The 45 best restaurants in Brooklyn

The new iteration of Gage & Tollner (if you know anything about the place it’s that it enjoyed over a century of success before it closed and the space gave way to an Arby’s and other business) is a sparkler. Its new owners preserved and revived the beautiful dining room, created a dedicated martini menu in addition to other cocktails and authored an enticing dinner lineup overflowing with oysters, steaks, chops, seafood and an excellent fried chicken. 

This Smith Street Thai restaurant serves and excellent study in expertly-calibrated heat. Whether you’re ordering the “stay-away spicy” Udon Thani’s duck salad you’ll experience an intensity of flavors unseen elsewhere in the area. 

This Williamsburg newcomer earned a Michelin star for excellence in “balancing intriguing flavors and textures” like five seconds after it first opened at the end of 2020, and getting reservations was a bear in the months that followed. It’s still a tough ticket at primetime, but things have opened up a bit if you’re willing to sample Francie’s soufflé cakes with caviar, winning pasta options and marvellous dry-aged crown of duck on a weeknight. 

By day (or, Friday-Sunday, at least), Clover Hill is a wonderful brunch-style spot with a sensational croque fromage, French omelette, cheddar grits and duck confit. In the evening, the charming newcomer serves an excellent seafood-focused tasting that might include kombu-cured scallop aguachile, fluke stuffed with stuffed with minced crimini mushrooms and truffles and exceptional desserts. 

The restaurant that followed 2022’s super popular Philadelphia import, Laser Wolf, is even bigger and better than its predecessor at the Hoxton hotel in Williamsburg. The sprawling, verdant space serves great Israeli food, with outstanding savory baklava, lamb tartare, chicken schnitzel, and dorade all on the menu. 

Wonderful Gus’s Chop House on its idyllic brownstone block is just terrific for a nicer than-normal night out, solo steak and martini at the bar, and a deal-ish Sunday roast, replete with abundant sides. 

We keep returning to this darling corner spot for its memorable menu items and variety. The single page dinner menu, divided into snacks, plates and large plates can be mixed and matched numerous ways. We’re partial to the trout rillette, charred lemon skillet mussels and whole fried fish for a little DIY seafood tasting. 

Birds of a Feather, from the same brilliant team behind Cafe China, has been a popular Sichuan destination since opening in 2017. Its mapo tofu is the best in the borough and the spicy soft shell crab, Chungking spicy chicken, and spicy cumin lamb are excellent, too. Less hot options are available as well, like the braised or steamed whole fish and duck dishes. 

Unstoppable Unapologetic Foods revived the name of its decade-long operation from over the bridge in Manhattan last year, and Park Slope’s Masalawala and Sons ultimately made it to our list of 2022’s best new restaurants. The self-billed “celebration of India’s yesteryears” has sensational dahi vada, keema kaleji with uplifting pao and gawa ghee all on the menu. 

Even in the absence of booze or a bathroom, crowds still flock to this tiny pasta emporium for peak-form house-made meatballs, fettuccini with speck and zucchini, branzino, lasagna and broccoli rabe. There's lots of bars nearby for the other two things. 

Atti’s “fine Korean barbecue” can be a feast of a treat, depending on how many of its excellently sourced cuts of meat you select for further expert grilling assistance at your table. And, even with all of its marvelous filet mignon and American Wagyu, you’ll still be thinking about its egg soufflé long after leaving. 

Almost ten years after opening, Hometown Bar-B-Que is still one of NYC’s hottest smoke joints. It was operating outside-only for several months, but its cavernous yet cozy interior is now back up and running for counter service. 

Cozy up in a creaky corner or near the fireplace and you’ll feel right at home over Vinegar Hill House’s hearty, seasonal new-American plates in no time. It also has two outdoor dining areas across its backyard and sidewalk. 

The reimagined Good Fork returned with pub notes last summer, and not one beat too soon. The beloved and greatly missed neighborhood staple is as lovely as ever, with some fabulous new menu items like the kimchi beer cheese with fried wontons and the “Korean (by way of Philly) cheesesteak sandwich.” 

