Free Williamsburg

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

Brooklyn Star (Closed)

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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

Bunker

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In Queens you have Sripraphai. In Cobble Hill there’s Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok. Bushwick now has Bunker Vietnamese — they outgrew their smaller space in Ridgewood — and they’re cooking up some of the tastiest, most authentic Thai food in the city. It’s a tad pricier than your standard Vietnamese restaurant with entrees in the $20 range, but feel confident that the ingredients are all freshly sourced and that you’ll leave delighted. Highly recommended.

Featured Reviews

  • Because the place has only been around a few years, is run by relatively young people, and is in a quickly gentrifying area, you might expect Bun-Ker to be what print magazines would call a “hipster” take on Vietnamese food. But in reality, there’s very little fusion or even much “modernizing” going on here. Instead, it’s simply versions of the classics, with fresher ingredients and richer, deeper flavors, that are way better than what we’ve had elsewhere. Just have a sip of their pho broth, and you’ll get it.

Getting There

Bunna

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Located in Bushwick, beween the Jefferson and Morgan stops is one of the city’s best Ethiopian restaurants, Bunna. The menu is vegan but even the strictest carnivores will be won over by their Lentil Sambusas and Shiro (Chickpeas simmered with garlic, ginger and herbs). We recommend the Feast for Two — a shareable sampler of nine dishes that really is a feast. (There will be leftovers.) All entrees are served with their homemade Injera – a spongy, sourdough-risen flatbread. Check their calendar for live music events.

Featured Reviews

  • Theere are some New York restaurants that you can mention in any social setting and someone will invariably nod and intone, sagely, “Oh, yes, I go there all the time.” Somewhat remarkably for a vegan Ethiopian spot—in Bushwick, no less—Bunna Café is one of them. What’s more, Bunna is well, and rightly, loved. It’s one of those vegan restaurants where the absence of meat and dairy isn’t obvious while you’re there, but when you venture out the door your step has a new spring in it.

  • Soulful, vibrant, surprising vegan Ethiopian fare… There’s a pronounced emphasis on freshness in Bunna’s stews and salads: raw vegetables are mixed with cooked, bringing lightness to the meal, and sharp notes of garlic, ginger and onion punctuate the softer flavors of curry powder and sunflower-seed milk. Bunna has a focused menu of three appetizers and nine mains. In the Feast for Two ($28), you can sample all nine mains arranged on one heaping platter lined with injera, that spongy teff-flour flatbread that acts as your serving utensil throughout the meal. Bunna’s version is soft, nicely seasoned and tangy but not too tangy, a flavor that can sometimes turn people off of injera.

  • The brick-walled joint honors Ethiopia—widely hailed as the birthplace of coffee—with traditional coffee ceremonies and live Abyssinian music. Java is made in a jebena pot and infused with cloves and cardamom, served with snacks like ambasha bread or cooked barley. Those looking for heartier options can dig into vegetarian plates, served on a bed of injera bread, like misir wot (red lentils in berbere sauce), keysir selata (sautéed and chilled beets) and shiro (garlicky ground chickpeas). Along with pureed juices (mango-avocado-papaya), beverages include Ethiopian beers (Castel, Harar), tej (honey wine) and cocktails, such as a whiskey-spiked Shai spiced tea.

Getting There

Cafe Mogador

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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

  • “Everything is delicious” at these “popular” Moroccan “standbys” that are especially known for their “unbeatable” brunches; “tight seating” and “long waits” are part of the deal, but “gentle prices” help, and Williamsburg’s “cute indoor garden” is especially “charming.”

  • It’s a casual place serving Moroccan/Israeli food, although they do a more-or-less standard breakfast and brunch. Weekends get slammed, however, so expect a wait for brunch and dinner. And try to sit in the greenhouse-like area out back. It’s a good place to eat a chicken stew with couscous.

Getting There

Cape House

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A New England-style clam shack smack dab in the middle of Bushwick/East Williamsburg. The space, situated at a busy intersection, will nonetheless transport you to Cape Cod. We recommend anything from the sea (of course) but the Chicken Sandwich and Burger are also pretty solid. Recommended dishes include Clam Fritters and the Haddock and Fries. The outdoor courtyard has ample seating and is the perfect spot to down a Cape House Lager while you munch on some Whole Belly Clams.

