The end of the year is peak “best of” season in NYC. In addition to the typical categories like the best new restaurants and bars, I always think about the less obvious hospitality heroes. The best place you can successfully reach by phone. The best happy hour that’s accurately detailed online somewhere. And the best buzzy spots where you can actually get a table.
Café Camellia in Williamsburg is one of those. After opening in April, the southern charmer appeared on The New York Times’ list of the best restaurants in the U.S. That type of attention sometimes sucks up tables like a couple of dogs eating spaghetti in an alleyway, but Gulf Coast-focused Café Camellia’s have remained curiously available.
The understated dining room (previously divided on its reservation platform into “front” and “back” sections without enough difference to make the distinction more useful than it was confusing) is casually elegant like a breezy beach house. The capable bar is on the left and there’s garden seating in the back. Despite its booking abundance, Café Camellia also seems to crowd just to the perfect capacity: enough to feel lively, but not so much that you end up rushed.
To start, the fried pickled green tomatoes ($12) are passably crisp, but not quite done to a crunch. Their plating atop what the menu lists as ‘bama bernaise—a pleasant multipurpose sauce—exacerbates the matter, and it might be better on the side. It’s still an overall enjoyable dish. The braised collard greens ($12) are more of a must, silken and lightly bitter, bolstered by rich pork shoulder bits. And the fried crab claws ($20) are one of this moment’s most perfect snacks, or apps, or, why not just have the half-pound basket for dinner, as tasty and fun as they are to eat; “like an artichoke” a server might say. These alone, a little like shrunken frogs’ legs, are worth a visit, but the dedicated entrées are great, too.
A blackened catfish ($22) is prepared in a cast iron for a dynamic finish that happily marries the filet’s mild, firmly tender interior to its zippy, Cajun-seasoned surface. The substantially portioned bone-in Delmonico that calls to mind caveman cartoons is flame-grilled and topped with a medallion of the good butter for a rich, velvety, passionate affair with medium rare. And, while I am generally a restaurant dessert detractor (Le Rock, Bar Mario and Gage & Tollner being fairly recent exceptions), Café Camellia’s Key Lime ($12) pie is an exquisite contribution to the category.
Vitals
The Vibe: A warmly inviting, special neighborhood restaurant that’s lively without overflowing.
The Food: Self-billed southern fare with great fried crab claws, collard greens and a bone-in steak among standouts. Get dessert.
The Drinks: Cocktails, beer and wine.
Time Out Tip: Take the Delmonico bone home for Sunday’s gravy.
Café Camellia is located at 318 Graham Avenue. It is open Monday-Saturday from 5pm-12am, although the kitchen closes at 10.
