The best restaurants in Greenpoint

As Brooklyn hotspots spread beyond Williamsburg, other neighbourhoods are now standing out as culinary centres. One of the best is Williamsburg’s neighbour to the north: Greenpoint. Dotted with chic independent boutiques, vintage stores, and third-wave coffee shops, the former Polish enclave is a mixture of cultures and classes that have diversified its cuisine offerings. Now, the neighbourhood is home to a budding Japanese scene, excellent pizza, several high-end tasting menus, and one of the city’s best bakeries – all of which you’ll discover in our list of Greenpoint’s best restaurants. 

Lingo 

Opened in 2023, this cosy spot features an airy bar up front and an intimate room out back with artistic wavy-shaped glass lighting. The menu, by chef Emily Yuen, has a Japanese-American feel, thanks to her time cooking at Japanese restaurant Bessou. 

This translates into unique appetisers like a smoky tomago sandwich, agedashi warm burrata (inspired by the tofu dish of the same name), and roasted bone marrow steak tartare topped with cheddar and served with nori. Mains are no less creative; the star is the stunning Lingo beef pie, but the spicy fried chicken is a close second. Cocktails are also innovative – like the Lingo, which mingles Japanese whisky, calvados, sakura bitters, and absinthe. 

HOUSE at 50 Norman 

50 Norman is a former warehouse that’s been revitalised as a hub for Japanese food and culture. It’s now home to Dashi Okume, a renowned Japanese dashi counter originally from Tokyo, an outpost of art and design shop Cibone, and HOUSE, a tasting counter with just eight seats that mirrors the Tokyo original. 

HOUSE’s Michelin-starred chef Yuji Tani moved to Greenpoint from Japan in 2019 and can be found in the open kitchen every night. There are no menus here; instead, diners are served seven ever-changing courses of French-Japanese cuisine. But some signatures will endure, including a stunning strawberry burrata dish and a rich foie gras pilaf studded with homemade pickles. 

Radio Bakery

This bakery immediately created long lines on India Street when it opened last year, with punters clamouring to get their hands on addictive baked goods like cheesy pretzel bear claws, Earl Grey morning buns, croissants and cookies, and focaccias with everything spice, shakshuka, and sausage and peppers. 

There are also freshly baked bread loaves and, at lunchtime, sandwiches like tomato and feta or spicy tofu with scallion tahini and chilli crisp. The shop itself is tiny, with only a small bar for seating and a few tables outside, but once you taste the goods you’ll definitely want to come back for more.

Paulie Gee’s

Paulie Gianonne was a pizza connoisseur before he was a pizzaiolo. He used to work in IT, until he pursued his passion for pizza and opened this shop back in 2010, which references the classic Brooklyn pizza shops of this youth. His pizzas though, have a twist of new and funky flavour and topping combinations.

You can order pizzas like Hellboy (mozzarella, tomatoes, Berkshire soppressanta picante, Parmigiano Reggiano, and hot honey) and Grapeful Dead (Gouda, Parmagiano Reggiano, baby spinach, olive oil, and house-pickled red grape halves). And unlike many others, this pizza shop is a sit-down affair, with full pies and waiter service only. For a grab-and-go slice, head around the corner to Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop.

Uzuki

Shuichi Kotani, a soba master who’s been making soba and other Japanese noodles for more than 25 years, opened his first restaurant, Uzuki, at the end of 2023. The menu is prix-fixe style, where diners get a set of soba-centric appetisers, followed by a choice of soba noodles from a small selection of bukkake-style soba with toppings and sauce (always with one vegan option), and a soba dessert – we recommend the soba ice cream.

To drink, there is sake from the Tsuki no Katsura brewery, Fushimi’s oldest sake brewery, along with soba-beer. Kotani is always on hand to share the health benefits of naturally gluten-free soba (buckwheat), which he mills into soba flour on-site, making all his noodles by hand in a painstaking process. That’s not all: he also sculpted all the pottery bowls used for the soba.

Chez Ma Tante

Brooklyn breathed a collective sigh of relief when this beloved French-by-way-of-Montréal bistro reopened in July after an unexpected closure in February. Thankfully, its much-adored fluffy pancakes are back on the brunch menu, alongside classics like kedgeree and a seasonal quiche; it’s the ultimate neighbourhood spot with above-par food worth waiting in line for.

At dinner, you’ll find oysters with parsley mignonette, kohlrabi salad, chicken liver pâté, and skate frites au poivre. Save room for the maple crème brûlée – the perfect combination of Canadian and French heritages.

Fulgurances Laundromat

Tucked inside an old laundromat (hence the name), this intimate restaurant features candlelit tables, a tin ceiling, exposed brick walls, and cosy furnishings, plus an open kitchen to watch the action. However, what’s exciting about this restaurant is that the food – and the chef – are constantly changing.

Just like the original restaurant in Paris, Fulgurances hosts a rotating residency of chefs from across the globe, serving as an incubator for rising chefs or those in between jobs. Each rendition offers a six-course pre-fixe menu and a limited à la carte menu for walk-ins. Previous chefs include Victoria Blamey, now the chef at the revived Blanca, and Antoine Villard, the former chef de cuisine of Septime and Double Dragon in Paris. 

Ilis

Ilis is the first solo restaurant by Mads Refslund, one of Noma’s co-founders. The old warehouse space has been converted into an industrial chic restaurant centred around a large open kitchen, and the flexible menus cater to your level of hunger, ranging from five to 12 courses of precisely plated delights.

The word ‘ilis’ is a combination of the Danish words ild (fire) and is (ice), and so the menu presents both hot and cold preparations of each dish. What's on offer frequently changes, but you can expect Noma-esque touches like a chilled zucchini beverage with a straw made from the plant’s stem, and a surf clam, tomato water, and smoked dashi course served in a vessel made from the clamshell.

Restaurant Yuu

This theatrical spot is chef and owner Yuu Shimano’s first solo project, and his Japanese background and French training are on full display during the 16-course, seasonal tasting menu. Before the meal begins, Yuu and his staff present a platter full of glistening ingredients to waiting diners, including the likes of lobster, Japanese Crown melon, and the unbaked dry-aged duck en croûte.

Then, the curtains swish open, revealing the kitchen, and the cooking show begins. Aside from the duck, other highlights from our visit included squid and caviar, based on the traditional Japanese dish of ika somen, and the wagyu with sauce bordelaise – an elevated version of a wagyu sando. At the end, guests are escorted to cosy parlour areas where they’re served tea and petit fours. No wonder Shimano was awarded a Michelin star after less than a year in business.