Featured Reviews

  • New England transplants will be happy to know they don’t have to go any further than Bushwick to get authentic chowder. Cape House, a clam shack and bar, offers all the classics and a few new options. Traditionalists might go for the whole belly clams, scallops or clam strips, available on a roll or as a platter ($8–$25), or the creamy chowder ($5 for a small, $9 for a large). Not a seafood person? Try a Worcester-style hot dog with chili ($5) or the fried chicken sandwich ($11). If you’re in the mood for a more formal meal, order the negroni-braised octopus with herb salad ($20) or the baked haddock with dill cream sauce ($23).

  • Styled after a New England clam shack, this Bushwick eatery offers raw, fried and grilled seafood, along with mai tais, frozen drinks and canned and draft beers. There are high-tops as well as regular tables, plus a lively outdoor counter facing the windows.

  • Cape House delivers on its most important promise: terrific clams in a pleasant, casual, boozy-if-you-want-it environment. Get here soon though, while the patio’s still an option, for a final taste of summer before we all have to huddle inside.

Getting There

Carthage Must Be Destroyed

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Tucked away down an alley, hidden from view in East Williamsburg is a gorgeous, pink Australian cafe that’s destined to become the neighborhood’s next buzz restaurant. As lovely as a Thiebaud painting, the curiously named Carthage Must Be Destroyed, is situated in an old industrial warehouse which has been transformed into an enchanting homage to the color pink. The espresso machine is pink. The dishes, saucers and and cups are pink. Even the pipes and exhaust system have been painted pink.

Getting There

Casa Pública

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Focusing on regional Mexican home cooking with an opening menu of small plates like esquites, ceviche, tacos, and dishes like stuffed squash blossoms. Large plates include pozole verde and roast chicken with chile adobo.

Featured Reviews

  • Truitt — whose experience includes working under the Adria brothers at El Bulli and Stephen Starr at Morimoto — is focusing on regional Mexican home cooking with an opening menu of small plates like esquites, ceviche, tacos, and dishes like stuffed squash blossoms. Large plates include pozole verde and roast chicken with chile adobo. Montagano — formerly at Extra Fancy and La Sirena — is heading up front of the house and overseeing a cocktail selection that’s heavy on micheladas, frozen drinks, and cocktails for two or more.

  • The restaurant’s design is influenced by Mexico City’s rich history of Art Deco architecture… with a menu that blends Mexican home cooking and market dishes…There’s a trompo Truitt will use to make proper al pastor tacos, also offered with fillings like steak with melted cheese, and stuffed squash blossoms with huitlacoche mayo. Tostadas will be topped with crab, uni, and peanut salsa, while more substantial dishes will include chilaquiles with mole, and crispy soft-shell crab with hominy polenta. The desserts will be simple sweets, including a flan made with goat’s-milk caramel, strawberry sorbet, and an ice-cream version of tascalate, the toasted maize-and-chocolate drink from Chiapas.

  • The decor and the dishes are both meant to evoke the past and present of Mexico City. In this interpretation, that means heirloom corn tortillas for carnitas ($8) and squash blossom ($13) tacos; tostadas topped with crab, sea urchin and avocado in a spicy peanut sauce ($20); and Pollo Abobada ($24), roasted chicken in guajillo adobo with fingerling potatoes and a pico de gallo made with nopales (cactus).

Getting There

Casino Clam Bar

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The most unique thing about Casino Clam Bar is the seating arrangement. There’s just one u-shaped bar with about 20 seats, and pretty much every person in the restaurant has a full view of everyone else at any given time. But that’s just part of the fun of this place, and if you enjoy shellfish, it’s worth checking out. Here, you can of course get clams casino – but they also have small menu of things like oysters, ceviche, and uni pasta.

Featured Reviews

  • The most unique thing about Casino Clam Bar is the seating arrangement. There’s just one u-shaped bar with about 20 seats, and pretty much every person in the restaurant has a full view of everyone else at any given time. But that’s just part of the fun of this place, and if you enjoy shellfish, it’s worth checking out. Here, you can of course get clams casino – but they also have small menu of things like oysters, ceviche, and uni pasta. 

