I have been closely following Ram & Rooster, a Chinese-inspired tasting menu concept that opened in the Spring, since May of 2022 when Executive Chef and Owner Sean Yan took to Instagram to announce the project. It would be a full two years until the restaurant would open—building the expectations into an almost impossible-to-surmount feat. I spoke with Yan earlier this year about the project, which further added to my excitement.
I watched as the pieces of the restaurant slowly fell into place. The building—which never housed a restaurant—was transformed into a breathtaking space defined by a dark-wood facade on the outside and a beautiful but small, open kitchen on the inside—which a chef’s counter wraps around, offering front-row views to the action. On the second floor is another dining room.
I continued to watch as Yan stacked his team with talent. He would bring on the immensely skilled Roselyn Achacoso as his Chef De Cuisine, whose experience includes stints at Two-Star JungSik and NJ’s own top dog, Common Lot.
What goes beyond talent is purpose. Ram & Rooster’s concept as a Chinese-inspired tasting menu is truly unique to the Garden State. Inspired by Yan’s parents, the Metuchen restaurant is quickly becoming much larger than its quaint dining room might lead you to believe. Ram & Rooster felt like a true turning point for the New Jersey dining scene to me—someone who eats, sleeps and breathes NJ food.
I booked a reservation for one at the counter with glee—perhaps the most excited I’ve been to dine in quite some time. Eight courses inspired by Yan’s Chinese heritage is all it took to confirm my prior assumption: Ram & Rooster is the most exciting fine dining experience in New Jersey right now. And if it’s not on your radar, I’m not really sure what you’re waiting for.
Immediately after sitting, a server brings you an aromatic hot towel for your hands. This sets the stage for the meal without any hesitation. Ram & Rooster is a BYOB, so bring your favorite bottle, or do what I did and sip on a pot of Oolong tea throughout your meal, which is constantly tended to and refilled with hot water throughout the evening.
Soon thereafter, you are greeted with the first course, the Tomato Bingfen—a take on classic Chinese Bingfen, AKA “ice jelly.” The dish is traditionally served as a dessert, but Yan decides to instead hit you with it right away. The crystal-clear ice jelly is flavored by NJ tomatoes. Atop it, perfectly even cubes of egg tofu, crushed peanuts, a scoop of tomato-yuzu sorbet and a dollop of caviar. I have not had a stronger first course in quite some time. The jelly and sorbet are packed with a tomato-forward flavor that awakens your palate. There is a dichotomy of temperature going on with the ice-cold sorbet that works to diversify the dish, too.
In flavor contrast, the peanuts, tofu and caviar offer an escape from tomato monotony. It’s perfectly balanced and uber-calculated. A showstopper of a dish that practically screams at you: Welcome to Ram & Rooster, this is what we do.
The pace picks up. Your dish is cleared and your gold-accented chopsticks and flatware are replaced. Seconds later, as rehearsed, a sage-green bowl is slid before you. Madai crudo, a type of snapper served raw. Where 90 percent of the other restaurants in the world would pair the fish with some kind of citrus, maybe in the form of a gel or (gasp) a foam, Ram & Rooster goes a different route. They emphasize skill over gimmick—uniqueness over the expected.
Thin slices of snapper swim in a clear, amber-hued consommé made from mustard green and Sichuan peppercorn. A slice of chili adorns the dish. I was elated to see a crudo that is so different from the typical offering. Again, temperature is just as important as flavor. No, the broth is not hot, but it’s not cold either. It is perfectly ambient. And the flavor of the dish expertly teeters the line. Mustard greens and Sichuan peppercorn are not exactly subtle, so it takes some careful engineering to get it just right. Paired with the mildly sweet fish and the slight heat from the chili, it left me jaw-dropped—excited for more.
As you finish up the last bites of your crudo, the kitchen is already busy preparing your next course, and it’s a bold one. Tempura-fried Hokkaido scallop with crab roe and soft tofu. It’s explained that the scallop is wrapped with rice paper before being battered and fried—a technique that allows the team to develop a crispier texture in the fryer, while protecting the scallop meat, which is prone to quick overcooking. The batter fries into a crackly shell, housing a warm, still-moist scallop that is cooked by encased steam. It is delicate and light, despite being fried.
Underneath the crispy scallop is a rich sauce made from crab roe and tofu. The combination of bean curd and crab roe is not a new one—it is a classic Shanghainese dish that Ram & Rooster looks to riff on. They do so with ease. Crab roe is loaded with umami, and not the buzz word type that’s lost all meaning, either—actual, savory, unadulterated umami. A sliver of Hokkaido uni tops off this dish, showing Yan and Achacoso’s commitment to the flavors of the ocean by pairing two items from the same waters. It’s a masterful take on a Shanghainese staple.
Then comes the plainest example of Ram & Rooster’s wooing concept—the Corn Wonton—which a server tells me is directly inspired by Yan’s Mother’s wonton soup. I’m sold. Instead of the typical pork filling and lightly flavored broth, Ram & Rooster meticulously fills spherical dumplings with velvety corn custard. Around the wontons are crispy pieces of baby corn.
The server pours a hot broth made from black tea, duck and chicken bones. The result is a layered soup studded with sweet corn dumplings. As you pop one into your mouth and bite into the casing, warm corn custard oozes out. It was a remarkable bite of food and when coupled with the rich broth, you get something that is equally balanced as it is complex. It’s a sum that is larger than its parts, highlighted by purely skilled technique. And don’t you dare leave any broth in that bowl. Ram & Rooster might be fine dining, but you absolutely should pick the bowl up and slurp the remaining broth. It’s the only way.
