

The transparent fish to me was definitely a movie.

It was definitely wow.

The broth was amazing though.

The broth was like, not that it made it,

but it just amplified what already was there, you feel me?

Sold out everywhere,

you know what I'm saying? [throat sloshing]

I'mma keep it a buck, any more shots of sake?

Straight motivational speeches, the whole video.

Nah, this view is crazy bro.

A plane shouldn't be flying around here [indistinct].

I'mma tell you right now.

Go over there man.

What if I was Spider-Man and you didn't know?

And it was me? [bright music]

Would you believe me? [bright music]

[upbeat music] [Fanum laughing]

Man, that next shit gotta be fire.

The way he doing that, taking his time with it

and his time sensitive.

Got me walking around thinking about life.

I'm over here doing this.

Oh shit. [upbeat music]

So, this is your second serving of caviar.

Is a white reju salviaon,

on top of a warm potato salad that I call it.

[Fanum] Okay. And Kristal caviar.

Enjoy. Let's do it.

Wooden spoon.

Chef, is there a reason,

for the wooden spoon though?

Well I'm assuming 'cause of the caviar probably, right?

Yeah, it's for the caviar.

It's more gentle on the eggs of caviar.

I got caviar knowledge bro.

Oh wow, look at this. [upbeat music]

It's crazy where life takes you, you know what I'm saying?

He called it warm potato salad.

He tryna minimize the greatness of this right here.

Too humble.

And I don't even think the caviar is a reason for it.

The whatever this is, which I can't describe it

'cause I don't know exactly what it is.

And he might not wanna tell me all the way

'cause you know what I'm saying?

The chef wanna have his secrets and stuff and I feel him.

I have questions bro.

Chef, whenever you get the chance, please!

You keep outdoing yourself. [Chef Charlie laughing]

Like, what's up bro?

Can you break this down for me?

What does it take to make this?

The foam is made from eggs and then more caviar on top.

I noticed it was foam.

I didn't wanna say it 'cause I was like,

wait, lemme just make sure I see what I'm seeing.

It's really good. Thank you.

This?

Another movie, another wow factor, you know what I'm saying?

Tough.

It's tough for rating.

It is now tough. [item wailing]

Big Kev.

Okay.

Is that a bigger glass?

It's a little slightly bigger glass.

Okay. For a slightly bigger wine.

So, we're gonna go to Greece for this next wine.

From the producer, Economou.

This is a guy named Yiannis. Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Same first name. Right?

First name, yeah. Thank you Kev.

[Kevin] Cheers.

[throat sloshing] I like this.

This shit made me a philosopher now too.

You see my advice.

The meaning of life?

The meaning of life,

is to stop asking, just keep doing.

Aight.

Go outside every day and live your fucking life.

And I'm sorry I'm cursing, but you know what I'm saying.

Life is is not all...

Aight lemme shut up gang [laughs].

[speaker talking indistinctly] [Fanum laughing]

Yo, what's that show that...

No.

Yo, go on my phone.

Go to my Twitter, go to my profile.

I tweeted out some fire the other day.

Go to that one and then go to the fucking Wendy's Duke.

[Director] Were you quoting someone

or is this from your mind?

[Producer] He's quoting himself.

Shh.

Don't ask no questions.

Everything that happened to you before,

led you to the person you are today.

You were created on purpose, for a purpose.

[throat sloshing] I'm dropping gems today.

Y'all, I see the chef and get happy as fuck, gang.

I ain't gonna lie. [Chef Charlie laughing]

Hokkaido scallop is lightly cured and seared.

A little bit of sea urchin on top

and a vadouvan French curry sauce.

Can you eat sea urchins?

You're about to [laughs]. Shit!

Underneath the scallops and the sauce,

is also a fennel two ways.

A fennel what, say again?

I've never heard of that.

Fennel.

What is that?

Where's that from?

Fennel? Kinda in the onion family,

kinda not. Okay, yeah bet.