One of New York City’s best new restaurants of 2021, Nura seems designed for the present and future of dining. Its verdant interior has space for days at its huge center bar and across its nicely-spaced, handsome booths. Highlights from its exceptional menu shine considerably bright. You could visit for the house baked bread alone, and menu items like the grilled prawn make it worth many returns.

The fragrant cuisine of Iran gets the spotlight it deserves at one of New York's relative few Persian restaurants. Dine on roasted eggplant dip, beef-and-potato kebab and rosewater sorbet at this traditional Persian spot in Prospect Heights led by the chef-owner who moved to the city from Iran in the 1980s. 

The couple behind Manhattan favorite Fish Cheeks crossed the river to open this restaurant with “modern interpretation of hundred year-old Thai recipes” to great success last year, as it was introduced to the Michelin Guide and named a James Beard Award semifinalist shortly after. It's also a top spot for heat seekers, a sensation that ascends as you go down the menu, climaxing with the fiery beef tongue curry. 

This Smith Street Szechuan restaurant follows Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant Hupo from the same owner. The popular address fills up fast for mapo tofu, Chongqing chicken and lamb dry pot.  

One of the best new restaurants of 2020, this wife and husband run business serves Caribbean-inspired menus in a lovely space intended to evoke vacation vibes. Sip beachy punch and cocktails with braised oxtail, jerk chicken and jackfruit tacos. Kokomo also gets a head start on every weekend with bottomless brunch on Fridays from 11am-4pm. 

This Prospect Heights favorite is worth the trip for the lovely garden out back alone, and the food has been dazzling lucky visitors since 2016. Olmsted recently switched to multi-course tasting menus, with a continued focus on local, seasonal ingredients. 

For pizza aficionados and industry pros, no one is held in higher esteem than Domenico DeMarco. The veteran pizzaiolo has been turning out Brooklyn’s most-famed pies since the 1960s in a Midwood storefront that hasn’t changed much in the intervening decades. Try it by the slice or whole pie with a vast menu of topping options. 

The Speedy Romeo team’s Michelin-starred Oxomoco focuses on wood-fired dishes in a gleaming white, flora-filled dining room. Taco options like the beet beet “chorizo” variety, lamb barbacoa and market fish share menu space with tostadas, terrific guacamole and all manner of cocktails, including frozen drinks. 

The most dinner party-like experience of all recent years’ promised dinner party-like experiences, Dept of Culture actually delivers on what was once just a trending promise. Its rotating tasting menu is influenced by north-central Nigeria, and has included a bright pepper soup with red snapper and dynamic wara ati obe.

Named for the titular fifteen dishes served family style on its prix fixe pick, this western Turkish restaurant serves more variety in one seating than most places can in a few visits. The atom labneh, Tarama, kimyon garlic shrimp are among some of that number’s best bites. 

A pop-up made permanent in 2020, the bright and airy Rangoon serves traditional Burmese dishes based on generations of family recipes. Small plate standouts include the ginger pork meatballs, along with terrific curries like the fish cake and roast duck varieties, and noodle options like the coconut chicken soup. 

Claro recently changed its format to all prix fixe, but plenty of its familiar best dishes are included. The wonderful short rib chilaquiles are available as one of three courses for $45 at brunch and the mole rojo is on the $72 four-course dinner menu. Wine, beer, cocktails and spirits flights are available at either time. 

Vegan Ethiopian cuisine tops tables across Ras Plant Based’s mural-lined 65-seat space. Equally suited to small parties and larger groups, its easy to share selections like seitan tibs, royal trumpet mushroom dulet and gomen to pair with crafty cocktails. 

This small, stellar Caribbean joint in Bed-Stuy’s marquee stars are known citywide. The former is a handheld fried dough bun stuffed with salt fish or fried sand shark and topped with a tangy-sweet tamarind sauce. The latter is built on a base of bara (fried dough) and filled with sundry items

The unique Middle Eastern cuisine at Tanoreen has been impressing in Bay Ridge since 1998. The menu is extensive, and the mhammara is a must order: walnuts, pomegranate molasses, red bell peppers and spices pureed into a rich dip that goes well on almost anything. 

