So many craptastic restaurants

noisejoke

...so little time.

I read so much here about the ins and outs of 5th and 7th ave (gak) restaurants. Bad burgers, icky Italian, mediocre Mexican.

I have a theory - most people grow up with a few choices of relative shite that they have to drive to. They move in and around NYC and revel in the proximity and quantity of restaurants, most of which IMHO are shite. But, with only a bit more effort they can enjoy mind and tongue bending meals, many in enclaves more "ethnic" or homogeneous than the Slope and surrounding environs. But, they just don't know they're missing out on something.

What's more important to you - great, and in many cases, authentic cuisine or dining nearby?

If the latter, what's your definition of near in this context?

Thanks for your input regarding this matter of ground shaking importance.

santa

this is all completely opinion based as far as quality goes but in my opinion eating close is sometimes much more important than eating higher quality food. However this is based on the fact that I rarely go to resturants that will cost me more than 10 dollars for a meal.

with that being said every area of NYC (and the country) has shit resturants. Just because the best Bahn Mi place is in sunset park doesnt mean theres not some shitty resturants in sunset park and even some shitty bahn mi places.

ive always thought of "authentic" as a loaded word with little meaning. Authentic to who and to what and to where?

noisejoke

If you wanna spend less than ten bucks on a lot more GREAT food, you'd do well by spending more time in Sunset Park.

Authentic, to me, in terms of cuisine has a whole lotta meaning. To who, what and where? People cooking for and serving those from their own culture, a culture that's likely older, more homogeneous and more full of food tradition than the US. Authentic means food, no matter the cost of ingredients or labor, that's made with love and care, meant for emotional and familial, and not merely caloric, sustenance.

Park Slope is lined with mediocre and indifferent restaurants and retailers. For every Al Di La, Geido or Bonnie's there are five place keeping sushi and Thai joints. Conversely, 8th or 5th ave in Sunset Park will serve you dumplings, tacos, noodles and yes Bahn Mi at half the price and twice the batting average of quality.

PS How many "shitty" Bahn Mi places have you actually experienced?

the invisible lines

Chavella's on Classon Avenue near the corner of Classon/Park Place. It's the freshest, tastiest Mexican food I've ever had, and it's relatively cheap. Definitely one of my top 5 restaurants in the city.

longtimesloper

there are certain foods that we go to other neighborhoods for because i am not thrilled with the quality of restaurants here. for example-we leave the nabe for italian food and for chinese food.

drummachines

I also think Park Slope suffers from a crazy amount of craptastic "lounges" serving tilapia for $22. You have the generic italian joints like Il Mulino and a collection of plasticky sushi joints...

We used to live in the East Village and we were surrounded by good affordable restaurants....authentic and not so authentic. Why are restaurants in PS so lame? Do people cook more....? Older people?

santa

I work in the east village and it has an over flow of craptastic restaurants. There are without a doubt some gems tho.

the main reason for this is that average americans have no "authentic" food as many other cultures do. Sure we have burgers, fries and pizza but all of those are still "stolen". However if you go to say Ethiopia you can eat the worst pizza ever because it just doesn't translate. It just so happens that park slope is filled with alot of average born and bred US of A americans, as is NYC city as a whole. If you want good "authentic" food you have to go to certain areas to get it. For example you dont go to flushing to get mexican food and you dont go to jackson heights to get sushi.

now this is extremely simplified and doesnt take in account regional fare such as bbq in the south.

drummachines

Yeah, there's no doubt the EV has its amount of crap, but still, there's some pretty decent places that serve food at a reasonable price....And that's pretty much what my problem is....much of these places in the East Village pay Manhattan rents but still serve good food (authentic or not) at not so crazy prices.....Hummus Place, Orlin, all the japanese joints, Stage Diner...are some examples....

I just feel that whenever we don't feel like cooking we have to go to PH or Carroll Gardens...

rockergirl77

Taqueria De Los Muertos on Washington in Prospect Heights won't deliver to me in PS (waaaaaah!) and I've been spoiled on their burritos so even though there are 10 other places to get a giant burrito in PS I will walk or ride my bike (or even send the b/f) to Tacos of Death to get my fix. And it's SO worth it.

jah

The restaurants in park slope remind me of a suburban town. Sub par, pseudo and pricey.

longtimesloper

^^Pretty blanket statement there.

jah

LongTimeSloper wrote: ^^Pretty blanket statement there.

not really. there are very few that stand out and/or are up to NYC standards or are good as opposed to mediocre.

sir_eccles

"RockerGirl77" wrote: Taqueria De Los Muertos on Washington in Prospect Heights won't deliver to me in PS (waaaaaah!) and I've been spoiled on their burritos so even though there are 10 other places to get a giant burrito in PS I will walk or ride my bike (or even send the b/f) to Tacos of Death to get my fix. And it's SO worth it.

Ha! Revenge for all those PS places that won't deliver past Washington!

Muertos are good and tasty though!

drummachines

For one I agree with JAH. Most of them make me feel like I am in Palo Alto or something.....Have to definitely try Taqueria of Death!

littleredmenace

Craptastic? Are you one of those "foodies" by any chance?

drummachines

Ask the initial poster, I'm just tired of paying too much for bad bland food in the nabe.

j0518

There are bad places in the Slope. There are good places in the Slope. There are places that can stand up to great places in Manhattan. There are places just as bland and boring as what you see on any ten-block stretch in Manhattan.

