Free Williamsburg

The Williamsburg Brooklyn-based culture guide to New York and beyond.

Brooklyn Star

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Brooklyn Star specializes in comfort food with a N’awlins twist. Must have dishes include the Molasses Brined Pork Chop and their fantastic fried chicken. Their brunch is very popular and offers up a mean bloody mary. On Sundays and Mondays, they serve fried chicken family-style. A Williamsburg gem. One warning: vegetarians will not have any options here.

Featured Reviews

  • A supremely juicy half roasted chicken offered flavors both delicate (lemons, sage and thyme; a side of verdant pea-shoots) and robust (rice, with curls of—you guessed it—bacon). What a good bourbon could do for this food we’ll never know; a liquor license is forthcoming for beer and wine only. Also in development: dessert. When we visited, the sole sweet was a seemingly improvised dish of strawberries dipped in corn-bread batter, tossed (why not?) into the deep fryer and served with a scoop of vanilla Hagen-Dazs.

  • “Come hungry” to this “excellent” Williamsburg Southerner where “interesting takes” on “good ol’” American food are served up in “plentiful” portions; though it’s “perennially packed” for brunch, the “reasonable” bills, “jovial” staff and “homey” vibe all add up to one “lucky find.”

  • Fools gold, that’s what Brooklyn Star is. The menu reads like an Infatuation wet dream, listing all kinds of unhealthy hotness like fried steak and a molasses pork chop.

     

  • Chef Joaquin Baca’s handiwork at Brooklyn Star displays a fun and creative streak that yields admirable results. Pork chops are brined with molasses, striped bass is poached in duck fat, and roasted chicken is glazed with sweet tea and plated with dirty rice. Gluttony will convince you to bolster a meal here with bacon-jalapeño cornbread or buttermilk biscuits… Though the focus is on the eats, the room is comfortably outfitted with brick red terrazzo floors and grey-trimmed walls. 

Getting There

Le Barricou

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An American cafe on the quieter end of Bedford Ave great for a casual, low-key meal. Rabbithole is not a “destination” restaurant and that’s a good thing when you want a reliably good brunch or an unpretentious dinner spot. The Lamb Burger is popular as is the Homemade Potato Gnocci with Wild Mushrooms. They have a small garden for outdoor dining in the warmer months.

Featured Reviews

  • “A local favorite” known for its “great brunch experience”, this “old-school” East Williamsburg bistro offers “more-than-solid” French staples at “cost-effective” rates; just “expect to wait” when weekends roll around (“it’s totally worth it”).

  • Le Barricou is famous for its weekend brunch—though you’ll have to put up with a long wait, your patience is rewarded with dishes like supersize berry-covered pancakes ($10), a stellar apple frittata ($10) made with bacon and gruyere cheese or a classic croque madame ($13), a French grilled cheese sandwich made with ham and topped with a dribbling sunnyside-up egg… But dinner at Le Barricou is no wash, either. Fill up on flavorful hors d’oeuvres like escargot ($9) and mussels mariniere served with frites ($16); the Le Barricou house salad ($10), made with tomato, bacon, parmesan cheese and croutons, is a decadent treat. For entrees, the burger ($13) is a juicy hunk of grass fed Pat la Frieda beef, served with housemade pickles on a buttery brioche roll and paired with a side of frites. And the Coq au van is a delight, chicken cooked in rich red wine with lardon, baby carrots, pearl onions and a creamy potato puree.

Getting There

Mesa Coyoacan

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Yet another reason to travel to the Graham Avenue stop, Mesa Coyoacan has amazing, inventive Mexican food that is among the best we’ve had in all five boroughs. The Pollo Pipian is fantastic and we keep going back for the refreshing cucumber margarita. Though the shared tables can at times feel a bit cramped — sit at the bar unless you have a group — the stellar food keeps us returning for more.

Featured Reviews

  • There’s “always something to discover” at this “upbeat” Williamsburg Mexican, a dispenser of “sensational” Mexico City–style cuisine and “absolutely killer margaritas” at an “affordable” cost; a “very cool” staff and “creative” decor help keep the mood “warm” and “inviting.”

