The Lodge

The idea is appealing: Lose yourself inside a lodgelike restaurant while chowing down on comfort food. The reality is a little less so. Visitors to this Williamsburg corner restaurant will certainly appreciate the kitschy-cool decor—faux-antler chandeliers, stone walls and cedar-plank furniture—and the amiable, down-to-earth staff. The food is another matter. Chef Sean Hammond has put together a short list of simple, familiar dishes including beer-battered onion rings, fried chicken, turkey meat loaf and garlic mashed potatoes. But the results aren’t always so inviting. The chicken and dumplings were a bland contrast of mushy and mushier, and the apple-cheddar fritters came with a far-from-delicate, oily shell. Grab a seat outside at one of the sidewalk-café tables, have a few beers, and you might not notice the crashing sounds of the glasses and plates as the busboy loudly dumps them into the dirty-dish bin.