c/o NY Mag

20 Skillman Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.218.7272

Cuisine: Comfort food
Our Rating: ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $
Hours: Sun-Thurs 4pm-2am; Fri-Sat 4pm-5am
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Graham Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
Citysearch says:

On the same stretch of blocks as Galapagos, Northsix and Sweet Water Tavern, Anytime appeases streams of bargoers with its round-the-clock eats. Its small industrial space is painted in white, gray and orange, and holds a takeout counter with a couple of suspended wooden-beam tables. The best thing about the space, though, is skipping it and getting snacks delivered to your door.Grilled sandwiches, soups and toasts (such as smoked mozzarella and roasted peppers) provide the primary sustenance, along with appetizers in the jalapeno popper/buffalo wing family. The eight-ounce burger arrives well-done on a shiny bun–comforting stuff, especially when accompanied by tater tots. Potato leek and scallion soup is green and flavorful, and the balanced fruit yogurt shake satisfies. Anytime’s menu shifts with the seasons, offering chilled soups and sophisticated salads in the summer.

New York Mag says:

Can a late-night restaurant with offerings that run the gamut from low-brow mozzarella sticks to ambitious pan-seared salmon actually be any good? Yes. And happily, this establishment on Williamsburg’s North Side succeeds in being most things to most people. Your image-conscious friends will dig its hipness: banquets swathed in nubby orange upholstery cradle Diesel- and Seven-sheathed behinds on a regular basis. Cash-strapped pals will appreciate the excellent value. After a couple of drinks, even you’ll be pleased with the availability of cheap, greasy tater tots and chicken fingers at post-last call hours. And once you’ve sobered up enough to have your culinary wits about you, try the silky and tangy hummus with a garlicky bite—a point of pride with the Israeli owner.

c/o The Breukelen

513 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.388.3021

Cuisine: Indian
Our Rating: ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $
Hours: Mon-Sat 1pm-Midnight; Sun Noon-1opm
Booze: None
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
NY Mag says:

While it boasts too many Pan-Asian places to count, Williamsburg is severely lacking in Indian options. Brooklynite Alex Azad saw an opportunity, and opened this organic spot in late 2009. White tile floors, bare white walls, and fluorescent lights create a somewhat sterile ambience, but streaming Bollywood music videos and white tablecloths and linen both soften and jazz it up. Aloo masala, with potatoes, corn, and peas in a light, slightly crispy roll, makes a nice starter. An order of naan bread arrives warm and fluffy enough to share. The go-to chicken tikka masala in a tasty cream sauce is especially tender, though under-spiced for most, while beef bhuna gosht, spiced with garlic and ginger, and mixed-vegetable curry harbor more flavor. Besides the standards, the menu offers more-interesting seafood entrées—like shrimp vindaloo and lobster tikka masala—but call first, since availability is limited.

Metromix says:

Like Clark Kent without the costume change, Williamsburg’s superhero-themed Action Burger quickly morphed into Comic Burger soon after opening. Unfortunately, it seemed too much effort went into the goofy gimmick, and not enough into the quality of the wares. Its replacement, Curry Heaven, certainly isn’t overreaching in the high-concept department: The clean, no-frills space is purely utilitarian, with no comic-book kitsch in sight. Brooklynite Alex Azad is a first-time restaurant owner, but notes that his chef has over 35 years of experience in the kitchen. The menu incorporates the range of organic Indian cuisine—not sticking to any one region—and covers the basics like chicken tikka masala and tandoori lamb and vegetables.

c/o Thousands Bars

519 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 1121
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718.384.6429

Cuisine: Mexican
Our Rating: ★ ★
Cards: All Major
Price: $
Hours: 12pm-Midnight Daily
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
NY Mag says:

A restaurant claiming to serve Mexican “style” food usually warns off seekers of authentic eats, but if you hold off on the rush to judgment, first impressions are fortunately deceiving on this corner of an as of yet ungentrified chunk of Williamsburg. Past the slapdash streamers and liquor ads, a few well-chosen pieces of art dot the unassuming space. One sip of a margarita or mojito showcases an able hand at the bar, and a glimpse behind a curtained-off area reveals a comfy lounge, prone to playing contemporary Latin rock come nightfall. The menu proves itself in similarly small, impressive ways. Crunchy, El Paso-style shells on the taco plate are an initial turnoff, but a cautious bite delivers a stuffing of particularly well-seasoned chunks of beef. And while enchiladas Suizas may look sloppy and gloppy, the accompanying salsa verde is agreeably full of cilantro, and crema fresca as a welcome, authentic touch. The real finds, however, are the Ecuadorian specialties: Shrimp ceviche marinated in fresh tomato, lime juice, red onion, and cilantro, and weekend-only specials like goat stew pull out all the authentic gustatory stops.

