It galls me that Queens Hideaway gets good reviews. This place has such horrible service that it completely overshadows the quality of the food. Imagine sitting down and getting no water, no menus, nothing for the first 15 minutes. The waitress is harried and over-it (Why hire wait staff when you're getting such good reviews?) Now imagine that everythin else for the rest of the night takes forever. Ready to order? Get ready to wait 20 minutes first. Want a glass of water? Maybe in a half an hour. By the time you get out of the place, its been tedious hours and you're ready for a nap. The food? Somehow I can't remember.

I've posted here once before with a bad experience when I wanted (so badly!) for it to be good. I haven't been back since. Until last friday, my friend really wanted to go. Everything was nice, good wine, good appetizers (although the dutch pancake was pretty boring). I ordered the Russian Tacos, which was pollock and wild rice and capers in a crepe. It was actually quite tasty, until I chomped down on so many bones. My friend had ordered the same dish, and he had no bones. When the waiter came around, I told him, "I really like the dish, but there are a ton of bones" and pointed to a pile of bones on the side of my plate. He says "Oh, its supposed to be like that".

When someone goes to the emergency room from choking on fish bones, be sure to tell them that the tacos are SUPPOSED to be like that!!! Totally unacceptable! I will never go again.

for the record i am in love with williamsburg and greenpoint, but i would never ever ever come back to such disgusting service.

We came in at 10pm place apparently closes at 1030. The waiters say we can sit anywhere the male waiter with tatoos all over his arms (just to identify him) gives us our food and gives 2 sets of silver wear for 3 of us. we kindly tell the other neartest waiter (a heavy hispanic girl) to give us another set. She comes down and slams it in the middle of the table. We are eating the food which is pretty decent and unique... but to be critical kinda overpriced and not really that filling... so we are eating the waiter comes by the table and just takes my plate right from under me as im still holding the fork. At first i thoght i was picky but then all of us were just completely thrown off... the worst service i have ever had not even in williamsburg but probably in my whole life living in nyc and growing up in much much grimier brooklyn ... i mean people in the deli have more manners than the 2 waiters... i was embarassed ... on a side note its so tough to keep a place open in nyc ... but i do not recommend people to spend their money in a place where they show no respect.

Seriously the worst service I've ever had in my life. We went in last night, and one of us asked the waitress if there were seats outside, at which point she sighed loudly, threw down our menus, and stormed out. We sat and she brought bottles of water, but no glasses for a good twenty minutes. Thery were out of a good two-thirds of the menu, and the food we did get was mediocore at best. It was totally over-priced and a disaster area. I'd expect this shit from a Popeye's in Bed-Stuy, not from a hipster joint in Greenpoint.

This place is way ahead of it's time - in the sense that Greenpoint has not gentrified to the point where unjustifiably pretentious restaurants like this can get away with terrible service and extremely hit and miss food and still survive. Maybe in a few years there will be enough competition in the neighborhood to slap the queen into shape. But if this place just closed instead, I certainly wouldn't miss it.

I was so dismayed by Queen's Hideaway. I wanted badly to fall in love, as I live 2 blocks away and was raised on good Southern food--for which I will pay a premium in NYC. It would have been a beautiful romance.

But the wait for the food itself was difficult to sweat through, even with the company of my oldest friend at the rickety table. I felt terrible for the couple on a date next to us, who sat in silence with nary a bread basket or peanut platter to get them to their entrees. When finally served, our portions were laughably small--and this is in comparison to the most pretentious and "progressive" eateries. The ingredient quality simply isn't high enough to be served so microscopically.

This is Greenpoint. I will put up with a certain amount of kitsch, but only if my stomach is eventually satisfied. I was fully expecting something more hearty for the area and price range. Queen's Hideaway, with its dead ambiance, is not served well by its proximity to the haute & tasty (read: splurgeworthy) Lamb & Jaffy.

The tiny pulled-pork sandwiches were dry, formless, and served in "ironic" hot dog cardboard. The pork flavor and dressing was ruined by pungent little olives--pretty gross. My appetizer of potato skins, about $8 if I recall correctly, included only 2 skins (1 potato) and barely any topping or sour cream. I could do better at Applebee's. That is something I LOATHE to say about any restaurant.

Our waitress was nice enough, but the hand-scrawled menu, narrow corridor dining space, and extremely long wait for a less-than-delicious denouement made Queen's Hideaway a waste of our money and time.

A $5 corking fee shouldn't apply when you're bringing a lousy bottle of beer (where's the cork?) you bought at the corner store. Go back to the West Village with your corking fees. This is Greenpoint, for crying out loud.

I know I'm a cranky old person, but the review by the Monk was smug and irritating, the bandana comment being the icing on the cake.

what is so amazing about wearing a bandana?