  • When Williamsburg’s leading American-regional-food guru, Joe Carroll (of Fette Sau and St. Anselm fame), gets hold of a restaurant space he likes — especially one that comes with a relatively forgiving rent — he tends to hang on to it. So, where once stood Carroll’s Baltimore-style cheese-fish-sandwich shop, Lake Trout, and after that his vegetable-forward tasting room, Semilla, which closed in March, now there is Casino Clam Bar, an homage of sorts to the clam shacks and dive bars the Bergen County native and Jersey Shore aficionado has known. Think old-school meets new-school, or maybe Randazzo’s crossed with ZZ’s minus the $20 cocktails. There are raw littlenecks on the half-shell, shrimp cocktails, and chowder by the cup or bowl, but also bottarga crackers, uni pasta, hamachi collars, cod cheeks, white clam Grandma pizza, and Petrossian caviar.

Getting There

Chez Ma Tante

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A bistro in Greenpoint “inspired by unassuming eateries that dot the content – pubs, cafes, bistros and trattorias.” The decor and menu are simple and unassuming, which is precisely why we love this place. Nothing is overly-precious, but everything is done simply and with great care. Whether enjoying a few snacks like Chicken Liver Pate, Pig’s Head Terrine, or Steak Tartare with a glass of wine or a full meal — we love their Pork Shoulder and their Half Chicken with Romesco Sauce — you will assuredly be delighted. Brunch is offered on the weekends and if you go, be sure to try their amazing pancakes. The word is out about Chez Ma Tante which opened quietly in 2017, so definitely make a reservation.

Featured Reviews

  • The restaurant is the work of two Cafe Altro Paradiso alums, Aidan O’Neal and Jake Leiber, and the menu reflects some of the old Estela zaniness. In its emphasis on organ meat pates and terrines, it’s also reminiscent of Montreal’s Au Pied de Cochon. O’Neal once toiled at M. Wells Dinette in P.S. One, and that experience undoubtedly provided further inspiration. The chicken liver pate ($9) might be at home on any bistro menu in town, artfully smeared across the plate and accompanied by grilled toasts and pickled chiles.

    Other dishes are on another level, offal-wise, particularly with the pig head terrine. This patchwork comes in helter skelter slices, composed of ragged chunks of sinew, fat, and deeply red swatches of meat. It’s about the richest thing you’ve ever tasted and might remind you of the work of U.K. chef Fergus Henderson. I loved it, even though it came with the same toasts and chiles as the chicken liver pate.

  • It is hard to say exactly what kind of food Chez Ma Tante serves, apart from the consistently good kind. The website calls it “food that can only be described as European.” This isn’t particularly helpful or specific; I’ve never eaten anything there that seemed Finnish, say, or Bulgarian. If the menu has a theme, you won’t guess it from the dining room. A collection of brown chairs and black tables on a black floor in an undecorated white room, it is as austere as a Shaker chapel, although one with a long, well-populated bar against the wall.

    No hints are forthcoming from the cocktail list, either, which plays it close to the vest with daiquiris, Negronis, Cosmopolitans and so on. It is the first cocktail list I’ve seen in a long time on which I recognized every drink. Other writers have described Chez Ma Tante as a neighborhood spot, a homage to certain well-known London restaurants, a gastro pub and a “French-Canadian bistro.” 

    The name Chez Ma Tante was borrowed from a stainless-steel slot of a place in Montreal known for its steamé, a steamed hot dog in a steamed bun. An “all dressed” steamé, meaning it’s loaded up with mustard and coleslaw, is a new feature on the brunch menu in Greenpoint. Apart from that and a recurring maple motif — the jugs of syrup on a shelf outside the kitchen are not just for show — the Québécois influence is minimal.

     

  • Boasting a strong Canadian influence, this American bistro (named for a Montreal hot dog joint) in Greenpoint offers raw-bar items, charcuterie and seasonal veggies and mains by alums of Café Altro Paradiso. Dark woods and white walls lend a simple, unassuming feel to the dining room and bar.