Blackbook Mag says:

Fronts as Mexican, but actually serves South American versions of staples like salsa, enchiladas, and burritos. Hard-shell tacos and nachos. Probably best if you’re here to knock back a few margaritas and not eat at all. Cheap interior is actually comfy, with mellow wood, crimson walls. Loungey feel near the long bar, cranked volume on the sound system keeps things festive.

Fette Sau

354 Metropolitan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.963.3404

Cuisine: Barbeque
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: Mastercard and Visa
Price: $$
Hours: 5pm-2am Daily
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave. or Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes (except on Fri & Sat)
We Say:

Standing in line at Williamsburg’s newest barbecue joint, I witnessed something close to a miracle. The strangers on either side of my party wanted to engage in conversation. Card-carrying hipsters, notorious for cold shoulders and silent treatment, wanted to discuss the meat counter where we were heading. They asked questions and offered ordering advice, like one pound of pork shoulder should be enough for two people. For a restaurant to create an atmosphere of engagement is a feat that will keep crowds coming back, despite the long waits in line.
Fette Sau, which means “fat pig” in German, opened its doors in March 2007, brought to us by the owners of Spuyten Duyvil — a favorite beer garden across the street. Kim and Joe Carroll transformed a former auto-body repair shop into industrial barbecue cavern with a whole wall of hand painted cuts-of-meat, a fake fire burning on the television screen and heavy picnic tables — both inside and out. At the bar in the back you can choose from a wide selection of whisky or take a pint, quart or half gallon growler of beer back to your table to wash down the greasy meats.
At the meat counter, if it’s pork shoulder you want, arrive early. I have yet to try it, since the kitchen can’t keep up with the high demand. My reluctance to taste the recommended alternative, dissipated the moment I bit into the buttery moist pork belly, piled high on my butcher paper-covered tray. The brisket and sausage is also a hit. My only complaint is, with the exception of the smoky pork-laden baked beans, the side dishes are a huge let down and should be avoided. The broccoli salad was soggy with vinegar and the potatoes in the potato salad were undercooked and needed salt. Pay homage to Dr. Atkins and stick to the meat counter. And if you’re a vegetarian, just stick to the whiskey or beer. We’re hoping the Fette Sau will hire a pastry chef to prepare a juicy key lime pie to cleanse the palate after the full meat encounter. Until then, there’s beer, whiskey and the company of strangers.

Gothamist says:

Fette Sau (German for Fat Pig) rests back from the street off Metropolitan Ave, in an old garage outfitted with what is one of Brooklyn’s newest barbecue joints. It is rightly getting loads of press for its food, but what many of them forget to mention is that it’s also loaded with one of the most impressive collections of bourbons in the city. We counted 55 different ones the last time we were there, which sounds more like a dare than a list. It isn’t all about the different variations of Jim Beam, either. They have New York’s only bourbon, Hudson Baby Bourbon, and Four Roses, which just recently came on the New York market. Six bucks can score you a cheaper, rougher style (Rebel Yell!) that will probably suit those ribs better. If you’ve got extra cash burning a whole in your wallet, go for the $18 Pappy Van Winkle. They are all served in nifty snifers and can come however you like to suck it back.

c/o City Guide

295 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.387.1919

Cuisine: Vegan Fast Food
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $
Hours: Sun-Mon 11:30am-11pm; Tue-Thurs 11:30am-midnight; Fri-Sat 11:30am-2am; Sun 11:30am-11pm
Booze: None
Subway: L to Bedford Ave. or Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
City Guide says:

The online manifesto of this vegan restaurant is stuffed like a punching bag with utopian slogans. It pledges, for example, “to provide free food for workers on strike.” It would be funny to see a picket line of hungry Teamsters take these idealists at their word. There’s nothing like a mock beef quesadilla or a no-chicken cutlet sandwich to take the edge off a hard day spent fighting the man. But whatever your tastes, there’s no denying the good intentions behind the solid vegan cooking at this cheery, brightly painted Williamsburg cafe. The menu warns that the faux bones in their faux chicken are not for eating and “may present a choking hazard to children and the elderly.” More importantly, the owners recognize that though meat can be murder, it also has unbeatable texture and mouth-feel. They do their best to replicate the joys of fast food, skimping only on the milking and the slaughtering.

NY Mag says:

Imagine the snack bar at the local ice rink in the town where you grew up: the friendly bar where you ordered; the garish décor; the plastic trays and baskets; the laminated tables and booths; and the greasy fried food, too-sweet soda, and impossibly thick milkshakes. Now imagine that spot without any signs of actual meat or dairy products and situated in dripping-with-irony Williamsburg and you’ve got yourself Foodswings, the greasiest vegan spoon in town. They manage to create some convincing deep-fried favorites out of soy products. The typical snack bar fare—hotdogs, hamburgers, nachos—is augmented by salads and lighter sandwiches, and the novel “milk” shake flavors, like peanut butter and jelly and pistachio, give McDonalds a run for its money. The “chicken” drumsticks in Buffalo, barbecue, and Southern-fried versions particularly impress, approximating their free-range equivalent in taste and texture—though diners should beware the chopstick-like bone at their center.

c/o Yelp

172 Grand St
(Between 1st St & Bedford Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.782.7596

Cuisine: Chinese
Our Rating: ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $
Hours: Mon-Thur 11am-11:30pm; Fri-Sat 11am-12:30am; Sun 12pm-11:30pm
Booze: None
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
We say:

Standard greasy counter joint.

