At Cynthia, a Top Chef Finalist Cooks Brazilian, Zero-Waste

Sherry Cardoso has traded the Top Chef set for a West Village dining room of her own. After reaching the finals of the competition’s 23rd season, filmed in the Carolinas, the chef, who was an opening chef at Olmsted among other posts, returned to New York to debut a tasting menu at Cynthia, the restaurant she runs with co-founder and business partner Claire DuBois.

The name is a family tribute. Cynthia is DuBois’s aunt, Cynthia Peck, who co-ran the Fullerton, California restaurants Angelo’s and Vinci’s Ristorante. The cooking, by contrast, is Cardoso’s: New American dishes shot through with Brazilian touches, built with an eye toward sustainability. Ends, peels and trimmings find their way into the food rather than the bin.

The prix fixe is $165 for six courses, with a seven-course option at $200. Eater, which reviewed the restaurant in its Dining Reports series, notes that each meal is preceded by a small card describing the seasonal significance of the produce in poetic language. There is no menu at the start of the evening; instead, diners receive a take-home menu afterward that details the dishes and some of the condiments used in the meal.

The room is a single airy space with a soundtrack heavy on 1990s music, comfortable seating and a bathroom sink that appears to be carved from a huge rock. Along the window facing the dining room and open kitchen, a two-person booth seats guests side by side, separated from their neighbors by curtains. The Eater reviewer, who visited with a colleague, singled out that booth for praise.

The drinks program leans playful. Eater’s writer began with the Tomato ‘Tini, a $26 martini made with tomato eau de vie, amontillado sherry and a green tomato vermouth, served with a cherry tomato dusted in black pepper in its own small holder with a toothpick. The reviewer also liked that the bar pours batikh, a watermelon and arak beverage, along with house-made tepaches in flavors such as strawberry and pineapple.

The meal closes with an Amazonian brigadeiro, which the reviewer found not too sweet, alongside other petit fours that made for what was described as a lovely finish.

For a chef whose television run ended in the finals, Cynthia offers a more personal showcase: a short, seasonal menu in an intimate room, where Brazilian flavors and a waste-conscious kitchen are the through line. Cardoso’s cooking is on display in a neighborhood long known for its small, chef-driven restaurants, and in an autumn when tomatoes and other late-harvest produce are still in season.