Fennel.

Lemme throw some of the sauce on top of the scallop.

Do I just eat the scallop in one bite?

I don't even know.

It's kinda slippery. [upbeat music]

Yo,

had a punch of spice outta nowhere.

Like a punch of spiciness [coughs].

Like I low-key feel it right now?

It almost feels like it's melting in your mouth, literally.

Let's go ahead and try the broth up a little bit.

Oh, this is where that spice is at.

It surprised me.

At first the orange,

like look of it was a little, what is that?

And then it hit me and it was like, what is that?

And then it hit me and I was like, what is that?

Three different types of what is that?

It's like somebody knocking on your door

but they cover the eye hole, you know what I'm saying?

So, you can't see who it is.

And then you open,

and you're like, Oh, what the fuck?

Like, what's up bro?

It's kinda like that, you know what I'm saying?

I'm jacking this.

All right, should I say I'm jacking this?

[Fanum laughing] To me this is...

Wow.

Chef!

How do you make this,

like can we see what's going on for real?

Yeah, let's go.

Lemme show you. For real?

Yeah. Aight.

Damn, it's hot in here, like literally it's hot.

It's always this hot. Damn.

This is the fennel condiment,

I was talking about. Oh,

this is what I was asking earlier.

The fennel, this is the fennel, okay cool.

Since it's like a fennel salad we put it at the bottom.

Oh, you eat it like this? Yeah.

Tastes like licorice, almost.

Yeah, low-key, yeah.

Fresh lemon juice. Do your thing.

Shake it up.

Scallops? Yeah,

it'll be less than a minute. Quick sear.

Are you looking for like a golden look?

[Chef] Yeah.

Just cut 'em in half.

[Fanum] So you paint the butter.

[Chef] More butter, more better.

[Fanum] Hell yeah.

[Chef] Curry sauce here.

You just go right in the middle.

[Fanum] Oh.

The orange.

[Chef] Yeah [laughs].

[speaker talking indistinctly]

[Fanum] The sea urchin. And that's it.

The second dish you brought out?

Mm-hmm, the nori cup, right?

The nori cup.

I called it the Garden of Eden,

you called it the nori cup. Yeah [laughs].

Can you teach me?

I sure can, let's do it. Let's do it.

It's like a little baby kale here.

Just so it can-- Okay, kale is like the base.

And then we have our beet salad here,

truffle puree. The shaved truffles.

The shaved truffles, yeah.

So, you start with a couple of flowers,

[Fanum] pickle cucumber. Damn.

I might fuck this up.

First thing we have to do is the base of kale.

Oh shit.

I already broke it. [Chef Charlie laughing]

I already broke the kale.

Should I change it?

It doesn't matter. You're good.

Happy mistakes.

Okay, next is the beet salad,

add my truffle puree, chat.

So, do the truffle puree,

truffle.

So, now we go ahead and put the...

See I'm tryna act like it's me really doing this shit,

you feel me?

Now, go ahead and put the truffles, okay.

Add some alyssum.

[Chef] Tuck it in there.

[Fanum talking indistinctly]

Once, twice.

What do you think? Looks great.

You would hire me? I don't know about that.

Oh, my God.

Chat, you see? [Chef Charlie laughing]

So, I'm here to eat gang.

Okay chef.

Some big ass plate. Yeah [laughs].

[Fanum laughing] That's a big ass plate,

you heard but you know what?

This is a charcoal grilled madai.

On top of a dirty rice.

With like a brown siu sauce and coconut amatic cream.

Then we add a little mango pepper sauce on the side

to add for some spice.

Just like...

It's a little spicy, so it depends on how much heat you--

Oh, my, I like spicy food. Okay.

So, I can handle spice.

Try out a little bit and let's see.

Thank you chef.

Oh my God.

The smells amazing.

Get that rice in there.

Oh my God.

Wow!

Oh my God, that crunch.

Dominican accent coming out and all that.

Wow [laughs].