Khao Sarn

311 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.963.1238

Cuisine: Thai
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $
Hours: Sun-Thurs 11:30am-midnight; Fri-Sat 11:30am-1am
Booze: Full bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
NY Daily News says:

The area already boasts several Thai restaurants, but this relative newcomer has won raves for its flavorful, authentic cooking. The large menu features the familiar, like Thai red curry ($6.50-$7.95), along with the unusual, like the som tom platter (papaya salad, barbecue chicken/Thai sun-dried beef, and sweet sticky rice, $7.95).

The New York Times says:

Khao Sarn is a sweet and simple place. Judging by its plywood benches, strewn with soft pillows, the rough-hewn counter and the paper menus that double as takeout flyers. It’s a low-budget operation and that is part of its charm. The food is low-key, spicy but not fiery, delicately balanced between hot, sour, salty and sweet, rather than overtly assertive. Soups are superb, especially the tom yum, spicy, full of shrimp and gloriously sour yet fresh, and the tom kha, made rich and soothing with coconut milk and tender chicken breast. Curries are likewise deftly prepared, full of flavors that grow slowly in the mouth. The pad Thai was supple and slightly moist. The restaurant offers the usual desserts with one exception, the unfortunately named Thai sticks. These are excellent little beignets, crisp yet billowy, served with a dipping sauce of sweet condensed milk and crushed peanuts.
Other recommended dishes: Squid salad, pork larb, massaman curry.

c/o NY Mag

533 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
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718.782.7372

Cuisine: French Bistro
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: Cash Only
Price: $$
Hours: Mon-Thurs, 11am-4pm, 6pm-midnight; Fri 11am-4pm, 6pm-2am; Sat 11am-2am; Sun 11am-midnight
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
NY Mag says:

When he opened Marquet Patisserie in Boerum Hill in the late eighties, Jean-Pierre Marquet was a Smith Street pioneer. Since then, he’s relocated to Court Street, sold his Manhattan and Fort Greene outposts, and bought a manufacturing plant in Bushwick. Now he’s branched into the bistro business with Le Barricou, a Williamsburg restaurant whose French street signs leave no doubt about the restaurant’s provenance. Chef-partner Joab Masse’s menu, though, takes a multicultural approach, offering coq au vin alongside salmon over Asian long beans with Thai barbecue sauce.

Shecky’s says:

Ah, Williamsburg, home of too cool for school hipsters, kitschy bars, and…thankfully a crop of dining hot spots. So maybe you won’t be transported to gay old Paris when you enter Le Barricou, but owner Jean Pierre Marquet and chef Joab Masse have definitely added some foreign flair to the neighborhood. The eclectic menu features everything from burgers and lamb shank to Thai mussels ($9) and the French favorite, Coq Au Vin ($15). The spacious restaurant, plastered with vintage news clippings, allows you several options for seating as well. Enjoy your meal at a table for two or make new friends over the modest selection of beer and wine at the elongated wooden bar. Lest you forget you’re in the Burg, the old school foosball table in the back serves as a gentle reminder. Le sigh.

Life Cafe

983 Flushing Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11206
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718.386.1133

Cuisine: Comfort Food/Bar Food/Vegetarian
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $
Hours: Sun-Thurs 1oam-midnight; Fri-Sat 10am-1am
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Morgan Ave.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
NY Mag says

Just as the original East Village Life Cafe was a haven for that neighborhood’s early gentrifiers, Brooklyn’s Life Cafe 983 caters to the new crop of young artists skulking about the otherwise industrial neighborhood of Bushwick,. Part cafe, part local bar, Life is an oasis on dismal Flushing Avenue that offers hearty, healthful meals that fit the budgets of the local creative set. The menu has slight Mexican influences and the mega burrito ($5.95), turkey club ($5.95) or Chili Q’s (scrambled eggs with tortillas, cheese, salsa, rice and beans, $5.25) pack enough punch to fuel an entire day at the easel. The internet jukebox, rotating display of Brooklyn artists on the deep red walls, and live performances provide atmosphere without the straining self-consciousness of other hipster hangouts.

