Courtesy of Eater.com
1. Klein’s
The casual, all-day spot sits on the ground floor of the Hoxton hotel in Williamsburg. The space is meant to be low-key and approachable for impromptu meals, whether alone or with a crew, and the menu offers simple Americana dishes centered around a wood-burning grill. Klein’s is backed by local restaurateurs Jud Mongell of Greenpoint favorite Five Leaves and Zeb Stewart of Cafe Colette and the legendary Union Pool. The same team also opened a rooftop bar called Summerly and a second-floor terrace bar dubbed Backyard in the hotel.
2. Misi
Chef Missy Robbins — who won endless praise for her wildly popular Italian restaurant Lilia — focuses on pasta at this hotly anticipated follow-up. At Misi, the menu features 10 distinct pasta dishes, which are made in-house in a glass-enclosed pasta room, giving both diners and passersby the chance to watch the pasta-making process. Reservations are consistently booked up a month in advance, but the bar welcomes walk-ins.
3. Mission Chinese Food
Danny Bowien’s new Bushwick iteration of his Sichuan-ish restaurant Mission Chinese features a dining room with changing neon lights that gives the space a dreamlike, clubby atmosphere. The menu includes favorites from the original, like the super spicy Chongqing chicken wings, thrice-cooked bacon, and kung pao pastrami. But it also has dishes unique to the location, like a bacon and shrimp eggroll and sourdough naan with burnt buckwheat honey butter and sheep’s milk cheese.
4. Benelux
The team behind Williamsburg bar Little King opened a new restaurant called Benelux off of the Morgan L stop, bringing on Colby Rasavong, a chef who previously worked at hit Southern restaurant Husk. The diner pulls from Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg for its menu, which translates to mussels, hand-cut fries, and three kinds of sausage. Several burgers and a chicken sandwich are available as well. Lots of wine and beer are on the menu, too.
5. Saint Julivert Fisherie
Chefs Alex Raij and Eder Montero opened this seafood-focused spot in September just a couple of doors down from their acclaimed Spanish restaurant La Vara. The married chef duo step outside their traditionally Spanish-focused cuisine at Saint Julivert to serve fish dishes that pull from the flavors of India, Jamaica, and Portugal, among others. The neighborhood spot has a sleek look, a cocktail and wine menu, and plates meant for sharing. Particularly of note: The tuna casserole made with curry leaf and turmeric.
6. Peaches HotHouse
Craig Samuel and Ben Grossman flipped their barbecue restaurant the Smoke Joint into a second location for their Nashville-style hot chicken hit Peaches HotHouse. This new location in Fort Greene has twice as many seats as the Bed-Stuy original, but it serves the same all-day menu of hot chicken and Southern sides.
7. Haenyeo
Park Slope’s new seafoody Korean restaurant comes from Jenny Kwak, the chef behind the now-closed Manhattan trailblazer Do Hwa. At Haenyeo, she takes a playful approach to Korean flavors, serving traditional dishes like bibimbap and kalbi alongside options with a twist. Tteokbokki, the spicy rice cake dish, comes topped with Oaxacan cheese and chorizo, and oysters with seaweed butter get grilled, New Orleans-style.
8. Oxalis
For the last two years, Daniel alum Nico Russell has been cooking at a popular pop-up called Oxalis, and now, he’s set up permanent shop in Prospect Heights with partners Steve Wong and Piper Kristensen. The restaurant, modeled for European neo-bistros, offers a five-course rotating menu, with snacks like grilled carrots with chamomile, while a backyard patio and bar has an a la carte menu, with options like charred winter greens and pig trotter with mustard. Drinks come from Kristensen, who used to work at Booker and Dax and the Bearded Lady, and include classics with a twist, like an old fashioned with beeswax and lanolin.
9. Japan Village
Industry City is now home to a food hall and market dedicated to all things Japanese food — from takoyaki and yakitori to soba and udon. Japan Village, encompassing 20,000-square-feet, houses food stalls, a liquor store with Japanese sake and whiskey, a butcher shop, an izakaya restaurant, and a Sunrise Market grocery store. The ambitious project — akin to a Japanese version of Eataly — comes from Tony Yoshida and Takuya Yoshida, the owners of the Sunrise Market in Manhattan. Already, people have been swarming the space on weekends.
10. Teo
Former Momofuku chef Joaquin “Quino” Baca opened this izakaya-style Bushwick restaurant, which serves Asian-inspired dishes with an emphasis on Japanese flavors, like with yaki onigiri, katsu-style fried chicken, and eggplant katsudon. There’s also a list of yaki skewers ranging from pork belly with pineapple to rabbit tsukune (meatballs). It’s a casual setting, where prices range from $5 for skewers to $11 for dishes like the fried chicken or duck wings. There’s also ramen for $15.