The best dish I've had so far.

It's insane.

The spices, I love spice.

I also love rice.

Even the rice by itself, tough.

'Cause he said this is spicy

but like I feel the let me see.

Oh, he wasn't lying.

I'm getting kinda like the cold sweats now.

But I still like it though [laughs].

[Director] You need a glass of milk?

He don't need no milk. [hands thudding]

That's the new rating word [laughs].

Started clapping this shit for no reason.

Yo, we need a rating that like you get up

and there's mad people and we just like...

[hands thudding] [Fanum laughing]

We start clapping [laughs].

The chef come out, we start bowing and shit.

[audience applauding] [Fanum laughing]

This shit about to make me cry again.

This shit so hard bro.

All of it together.

Elevated, you know what I'm saying?

Elevation, you know what I'm saying?

Elevoir,

you know what I'm saying. [cash register clicking]

I made that shit up just now.

New word, elevoir, you heard.

Damn.

Oh, bigger glass [laughs].

Red wine for the last savory course,

is a Grenache from the Sierra de Gredos region in Spain.

It's an area that is a little bit higher in elevation

and features wines that have a little bit light--

[Kevin] Just like us. Just like us.

[Fanum] Hold on. Yeah [laughs].

So I gotta do this whole part in Spanish.

[Fanum speaking Spanish]

Nah, let me stop playing [indistinct].

[throat sloshing] Okay, chef.

The last savory course here.

It is a venison, and we get it from New Zealand.

Marinade in a little bit of eppis.

We charcoal grill it.

Hana donko mushroom.

Oh, I see the mushroom Cauliflower,

pear loin and a sauce ochavoi,

finished with black currents.

Which means, deer sauce.

Deer sauce!

Deer sauce, you heard.

I had squab for the first time, last episode.

I knew it was goin' be good.

We're trying shit.

We're elevating, okay.

We're literally on top of the world right now.

I'm not a big fan of mushrooms though,

but I'm still goin' try it.

Look at that. [upbeat music]

Oh okay [laughs].

The mushroom has some sauce on it,

at the most you might see me eat it on a pizza, maybe.

This isn't pizza.

Mushroom is mushroom everywhere for me.

Let's pair it with the wine. [throat sloshing]

Kevin!

I know you're tired of me saying that every--

Not at all. [Fanum laughing]

[Fanum speaking Spanish]

[Kevin] That's correct. [Fanum speaking Spanish]

Si [laughs].

[Fanum speaking Spanish] [Fanum laughing]

I'm outside!

You don't even know what I'm saying right now, right?

I had no idea what you were--

You speak Japanese, I speak Spanish.

Hello! [throat sloshing]

This isn't deer though.

Can you eat deer?

This is deer?

No, this is deer sauce.

It's not, I'm not eating deer.

[Director] I just ate deer? Yes.

Shit, they got me eating deer.

Well no, he said deer sauce, guys.

Nah, what?

Damn.

This to me is just fire.

[Director] What sound does a deer make?

Do they make sounds?

They just run [laughs].

Bambi, is she not a deer?

But I would never eat Bambi but Bambi's cousin though.

I can't say what I wanna say

'cause Peter goin' beat the fuck outta...

[Fanum laughing]

If I see a deer on the highway.

I'm speeding up nigga [laughs].

[car engine revving]

It's the wine doing it. [upbeat music]

So for the next course,

to just transition you into sweet from savory,

we have our take on Moroccan mint tea.

In the glass is some fresh mint with orange blossom water.

And then in front of you is alfajor cookie.

[Harrison] Thank you Harrison. Cheers.

Oh man, this activated something just now.

[fingers tapping] There's nostalgia here,

okay.

My grandma's living room, in a weird way.

Kinda [indistinct].

You know what I'm saying?

Like [indistinct] if you know, you know.

Now you see it.

Now you don't. Hi.

How you doing? I'm Anushana.

All right. For you,

we have something

that is inspired by New York fall floor.