Blackbook Mag says:

Spinoff of Rent-inspiring East Village original, totally fitting since this nabe approximates the EV of yore. From sunup to sundown, keeps the food steaming and the drinks flowing. Perfect for brunch or late-night bites. Often busy, pick up free eavesdropping alongside your grub.

c/o Staci Schwartz

318 Grand Street,
Brooklyn NY 11211
view map
718.486.9400

Cuisine: American Bistro
Our Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Cards: All major
Price: $$
Hours: Sun 11am-midnight; Fri-Sat 11am-1am
Booze: Full Bar
Subway: L to Bedford Ave. or Lorimer St.
Menu: Click Here
Delivery: Yes
NY Mag says:

Modeled after a cabin in the Adirondacks and situated on an off-the-beaten-path Williamsburg corner, Lodge hits nearly all high notes. Sticking with the natural, open-air theme, two sides of the restaurant are thrown open to the sidewalk. Pine shipped in from upstate New York has been carved into paneling and unique carved wooden chairs. The plush lounge section near the bar, where youngsters sip mojitos, limoncello martinis, and low-price beer and single-batch bourbons, has tables made from tree stumps. Counters are made from mortar and stone, and faux antler chandeliers hang above. Dishes change slightly daily, based on greenmarket offerings. Buttermilk garden salad, beer-battered onion rings, Yukon gold fries, and doughy apple cheddar fitters are slices of the American West. Whole salmon is crispy and flaking away, matched well with a barbecue-style potato and green bean salad with mustard-mayonnaise dressing. Fried chicken is a model of what fried chicken should be, with thick battered skin and succulent, plentiful meat, offset by bitter kale and garlic mashed potatoes, both drenched in butter. Even if you’re stuffed, consider ordering the understated flourless chocolate cake or the moist and compulsively eatable carrot cake. Lodge is worth the hike.

The Village Voice says:

Though Lodge qualifies as a theme restaurant, I’m not quite sure what the theme is. The business card pictures a red Adirondack lodge, while the split-level interior is more Frank Lloyd Wright, furnished with irregular limestone pillars and moody dark woods. Giant windows flung open to BQE breezes display happy diners tossing back cocktails, as drivers cruise by searching hopelessly for the Williamsburg Bridge. A nautical rope shields sidewalk tables that might have been swiped from a cruise ship, and of the antler light fixtures, one of the Pratt kids noted: “I just saw those in I.D. magazine.” Meanwhile, the perky waitresses—their hair piled high on their heads—strut around in pastel frocks pillaged from Judy Jetson’s closet, or flaunt tattoos so extensive they constitute a diverting costume in themselves.
Lodge follows the current Williamsburg predilection for cheap food and expensive drinks, and many diners begin with one of the strong cocktails–including a killer mojito ($8) served in a jar. Well, it almost killed me. It left me reeling, even before the first appetizer arrived. Some starters are distinguished, including a trio of miniature crab cakes with a roasted-corn salad that makes you wonder how they can be so generous for $10. The Pratt kids—a group of design and writing students from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute I frequently dine with—loved the apple-cheddar fritters ($6), furnished with a sweet, dark dipping sauce, though they admitted that the four doughy thumbs didn’t taste a hell of a lot like either apple or cheddar. Tiger shrimp ($10) fared better, a pile of large shrimp with a crunchy, bumpy crust. Though the giant plate of outsize onion rings looks great as the waitress whisks it by, the beer-batter coating resembles a head-to-toe rubber fetishist’s outfit.
If this is comfort food, it’s been tweaked by cooking-school sensibilities. A $10 chicken-and-dumpling dinner drew me in one evening, even after I’d eaten a bowl of weird-but-good vegetarian pozole just down the block at Taco Chulo. I was hoping for the kind of chicken and dumplings served family-style at Stamm House in Middleton, Wisconsin–pieces of boiled chicken in a livid yellow gravy, with dumplings like small loaves of white bread, soaking up all the gravy if you don’t eat them fast enough. At Lodge, by contrast, a brown-roasted half-bird is deposited in an herbal broth, with grated lemon peel decorating the skin in little artistic heaps. Shaped like French quenelles, the dumplings that cower beneath the poultry are way too small to be a threat to South Beach dieters. The biggest problem, though, is the serving vessel: a steep-walled bowl that makes picking the chicken apart in the semi-darkness a problem that only you and your dry cleaner will be able to solve. Someone at Lodge evidently agreed with me, because, as of press time, the dish has been yanked.
Here’s what the Pratt kids liked: turkey meat loaf, the juicy hamburger, Yukon gold fries served with three dipping sauces, and grilled brook trout. Here’s what they didn’t: damp and uncrisp fried chicken, underdressed chicory salad, and the Cobb salad, which bears virtually no resemblance to the real thing. There are a couple of decent desserts too, including a flourless chocolate cake and a dense carrot cake with more cream cheese frosting than it needs. Anyway, the food will recede in importance as you drink the cocktails: Lodge wants you to get plowed.