  • Chef Ivan Garcia grew up in a borough of Mexico City called Coyoacan; the name refers to the place where the coyotes roam. At his swank Graham Avenue spot, it’s best to poach the juicy street-food items from the range of options on the menu. (Cactus salad, for example, may be popular in Mexican markets as the menu suggests, but we doubt it comes on a bed of mesclun in the old neighborhood.) Garcia’s palm-size tortillas recall Mercadito, where he was executive chef before branching out on his own (he also had a stint at Barrio Chino), but his tacos bundle simple, quality proteins: Juicy nubs of carnitas are made from Berkshire pork; beef is grass-fed.

  • Filament bulbs, vintage wallpaper, traditional ornaments and a staircase lined with votive candles give the space a homey Southwestern feel. It’s the perfect atmosphere in which to enjoy Garcia’s excellent and affordable multiregional fare, a worthy addition to the neighborhood and New York’s Mexican dining scene in general. An addictive appetizer of esquites melded the earthy-sweet flavor of corn kernels with a creamy, chili-spiked mayonnaise and salty bits of crumbled cotija cheese. Tangy, tomato-based seafood stew, meanwhile, provided a warming base for tender head-on shrimp, mussels and other toothsome fish. Building on the experience he gained cooking at Mercadito, Garcia also serves superb tacos

Getting There

Okonomi / YUJI Ramen

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A tiny Japanese restaurant on the Graham Avenue L Train stop with multiple personalities. During the day, it’s called Okonomi and serves up traditional Japanese set meals known as ‘Ichiju sansai’ that consist of miso soup, roasted fish, vegetables, and an egg served with rice. At night it becomes one of the city’s more acclaimed ramen joints serving seasonal seafood as well as Mazemen (no-broth ramen dishes). The setting is indicative of Japanese minimalism and the seating is limited to 12 tables. From the owners: ‘[We] embody the Mottainai philosophy of minimizing waste and appreciating what is given. We source our seafood from the Atlantic Ocean. We shop for produce from local farmer’s markets. We make our ceramics with an artist based in upstate New York. Our greatest challenge is to honor the life in what surrounds us.’

Featured Reviews

  • Everything about the place embodies the Japanese concept of mottainai, let nothing go to waste. The dining room, in shades of wood, soil, and water, is minimal without being austere. Dried fish skins decorate the walls; bones from the morning’s fish go straight into the evening’s unctuous broth. But for a chef who values simplicity Haraguchi gives diners a lot of options. On weekday nights, the restaurant transforms into Yuji Ramen, a noodle joint, while weekend evenings feature a ten-course ramen tasting menu. The biggest draw, though, is the daily Japanese set breakfast. 

  • One restaurant. Two names. During the day, this tiny 12-seat house of chopstick heaven is home to Okonomi, in which they serve a traditional Japanese set meal called “Ichiju Sansai.” At night, the space gets taken over by Yuji Ramen, one of the best, most unique noodle joints that exists in this fine city filled with ramen. David Chang may claim ramen is dead – clearly he hasn’t been to Yuji.

  • “Talk about originality”, this “tiny” Williamsburg Japanese from chef Yuji Haraguchi provides “traditional” ichiju-sansai set meals for breakfast and lunch, then segues into Yuji Ramen at night, offering “cutting-edge” noodle soups; seats can be scarce in the “minimal” space, which doesn’t take reservations.

  • A small counter and a handful of tables is the extent of this tiny café headed by Chef Yuji Haraguchi, famous for his ramen pop-ups. Regardless of the time of day, Okonomi’s delightfully unconstrained Japanese cuisine is a compelling reason to visit. Locally grown produce and domestic fish are the foundation of the high-quality ichiju sansai, a set lunch of shioyaki (salt-grilled) or miso-marinated broiled fish, rice, miso soup, and shira-ae (wilted greens with a tofu dressing). Come evening, the focus shifts to ramen, with each steaming bowl bearing the distinctive hand of the skilled chef. 

  • This 12-seat nook is a cozier setting for a ridiculously nourishing meal: a daily choice of local fish (bluefish roasted in sake lees and ocean perch, recently), served with a cube of Japanese omelette, tofu-dressed broccoli rabe, brown rice with kombu, and miso soup. At night, the space morphs into Yuji Ramen, the hit noodle den that blazed a trail for broth-less mazemen by incorporating Italian technique and peddling creative dishes like salmon cheese ramen.

Getting There