  • Restaurateur, Josh Cohen (who previously owned the hit spot, Jimmy’s Diner) has enlisted the help of Aidan O’Neal and Jake Leiber, who have both served significant time at the celebrated, Café Altro Paradiso, to head up this new addition to the area… A native of Vancouver, O’Neal spent five years in Montreal before moving to NYC and pays homage to a restaurant he loved there, which also inspired the name, Chez Ma Tante (‘at my aunt’s’)…  The menu is broken into categories for raw & cooked selfish, charcuterie, salads & vegetables and mains. There’s dishes like marinated mussels and clams, country pâté and skate wing. Dessert offers up items like rhubarb custard tart and a sorbet with Polish vodka.

  • “There’s a little bit of maple syrup everywhere,” says Chef Aidan O’Neal, whose new restaurant Chez Ma Tante opened in the former Jimmy’s space on Greenpoint’s Calyer Street… That a Vancouver native who spent five years in Montreal prior to moving to NYC would employ Canada’s sweet liquid gold wherever possible is not surprising, but O’Neal’s employing a nuanced, measured hand. He and chef de cuisine Jake Leiber—who met working at Cafe Altro Paradiso—lacquer salmon gravlax with gin and maple syrup while it’s drying to build up its texture, combine it with chardonnay vinegar to finish a falafel dish, and there’s a little bit of it on the rhubarb custard tart, too.

  • Considering the moniker means “At My Aunt’s,” the atmosphere is suitably non-pretentious, though the fare in no way could be considered especially homespun. Well befitting a French boite, you’ll find pebbled salmon tartare cured with maple syrup and gin, grilled veal steaks paired with creamy, corpulent butter beans, fans of skate wing over sabayon and leeks, and wagyu short rib steak, teamed with wedge-style frites and prune-anchovy ketchup.

Getting There

The Commodore

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The Commodore is the place to go when you’re itching for a campy frozen drink, in a retro setting, with some damn good food to boot. The dive feels like a bar you’d find in Milwaukee in the 70s and once you order a Frozen Pina Colada with Ameretto Float you’ll be transported to that very era. People love The Commodore for its Chicken Sandwich – and with good reason since its made by the same people responsible for Pies n’ Thighs. The menu also features nachos, a burger, and many more artery-clogging delicacies. It’s a great bar so, sure, it gets crowded, but don’t let that keep you away.

Featured Reviews

  • It “looks and acts like a dive bar”, but this Williamsburg standby houses “some of the finest fried chicken and biscuits” going, along with other “revisited” Southern fare and “fabulous cocktails”; its “’70s den” look-alike digs are predictably “packed on weekends”, and the “order-your-food-at-the-bar system isn’t ideal”, but “super-cheap” tabs and an overall “chill vibe” go a long way.

  • First came the gastropub, an import from Britain featuring upmarket pub grub in an ale-drinking setting. Now, welcome the gastrodive, which further blurs the lines between restaurant and bar. The Commodore in Williamsburg, with its old arcade games, Schlitz in a can and stereo pumping out the Knight Rider theme song, offers the city’s best cheap-ass bar eats, served in a seedy venue where folks come to get blotto. The short menu—with descriptions as curt as the service you’ll encounter while ordering your food from the bartender—reads like a classic collection of fryolator junk. But the “hot fish” sandwich, for one, is a fresh, flaky, cayenne-rubbed catfish fillet poking out of both sides of a butter-griddled sesame-seed roll

  • The food is the work of Stephen Tanner, a native of Albany, Ga., who spent much of the last decade working in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, restaurants known for straightforward fare and strong flavors: Diner, Egg, Pies ‘n’ Thighs. Mr. Tanner is talented, but the food at the Commodore shouldn’t be cross-examined too closely. It’s mostly fried, or in a bun, or both. Ingredients are repeated. So are seasonings. So what? The Dead Kennedys never needed more than three chords.

  • In case you aren’t already familiar, The Commodore is a Williamsburg restaurant by Pies ‘n’ Thighs alum Stephen Tanner, and it’s bad for you. Bad because merely looking at the food here will jack up your cholesterol thirty points, and worse because everything is so good that you’ll crave it all the time. Eventually you too will be cutting imaginary deals with your organs to justify frequent visits.

Getting There