Ginger mousse, spice bear sorbet

and some maple brown butter tuile.

On the Canadian flag.

Is this like the-- Yeah.

Yeah, okay [laughs].

All right, I just wanted to make sure.

[Anushana] Yeah. All right, thank you.

Shout to my Canadians in the chat.

[upbeat music]

Oh, crunch, okay. [upbeat music]

[bell hooting] [mouth rattling]

It's cold.

Okay, I need something warm.

Oh my God!

It's like freezing, like bro [laughs].

Oh my God, dawg.

It's like flavor and then... [air whooshing]

You know what I'm saying?

Y'all already know what I'mma do?

Definitely explosion but a cold explosion though.

A cold, brisk, frozen explosion.

Like literally shards of glass,

but ice glass everywhere, you know what I'm saying?

Last bites to finish.

Try to invoke some nostalgia.

So we have a lychee, hibiscus roll-up,

sage clementine tart.

And then a cherry shiso, whoopie pie.

Fruit roll-up. [upbeat music]

[Fanum laughing] [kids cheering]

I ain't doing it on purpose y'all.

It's making me do it. [gentle music]

Damn, that's crazy.

That was tough, that was fire.

You have Clementine,

W Clem, if you know, you know.

It has a baby flower.

Look, I didn't do it. [upbeat music]

Oh my God.

There was like liquid in the middle.

You bite... [air whooshing]

Wall full off flavor,

outta nowhere [laughs].

Okay, soft, mushy, nice.

And last but not least, Whoopi Goldberg?

Whoopie. [upbeat music]

Oh!

Oh shit, super chocolatey.

An extreme brownie covered by like,

a defense of other brownies.

But like harder.

First one outta this world.

I couldn't control my smile, I couldn't control my laughter.

[Fanum laughing] The second one,

a very big wow factor for me, okay.

Very wowish.

Third one, very chocolatey but nonetheless,

very good though, you heard.

My favorite outta the three?

I'd have to go roll-up.

Roll-up was like...

Kevin!

We made it. We have indeed.

Well, listen, we have one more surprise for you.

Okay. Love to show you upstairs,

to a bar Over Story.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's go, right this way.

What's happening?

Welcome up to Over Story. Over Story.

Right above Saga.

I heard you like tequila.

I like tequila, like a lot.

Yeah. Like a lot.

That finishes you off? Like every weekend.

Like tequila.

I love it Nonstop, you heard.

[Fanum laughing] I got a tequila cocktail,

I think you're gonna like.

It's like a variation of an old fashioned.

It's called the Terroir old fashioned.

Terroir is like everything about a place,

right? Okay.

So, this drink is based on specific ingredients,

from very specific places.

Kinda starts with a little teaspoon of a,

kind of herbaceous liqueur from France.

Herbaceous liqueur from France.

That's called yellow chartreuse.

And then I have a little burnt agave.

It's really caramelized and really intense.

A oxidative wine from Jura.

[wine sloshing]

This tequila is infused with Palo Santo, a wood.

We finish it with some sea salt that we make.

It's from Fort Tilden. Home base, aight.

Home base.

A little Over Story stamp on there.

That's fire low-key.

The is ice glistening.

Bro. Honeycomb that we make here.

That I'll throw on top of there.

This is that Tilden salt.

So, this is what gives that New York Terroir.

Where do you get this big ass honeycomb from?

We gotta make it dawg, come on.

Take a bite.

Take a sip of the drink. [mouth rattling]

Damn, this shit fire. [throat sloshing]

That ice big as hell.

That shit splashed.

Fire.

Thank you, aight. Of course.

Solid, that was solid right there,

my bud, solid! [air whooshing]

[bright music] It's elevation baby.

Elevated.

Different level, you know what I'm saying?

We breaking records, stratosphere.

Life is amazing. [bright music]

[bright music continues]

[bright music continues]

Where's my fucking money?

Huh?

Come here.

I'm just playing [laughs].