Restaurants are pouring water as a fine-dining experience

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limited All rights reserved. Natasha Dangoor, The Wall Street Journal 4 min read 20 Oct 2025, 05:00 IST Illustration: Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ Summary Refreshing or ridiculous? The latest hangover-free treat is also the oldest, and some deals will cost you. Magdalena Kalley was browsing the drink menu at a Michelin-starred restaurant, wondering what would go well with the $175 steak she planned to share with three friends. The server recommended something smooth and full-bodied. It was an $11 bottle of still water from the East Coast. Unlike most people, who are drawn to high-end restaurants for the food, Kalley went to Gwen over the summer specifically to check out the Los Angeles hotspot’s water menu — part of a small but growing contingent interested in the rarefied world of “fine water.” She started with Saratoga, the East Coast water, before moving on to her French favorite: Evian. “I’m absolutely obsessed with the taste and texture,” the 38-year-old said. Kalley also tried a $12 Georgian sparkling water, Borjomi, described on the menu as salty and complex. The salinity, she said, helped highlight the differences between the different waters she tried. “It was fascinating to see that the water with the lighter mineral content went well with our appetizers.” Gwen’s water menu—a detailed book with lengthy descriptions of each water’s origin and flavor profile—includes bottles from as far away as Australia and Armenia. Most cost between $11 and $13. It also offers tap water at $0. Served by the glass, “the Los Angeles tap water has more dissolved minerals and electrolytes than most purified bottled water,” the menu says. Martin Riese, the water sommelier behind Gwen’s menu, said the restaurant makes as much as $100,000 a year in water sales. H2O is the stuff of life, but for several decades water producers and sommeliers have been working to make it something more: the stuff of taste. Riese and fellow water sommelier Michael Mascha, founder of FineWaters, a water expert platform, started in 2006 to train people in their field. By 2018, they had educated hundreds worldwide. “Nobody would think it was weird if you served different types of vodka at a bar,” Riese said, “so why should it be any different for water?” A lot of people don’t seem to be buying it. The idea was slow to catch on broadly. Some early adopters of the water menu were unsuccessful. “It’s all about options in the restaurant scene,” says water sommelier Martin Riese, who oversaw the water menu at Gwen and a handful of other places. “It was hard not to laugh at it,” Jessica Hammerman (48) said of Gwen’s water menu. The history professor and editor from Bend, Ore., held onto tap water during a visit to celebrate her anniversary with her husband. She dabbled with wine instead. The world’s largest water menu can be found at O ​​Lar do Leitón, a restaurant in Galicia, Spain, which offers more than 150 waters from 33 countries. Eateries in Italy, Denmark and the UK offer their own aqua explorations. About 10 restaurants in the US now offer a water menu. Industry experts say more could be on the way. Christopher Alexander would be happy to see more offers. “I’d argue it’s the most important drink on the planet!” he said. Staff at Gwen work in the kitchen. As people consume less alcohol, high-end water has become a tasty alternative not only to cocktails and wine, but also to soft drinks, juices and overly sweet mocktails. Gwen is currently his favorite restaurant in Hollywood. While the 26-year-old housing specialist from Long Beach, Calif., sometimes takes the server’s recommendations, he usually drinks Antipodes—one of the restaurant’s most popular waters. Sourced from a deep-pressed aquifer in New Zealand, it’s “smooth and easy to swallow,” Alexander said. Not all waters are created equal. The difference, says Riese, usually comes down to the Total Dissolved Solids, the mineral composition that determines a water’s flavor profile based on its sodium, magnesium and calcium content. It can also change the taste of food and wine. Water with a high TDS is often bitter and acidic, making it a natural pairing for heavy, fatty foods. Three Bays, an Australian water with a TDS of 1,300 milligrams per liter, says it takes 2,000 years to filter through soil layers. Its age, suggests Riese, makes it a perfect accompaniment to steak. Mountain water, on the menu at the Inn at Little Washington for $95 a bottle, is sourced from Newfoundland. Water with a lower TDS, which is considered dry in the mouth, goes better with lighter food, such as salad or fish. And like many an after-meal digestif, Fiji is a popular dessert choice for its smooth, slightly sweet aftertaste. Riese instructs servers to treat the water like a fine wine: No ice or lemon allowed. Nothing that can dull the delicate flavor profile. The dining room at the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia is one of the newest in the US to offer fine dining. His menu, launched this spring, includes Mountain Water from Newfoundland, Canada. The light, mineral water, sourced from a 15,000-year-old iceberg, costs $95 a bottle. The menu says it tastes like “old packaged snow and air.” Water sommelier Cameron Smith said many guests have never had a choice in the water they drink beyond the standard still, sparkling or tap. “It would be like a sommelier offering only red, white or sparkling wine—much too limited.” Get all the industry news, banking news and updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. more topics #Speciality Restaurants Read next story