The Brooklyn Hit List: The Best New Restaurants In Brooklyn

Ren in Williamsburg doesn’t serve alcohol, but that actually works for the Chinese restaurant with cozy pots of tea and well-priced, sharable portions. There are several hot tea varieties and cold tea drinks—we like the buttery Jin Xuan—and a menu of dim sum plus Sichuan classics. Split some spicy, chili-speckled squid legs, slurp nutty dan dan noodles with salty pops of fermented black beans, and chew on stir fried cumin lamb in a warmly lit room with calming, moss green walls.

Ugly Baby was one of our top-rated restaurants—and a rite of passage for anyone searching for their spice tolerance ceiling—until it closed last year. Almost overnight, a few former employees turned the Carroll Gardens spot into Hungry Thirsty, and if you really miss Ugly Baby, this place will get you a good percentage of the way there, with beloved dishes like shrimp and squid stir-fried in rich egg yolk sauce making an appearance. But it also carves out its own path, with Southern Thai-style fried branzino in a sour, chili-studded sauce, and leng zaab, a spare rib soup, prettily topped with herbs. It’s not Ugly Baby, but Hungry Thirsty is still a great place to catch up over some excellent Thai food.

We know it’s almost too cold for a Red Hook excursion, but here’s what’s waiting for you on the other side: golden-brown fried saltines and gouda pimento cheese, cold “meatloaf” tea sandwiches on pillowy white bread, and a hot fudge sundae. Pitt’s, the new restaurant from the team behind Agi’s Counter, is a funky spot in the old Fort Defiance space with a framed painting of a martini and a Cheez-It on the wall, and rabbit figurines in every corner. Bring a few people so you can try every dessert, and don’t be freaked out when you notice that your server’s wearing an earpiece—it’s for the pancake soufflé, which they cut open tableside, fill with warm maple syrup, and serve alongside a big pat of salty butter.

This restaurant inside a Fort Greene brownstone makes Afro-Caribbean food that’s as vibrant on the plate as it is on the palate—like a hamachi crudo served on a whirl of ruby sorrel and electric green chive oil. And though it’s an elegant space, with cane-backed chairs and pea-green banquettes, it’s not too formal: you may spot the bartender dance-shaking your clarified rhum agricole cocktail to the beat of “Party All the Time.” The ackee and saltfish egg rolls with a punchy scotch bonnet aioli are good, but prioritize the goat puff pastry. If this thing were a passed hors d'oeuvre at a wedding, we’d tackle the bride’s grandmother for the last one.

Nothing will ever measure up to sitting on the patio at L&B Spumoni Gardens in Gravesend  (since 1939) and eating a thick, gooey square pie. At their second location in Dumbo, there’s no parking lot, no patio, and no metal picnic tables that leave imprints on the backs of your thighs after a drip-down-your-hands spumoni cone on a hot summer day. Still, the pizza here is just as good. Bring a visitor who is set on taking that photo under the Brooklyn Bridge, and remind them that the best view in New York isn’t the underside of a bridge—it’s an upside down slice, or a spumoni cone.

Entre Nous, a Clinton Hill wine bar from the Fradei team, joins a recent crop of cozy French bistro-esque spots. It’s preposterously cute, with shrimp cocktail priced by piece, and soppy oeufs mayo available by the half-egg, and the large glass windows, long mahogany bar, and wooden bookcase filled with wine bottles provide the perfect backdrop for asking a date you just met about their siblings. If things are going well by your first glass of gamay, get the $36 plateau: a mix of oysters, shrimp and mussels pickled in champagne vinegar. The menu is heavy on charcuterie and fromage, but they have some small plates; we like the leeks in vinaigrette and tartiflette croquettes, served with reblochon cheese your server implies is smuggled in from France.

This seafood spot on the Red Hook waterfront is a revival of Lundy's, a massive Sheepshead Bay institution that opened in 1926. The new restaurant already feels like it’s been operating for decades, with a soundtrack of ’50s hits, an old wood bar, and crumbly biscuits made from the original recipe. It's a good choice for a multi-generational family gathering, or a dinner with your partner to celebrate the fight you didn’t have at Ikea. (Or make up after the one you did.) Get the crisp, golden Rhode Island-style calamari and the not-too-sweet huckleberry pie.

F&F Pizzeria has a new sit-down restaurant, and fans of Brooklyn’s premiere garlic-buttery clam pie should know that this is very much on the menu at F&F Restaurant—but in personal pie form. This is no casual slice shop though: there are white tablecloths, dark wood walls, and a menu that goes beyond pizza. Bring your family or a few friends, and after making everybody try the clam pie, move onto things like a bowl of ultra-lemony scampi, and a deeply charred calzone oozing with ricotta and wild boar. 

If one of your simple pleasures involves eating general tso’s chicken on your couch, by all means, keep doing that. But on an evening when you’d like that general tso’s chicken with a side of lychee martini, go to Sal Tang’s. The Cobble Hill restaurant from the folks behind Cafe Spaghetti and Cha Cha Tang makes slightly zhuzhed-up Cantonese American classics. Try the thick-skinned fried pork dumplings, a tangy hot and sour soup dotted with chili oil, and the perfectly simple fried rice, which comes on a silver platter. Also a lychee martini, and of course, a fortune cookie with the check.

If Bernie’s is for martinis with your friends, then The Snail around the corner is for wine with your crush. This American bistro in Greenpoint was built for dates, with universally flattering lighting and retro cabinet speakers playing mid-’90s hip-hop. Even the shrimp cocktail is romantic—served over ice, a lit candle flickering in the middle of the platter. We love the house caesar, with crunchy fried capers and an aggressive dusting of pecorino, but what you really need to know is that the house wines are only $9 a glass, and quite good. Enjoy the red, an organic grenache, with a very cheesy burger.

Open a bakery and the crowds will come, even on a Monday morning in the rain. In the case of Welcome Home in Bed-Stuy, the crowds aren’t unexpected—after all, the all-green bakery is run by two friends who met while working together at cult-favorite L’Appartement 4F. The corn cookies taste like pleasantly lemony cornbread topped with a toasty marshmallow, and there’s a satisfying Pig in Bed, which is just a funny name for a croissant-like pig in a blanket. The seeded bread is good too, and we’ve got our eyes on the Billy Baguette. It’s named for one of the owners, and is studded with green olives.

Great news for those of you with a thing for pickled herring: Smør, the Scandinavian cafe, has crossed over from the East Village with a second, larger location in Clinton Hill. It’s just as minimalist as the original—white walls, light wood seating—yet still inviting, with large windows and a skylight. While you could stop by during the day for a cardamom bun or smørrebrød on dense Danish rye, we’d highly recommend checking it out at dinner. Then, you can pair some interesting wines and vermouths with shrimp in many exciting forms, including a fried shrimp sandwich with herby tartar sauce. Or get the stellar tuna tartare, with silky diced fish and creamy stracciatella—a couple with instant on-plate chemistry.

Poor Manhattanites. They thought they were getting Chrissy’s Pizza. After frequent pop-ups and rumors of a permanent location in the East Village, these thin-crust pizza experts have opened a brick-and-mortar in Greenpoint. And if you get there closer to 2pm open, you can finally try one of their pies—no slices, sorry. They’re crispy, with a dimpled layer of mozzarella, and a crust so light that we’d happily eat the leftovers off a crust hater’s plate. Make use of the sidewalk, the adjacent Citi Bike station, and maybe even the hood of a nearby car, and treat the whole thing as an impromptu party, celebrating the arrival of one of New York’s most promising pizzas.