A stylish recent addition to Brooklyn Heights, Inga’s Bar also has substance on its food and drink menus. Its dining room and bar are both comfortable spots to eat and drink items like the simply prepared Romance Language cocktail, terrific fisherman’s stew and a celery Victor with anchovy and parmesan worth many return trips. 

Run by husband and wife team Eder Montero and Alex Raij, this charming Cobble Hill tapas joint celebrates the Jewish and Moorish influences on Spanish cuisine. Its menu is equal parts unique, crowd pleasing, and easy to share. 

You’ll get a spread of selections like red lentils in berbere sauce, mashed split peas simmered with tomato, and a chickpea stuffing with kale at this vegetarian Ethiopian charmer. Visit with a group and you might just manage to try everything on the menu; or come alone so you don’t have to share. 

This is one of the classic NYC pizza destinations for devotees of the category from near and far. The generously-sauced, cheese-topped squares are punctuated by a sprinkle of Parm, but require no other embellishment. 

Chef Nick Perkins, a veteran of Andrew Tarlow’s Williamsburg empire of Diner and Marlow & Sons, brings some serious chops to this Bed-Stuy beauty. In the 30-seat dining room (marble-topped bar, cushioned banquettes) designed by Perkins’s brother, Russell, the toque turns out Mediterranean-focused plates that are always elevated but never fussy.

The team behind area favorites French Louie and Buttermilk Channel have triangulated South Brooklyn with their latest venture, Victor in Gowanus. This one serves a very nice charred octopus, tasty whole fish and terrific half chicken in its subtly stylish dining room and, like a lot of places, out on the sidewalk. 

The roomy counter at Agi’s is so lovely you might want to swap your laptop for a cute little notebook or eschew your work-from-wherever plans and simply bask in its loveliness. Do so over coffee, tea and espresso drinks and marvelous menu items like leberkäse breakfast sandwich, nosh plate and fantastic baked goods. 

Em Vietnamese Bistro followed the highly-regarded Em Vietnamese Restaurant farther south in Brooklyn last year. The second Em is billed as a Vietnamese tapas spot and boasts the duo’s only full bar. 

There’s a lot to recommend Peppa’s, but the perfectly grilled smoked chicken keeps us coming back. You can easily pay a lot more for NYC’s finest fowl, and this stands up to the best of them.

Daily changing menus mean you shouldn’t get too attached, but the variety is one thing that will keep you coming back to this convivial, natural-wine–focused restaurant. Recent menu items included yellowfin tuna, olive oil poached cod and fried chicken. 

This cheery work-from-cafe spot has all manner of caffeine concoctions like cà phê trứng with espresso, condensed milk, sugar and egg yolk to keep you tapping on the laptop all day long. It also serves great bánh mì, bún bowls and housemade gelato in flavors like amaretto and chocolate-raspberry. Diem Eatery also has the most darling bathroom this side of Atlantic Avenue. 

Oasis is our no-fail, no-frills, go-to for falafel platters and pita sandwiches. Even though they’re both decently sized, it’s hard to pass up the hummus and baba ghanouj, too. 

This daytime only, cafeteria-style vegetarian spot beneath a Hare Krishna temple in Downtown Brooklyn draws fans from near and far. Menus are frequently updated and a main dish like the spinach lasagna, plus sides, soup, salad and bread runs $12. 

This Michelin Bib Gourmand spot has been a Cortelyou Road favorite since 2009. Its stellar adobo, the national dish of the Philippines, features chicken braised in a soy-vinegar mix to remarkably rich effect with a buttery finish.

Unlike its beloved original whole pie location Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop is all about the classic New York slice. Vegan options are available alongside the locally famous cheesy, saucy Freddy Prince.

This airy Williamsburg pasta parlor has perfected the form, as evidenced by the crowds that still accrue six years after it first opened. Many visit for the mafaldine with pink peppercorn, and mains of land and sea also abound.