# What to Order at Fairfax

_Published 2026-07-15 on DinnerElite (https://dinnerelite.com/blog/what-to-order-at-fairfax)._

Fairfax is Gabriel Stulman's all-day cafe at 234 West 4th Street in the West Village, and the order is the Bar Sardine Burger plus whatever the seasonal plates are doing, at any hour you can get a seat.

## What should you order at Fairfax?

Order from the current menu, not the old reviews. [The Infatuation's review](https://www.theinfatuation.com/new-york/reviews/fairfax) dates to the 2017 living-room-furniture era and praises a Cuban sandwich that no longer appears on the menu. The menu we pulled from [the restaurant's own site](https://www.fairfax.nyc/menu/food/) in mid-July 2026 runs tighter and more seasonal, and these are its anchors.

1. **Bar Sardine Burger**. BBQ mayo, smoked cheddar, and crispy potatoes at $18, carrying the name of the shuttered Happy Cooking bar across the street. It is the menu's one piece of living history and the default first order.

2. **Moules frites**. Mussels with white wine, black kale, and chorizo at $23, the most dinner-shaped plate on the list.

3. **Beef tartare**. Pecorino brigantaccio and crackers at $16, the strongest of the starters alongside the $14 crispy artichokes with lemon caper mayo.

4. **Potato gnocchi or the duck breast**. The gnocchi runs $21 with mushroom cacciatore and parmigiano, and the duck breast at $28 with cranberry beans and balsamic jus is the ceiling of the menu.

5. **Old Bay Tots and fries with dijonaise**. The sides do disproportionate work here: the Old Bay Tots are the menu's signature snack, and the $8 fries turn any glass of wine into a meal.

## What should you skip at Fairfax?

Skip planning around dishes from old coverage. The Cuban sandwich and prosciutto-and-melon era is gone, and the menu now turns over seasonally, so check the restaurant's site before promising anyone a specific plate. The room itself changed too: the velvet-armchair hotel-lobby look The Infatuation described in 2017 has given way to a straightforward all-day cafe, wine bar included.

## How do you get into Fairfax?

Fairfax states its own rules, which is rare: reservations open two weeks out to the date through OpenTable, for indoor and yurt dining, and walk-ins are always welcome, because the restaurant keeps bar seats and a few indoor and sidewalk tables for them, per its site in mid-July 2026. The all-day format is the real loophole. Weekday breakfast starts at 9:30 AM and the kitchen runs through snacks into dinner, so a late-morning or mid-afternoon visit skips the dinner-hour competition entirely. If the booking-window jargon is new, the [NYC reservation terms glossary](/blog/nyc-reservation-terms-glossary) covers it.

## Frequently asked questions

### Who runs Fairfax?

Gabriel Stulman's Happy Cooking Hospitality, the West Village group behind Fedora and the shuttered Bar Sardine, whose burger lives on at Fairfax under its own name.

### Does Fairfax take walk-ins?

Yes, always, per the restaurant's own site: bar seats plus a few indoor and sidewalk tables stay reserved for walk-ins even when the books are full.

### When do Fairfax reservations open?

Two weeks before the date, through OpenTable, stated outright on the restaurant's site. That makes Fairfax one of the few NYC restaurants that publishes its own booking window instead of leaving diners to guess.

Getting a table is the easier half of the plan here, thanks to the walk-in policy, but weekend dinner still books out. DinnerElite tracks when Fairfax releases reservations and how far ahead it books, and it emails you the moment a cancellation opens up. Start from [DinnerElite's Fairfax page](/reservations/1689).