So, we get to this place at about 8:30 or so. Its located in one of those thin greenpoint/williamsburg joints with the pressed tin ceilings. Anyways, the hostess tells us its about a 15 minute wait so she sends us to wait in their back garden with a somewhat untasty bowl of boiled peanuts. As we waited for a table to open up we watched a polydactyl cat (presumably theirs) play with a really interesting looking bug the size of a sharpie. Seriously, this bug was huge. This sort of down home, back porch scenario really set the atmosphere for the entire place.
We order the beet salad along with their cornbread w/molasses butter for starters. I order the smoked halibut taco (Smoked Halibut Taco with roasted tomato, chili sauce, salsa fresca, cream and lime), and the monk got the Smoked Beef (Smoked beef sirloin slices with chimm-churri sides of haricot vert in xv olive oil and sea salt and blackmarket melon with cayenne, mint and lime).
The beet salad was awesome. The beets were fresh, and there were thin slices of onion, and it was spicy and crunchy and dilly and everything one could possibly want in a beet salad. We ordered the cornbread too because I really wanted to check out the molasses butter, and when we got it was what one might expect molasses butter to taste like. Not bad at all, it was just eclipsed by the beet salad. The cornbread though was a little dry, but I’m not a big fan of cornbread anyways.
So our food comes out pretty quick and to no surprise, the smoked fish tacos were really quite tasty. The halibut was smoked in their backyard smoker and was really fresh and infused with the smoky flavor. Everything else they threw in the taco was pretty good too. (If you like fish tacos however, I would really have to recommend the ones they got at Bean. Pretty amazing stuff). The monk liked her beef sirloin pretty much, and as the description indicated the watermelon was indeed doused in cayenne pepper. Never had spicy watermelon before, but I liked it. It was definitely interesting stuff. Overall, the portions werent too big. On the just about reasonable size.
Topping the night off, we got a slice of their blueberry pie. Now, I’m not a big pie sort of guy, much less blueberry. In fact, whenever I think of blueberry pie I think of a detergent commercial with some gap toothed kid wearing a soccer uniform trudging dirt around some moms kitchen. But the pie came through like a champ and I didnt get any on my clothes which was nice. The crust was good, and it wasnt too sweet. The monk however wasnt too impressed.
Overall, I liked the place and would definitely check it out again. The monk walked away with a bit of a stomach ache, so she isnt too keen on going back again, but I really enjoyed the entire meal. I’m partial to spicy stuff, and pretty much everything we got was made by somebody who shared the spicy bug. After dinner, I wanted to run out and by myself a pair of overalls for my next visit. But nice overalls. Overalls from the mall.

As a side note, as we were leaving some feral looking kid wearing a real life bandana (!!) asked us politely if we were using one of the extra chairs at our table. He was wearing a bandana. It was amazing.

I went to the Queen's Hideaway on me and my boyfriend's anniversary with a reservation. We ended up having to wait almost another 30 min after arriving, on time, to get seated. Now, I chose this place after reading all of the great reviews here, so I was really looking forward to trying it out. The wait wouldnt have been so bad if the food was great, but both of us got meals that we really didn't enjoy. All of you were right about the "aggressive seasoning". I really hate dill and my chicken was literally drowning in it. My boyfriend got a slimy, soggy fried soft shell crab and a couple oysters with braised artichokes. The artichokes were tough and barely had anything edible on them. I'm so disappointed - maybe we just had bad luck with this? But when you're paying almost 20 bucks for a plate here, I was really hoping the food would be consistently good, like alot of other people have experienced.

The wait? All I can say is, people, make a reservation!! You won't be sorry. Consistently inventive and amazing. The Queen could get me to eat foods I hate, she's that good. All hail the Queen.

My first experience was fabulous--taken to dinner by a friend and remember a wonderful corn succotash with basil--bscuits were dreamy. Tried to take my boyfriend there the same week for brunch. Arrived at appointed hour (11) and rudely brushed off--told to return in 30 minutes. No problem except for the attitude, so grabbed a drink across the street and returned to an hysterical tirade posted on the door about how sorry they were, but they'd suddenly decided never to do brunch ever again! Other folks gathered around the door in dismay--others who had also gotten in their cars and driven all the way there of a sunday morning...

This place is a gem. The food is worth the wait, though if you get there early enough, you don't have to. Everything here is inspired and original, especially the hand-written, dated menu that changes every day. Open your mind about waiting for a table and let yourself have an amazing dining experience. While you're eating, you may think you've had this dish before, but you haven't. There's always a twist - something fresher, something smoked, or two tastes you'd never dream of mixing together that battle in your mouth. Don't go unless you recognize a damn good meal when you eat one. This is food you should have to wait for.

Not trying to be a bastard but this place really does take FOREVER and the food is just ok. Went there for dinner and the bbq was disappointing. My friend got the end of the pig or something and couldn't even chew the mostly-gristle meat. She described the food as abusive. I thought it was ok and there were some nice touches, but damn it took like 3 hours. I was so hungry and then the portions are sort of small. The popovers at brunch were nice but like two bites and then you have another hour of waiting ahead of you before your meal.

this has to be the best new restaurant in the williamsburg/greenpoint area. literally everything on the menu is amazing. if you're in a hurry this is not the place for you. imagine it as a cozy dinner party, where you can hang out, enjoy yourself, but you don't have to do any of the cooking, or the dishes. all of the staff are AWESOME, and do the best they can to bring you excellent (and cheap) food as fast as they can. the chef, liza queen is a genius and a sweetheart.

I thought the food was excellent the first time I ate here, however the service was not. On a second try we waited 1 1/2 hours outside in the cold to get a table after being told it would be a 35 minute wait. then they were out of both things on the menu that I wanted to order, they never apologized to us for the wait, and a table that was seated after us (and didn't have to wait as long) got their food first and were offered complimentary desert , we were not. i just feel slighted for no reason by a cute tasty food joint with so much potential and am really confused why, since we were extremely patient.

You know what? sometimes it's okay to wait for food. When the food is this good, I would wait more and pay more. This restaurant served me one of the top five meals of my lifetime. Forget your're in New York, slow down, chill out, enjoy the doggies, and eat. You will be rewarded for your awesomeness.