I could go on and on with that paragraph, but I'll stop there.

shekb

JAH wrote: The restaurants in park slope remind me of a suburban town. Sub par, pseudo and pricey.

Trust me, they're a LOT worse in the suburbs.

lo kee

I cannot believe one could bitch about the quantity and/or quality of restaurants in Park Slope, one of the most well-served (borderline overserved) neighborhoods in bklyn.

I hope that doesn't come off as a personal jab. It honestly, literally surprises me.

Try living somewhere like bushwick for a few months.

drummachines

Well yes, what's the use of having overpriced bad restaurants around. It's a sad trend here in PS.

santa

theres plenty of places in park slope that have meals that cost around 10 dollars that feed both my gf and I. Theres plenty of expensive places but its easy to avoid them. I live pretty much on top of flatbush ave so I cant really speak for the whole area of park slope.

filmlover44

Before I moved back to Park Slope, I took good restaurants for granted. Most of the places that people love here on this forum I've tried but I don't care for enough to want to go back. To each their own.

For me, the best food here is the Mexican food (When I first moved here, there was no Mexican food at all except for the California Burritto place that opened up where Uncle Mo's is now.). Since I'm allergic to wheat anc corn, I don't eat much of it. The Chinese, Italian (including Pizza) and Thai food is just ok. The Indian food is horrible.

raw

I actually like most of the Japanese and Thai restaurants in Park Slope, but what's up with Mango on 7th Avenue? I went there for the 100th time this week with a group of Mango fans who all spent at least $20 each on food alone and none of us liked our food on the "new" menu. Compared to our Mango memories the food was bland, especially the noodle dishes. Can I count on consistently bad food or was the chef having a bad day?

What's Lemongrass Grill like lately? I haven't gone there for awhile because they overcooked fish last time I went.

ginsbera113

There are definitely some mediocre places in the slope, but I think many people are forgetting (or haven't gone to) some very good spots. Rose Water, Applewood, Al Di La, Geido, Taro, the list goes on. They may not all be $10 or less, but others like Song for Thai food or La Taqueria (the counter spot) are affordable and serve good food. Yeah, it's no West Village or East Village and we may not have the flavor range of Astoria, but there is some good eating out there. I do agree that there is an excess of mediocre italian places (with Al Di La the only stand out in my mind so far). Some goes for Chinese food.

shekb

As far as Indian, what's so bad about Kinara? It's perfectly serviceable for delivery purposes, and cheap to boot.

old time brooklyn

raw wrote:
What's Lemongrass Grill like lately?

Closed by the BOH.

8thandprez

ginsbera113 wrote: There are definitely some mediocre places in the slope, but I think many people are forgetting (or haven't gone to) some very good spots. Rose Water, Applewood, Al Di La, Geido, Taro, the list goes on. They may not all be $10 or less, but others like Song for Thai food or La Taqueria (the counter spot) are affordable and serve good food. Yeah, it's no West Village or East Village and we may not have the flavor range of Astoria, but there is some good eating out there. I do agree that there is an excess of mediocre italian places (with Al Di La the only stand out in my mind so far). Some goes for Chinese food.

I would add that Park Slope has some pretty damn good delivery options: Hunan Delight is delicious Chinese and Kinara/Joy fill the Indian bill. Thai Tony is pretty good and I love Mango's seitan. All in all, you just can't compare Park Slope to any suburb... plus, I don't know any suburb that has a concentration of restaurants even close to ours. It doesn't have to be fine dining to make a good restaurant scene. A wide variety of cuisines, multiple establishments per cuisine, decent hours of operation, and delivery suit me just fine.

chachacheech

Subject: Craptastic restaurants

I recently went to Barrio because of the many wonderful reviews I have read on the forum. The food was good and the service also good. The problem was one little enchilada with a couple of tablespoons of chicken. They can't give the customer a little rice and beans!!! I will be going back to Santa Fe Grill. The food is not as good as Bario but at least I don't walk away hungry.

brooklyngigcenter

First of all, I want to give kudos to whoever coined the word "craptastic". We use that word all the time, and we used it last night when we ate at Aperitivo.

The wife and I ordered the crabcakes and sauteed artichokes as appetizers. I ordered the tilapia francese, she ordered the salmon.

The crabcakes had zero taste, and looked too uniformly made - as if they had been taken out of a box. The artichokes were out of a can with a couple of pieces of hard toast on the side.

Although my wife liked her salmon, the tilapia seemed drowned in white wine and I couldn't taste the fish at all.

When the waiter brought the dessert menu, I passed. I told my wife I'd had enough disappointment in the meal and couldn't handle any more. Needless to say, I won't be going back there. My wife was going to have her book club meeting there next week, but changed her mind based upon this meal.

ftgreenepark

Sounds like a sucky meal, BGC.

I had a crap breakfast at Little Purity yesterday morning. I hadn't been there for years (back in the Katina days).

Three of us had bacon which was absolutely tasteless. How on earth do you remove the taste from one of the best foods ever? It must have been reheated.

Hashbrowns had peppers, which i hate.....even my friend who likes peppers said they were disgusting because they had too many peppers.

Add Little Purity to my craptastic list

danielj

I had one of the best meals of my life at Rose Water last week. Better than Al Di La, and with a rotational menu- more expensive though. Better than most comparable places in Manhattan.

Sun Luck actually has really good Chinese food, and they give you a free soda. Great won ton soup and roast pork app.