The Well-Known NYC Restaurant That Holds A Bunch Of Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records famously began in 1951 as a way to determine the fastest game bird in Europe, the subject of a heated debate among a hunting party headed up by Guinness managing director, Sir Hugh Beaver. (Yes, that Guinness.) Previously known for annually publishing those big shiny-covered books of records you'll find in the waiting room at your local orthodontist, Guinness World Records has shifted to providing a PR boost for any business that wants to make some flashy headlines. That brings us to Serendipity 3, a restaurant that boasts several world records relating to the world's most expensive dishes including the most expensive sandwich and the most expensive dessert. (Maybe stick to Blizzards from Dairy Queen if you're on a budget.)

Founded in 1954 by three friends, which is part of how it got its name, the restaurant quickly became known for its fanciful decor and its star-studded clientele: Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, Cher, and Selena Gomez have all visited, with the latter even acquiring an ownership stake in the establishment and lending her image to its ice cream brand. In 2024, a new location opened in Times Square, which (let's face it) is its true spiritual home.

2004 was Serendipity 3's 50th — or "golden" — anniversary, and they wanted to celebrate it in style. The Golden Opulence Sundae was devised, starting with three scoops of Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream before being topped with molten Amedei Porcelana chocolate, bejeweled with candied fruits from Paris, and topped with a special "dessert caviar" — not to mention copious amounts of edible gold leaf. Monstrously excessive, yes, but that was the point, and its $1,000 price tag caught the attention of Guinness, which awarded it the title of the world's most expensive dessert. Three years later, Serendipity outdid itself with the Frrrozen Haute Chocolate sundae, a hyper-luxe take on its Frrrozen Hot Chocolate that uses a blend of 28 cocoas, half of which rank among the world's most expensive. Including the bejeweled golden goblet it's served in, it comes out to $25,000. (With that said, you get to keep the goblet — #frugalliving.)

Other Guinness records Serendipity 3 holds are the world's most expensive sandwich (a $214 grilled cheese made from champagne bread and a rare Italian cheese called Caciocavallo Podolico, served with a lobster tomato bisque for dipping) and the world's most expensive milkshake (at $100, it's made with Madagascar vanilla ice cream and milk sourced from prized Jersey cows — enough to make Daniel Plainview blush). It's all eye-poppingly good fun, so long as you don't think too hard about the child labor that went into harvesting that Madagascar vanilla.