An unexpected bread course comes to the table. A sesame-coated chinese flat bread called Shao Bing—typically served with tea and hot soymilk which a server excitedly tells me before turning to the picturesque quenelle of green butter that’s served alongside it. He tells me it’s a compound butter made from Chinese broccoli and oyster sauce. First and foremost, the bread is incredible—boasting an excellent, firm texture on the outside and a steamy, structured interior. You could rip off pieces and dip it in the butter, or you could split the whole thing open and throw the whole quenelle of butter inside. Sandwich style.
I always love seeing how a chef approaches the coveted bread course during a tasting menu, and I applaud Yan for sticking to the concept of Ram & Rooster by serving a traditional Chinese option. The team gets extra praise from me for placing it in the middle of the meal rather than at the beginning. It’s a nice break between courses—which allows for the pacing to stay on track without letting your palate become bored. It’s more important than they’d lead you to believe, but that’s the magic of fine dining—isn’t it?
My bread plate is cleared and I watch as Chef Achacoso carefully removes a piece of fish from a Konro grill—a type of box-shaped grill popular in Japanese cooking. The cooking medium? The prized binchotan charcoal, which is celebrated for its clean burn that stays hot for a long time. By cooking fish skin-side down over the charcoal, the flesh is allowed to delicately come to temperature while the skin crisps up. It is a technique that takes practice. Try to remove the fish too early and the skin will stick right to the grates. Keep it on too long, and you have a burnt piece of fish.
The fish is plated skin-side up in a bowl of Jiuniang broth, which is typically made by fermenting glutinous rice into a slightly alcoholic wine. It is sweet and complex. To go along with it are young bamboo shoots that also get to see the heat of the charcoal. The dish is finished with a chimichurri-like mixture that Chef Yan calls tiger sauce and crunchy puffed rice for added texture. Talk about balance. Black sea bass is a truly luxurious fish—with a notable buttery characteristic—that I found to pair extremely well with the sweetness of the Jiuniang.
What propels this dish to the next level is the textbook cook achieved from the charcoal grill. It is something that is impossible to emulate through a different cooking method, and when done right, you’ll know it.
Peking duck is what’s next. You could upgrade to A5 Wagyu, but it’ll cost you. Plus, I’m certainly in the camp that A5 is not better than duck in any way. The duck cooks skin-side down in a pan for a majority of your meal—seriously. Ram & Rooster opts to cook the duck from cold in order to render the fat and just cook the flesh through. The result is a golden-brown, crispy skin with a rosy interior that barely ever touches the direct heat.
To pair, Yan does his play on traditional Peking duck with all of the fixings. Typically, you’d be served a glassy-skinned roast duck with spring pancakes, scallion, hoisin sauce and cucumber. It’s a build-your-own style of meal that’s meant to share. To riff off of that, a souffle pancake is served along with the duck, marinated cucumber, scallion, black sesame paste and a beautifully vibrant blackberry hoisin sauce. The server recommends taking a bite of everything together, which I do happily. The components together are truly fun to eat—which I find to be important in this setting. Having fun is what sets apart the good restaurants from the great restaurants. Each ingredient would stand firmly on its own, but it is the intoxicating combination of the sweet hoisin with the perfectly cooked duck breast that has kept me up at night asking myself: how did they take a combination I have had 100 times before and wow me? Beats me.
Another standout dish—one that is definitively “the main course.” A fully composed plate that hits every note needed. I’d recommend getting the A5 and the duck if you’re at a table for two, but as long as I’m solo, I think I’ll stick with the duck.
Dessert comes with some high expectations considering Chef Yan’s years of experience as the pastry chef at the legendary Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge. I have had his desserts a few times in the past, and each time, they have stuck with me. The current option? A white peach ice cream with a frozen white chocolate foam and lemon. The ice cream tastes purely of peak-season peaches, which is the whole point. If they sold pints of it, there wouldn’t be a price I would deem too high. To complement it, a cookie-like crumble and the velvety white chocolate foam—suspended by freezing, placed alongside the ice cream almost like a rocky shoreline. This dessert is bright with notes of richness—just what’s needed at this point in the meal to satisfy without throwing you over the edge.
“Fire Dim Sum!,” Chef Yan says, which is an indicator that your meal is, sadly, coming to a close. In true Ram & Rooster style, the team serves you a trio of Dim Sum-inspired desserts to send you off. Yan tells me he recommends eating them in order from left to right. You are treated to a cloud-like floral rice cake, flavored by the osmanthus flower, a salted duck egg tart that boasts a crackly pastry shell and a balanced custard filling, and finally, the celebratory moon cake—a delicacy enjoyed to ring in harvest season in China. Fillings can vary, but Ram & Rooster fills theirs with a paste made from strawberry. These small bites, which are incredibly detailed, are exactly how this meal was meant to end. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Ram & Rooster is New Jersey’s newest tasting menu concept, and that alone deserves attention. Its unique concept is inspiring to experience in real time, firmly connecting the guest with what the restaurant means at its core. There is a personal connection between Chef Yan and the menu, which is impossible to overlook as the courses unfold over the two-hour meal. A kitchen team stacked with some of NJ’s best talent and truly flawless service help to sell that connection.
Whether you are a fan of fine dining already, or looking to wet your feet, Ram & Rooster is there. It’s laid back enough to welcome, and refined enough to promote its luxury, which shows itself through execution rather than gimmicks and gaudiness. All of these details come together to form what is undoubtedly one of the best dining experiences in New Jersey right now.
Ram & Rooster is located at 83 Central Ave Metuchen, NJ 08840
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.
