favorite restaurant in Park slope and why :)?

when i've got a few extra bucks in my pocket: Blue Ribbon,Rose Water

on more affordable nights: Song, Bogota, La Villa, Sette

for takeout: Hunan Delight, Helios, La Taqueria (where the service is actually very good and the people really nice)

and when its real late and i need dessert: The Chocolate Room

brooklynpotter wrote: still, dim-sum brunch would be a welcome addition.

as would a real deli.

SO true.

theoryofpractice wrote: [quote=brooklynpotter]still, dim-sum brunch would be a welcome addition.

as would a real deli.

SO true.
At least Park Slopers near the F have a short hop on the train to Katz's. We in Prospect Heights have no such luck!

Mmmm...... Craving pastrami now.....

brooklynpotter wrote: oh man, katz's is so gross. i mean really, really disgusting. how can you eat there? even the knishes are bad. how can you make a bad knish?

and sadly, 2nd ave deli is now a bank.

The only think to get at Katz's is the pastrami, but the pastrami is better than anywhere else.

brooklynpotter wrote: [quote=Carnivore]
The only think to get at Katz's is the pastrami, but the pastrami is better than anywhere else.

but what's pastrami without a decent pickle? or decent mustard? or a bowl of soup to start?

and every time i think of the place i think of... buy a salami for your boy in the army.

The pastrami is just fine and for that matter so it the tongue, pickles are great too, all on par with 2nd Avenue. However, the chopped liver at 2nd was unmatchable. It was also a much cooler space then Katz's. I hate that ticket thing.

That said, I'm stopping by about 6 today.

Subject: The soup shack!!

The soup shack on NW side of 4th & 11th!!

The place is literally a shack....Built out of 2x4's with no sign. It's actually a flower shop, but they have about 10 soups all year long and they're all $3.50 for a pint.

Secondly, and this is even more awesome: They have the best tamales and horchata I have ever had. And that's saying something because I am from San Diego.

It's owned by a sweet Argentinian guy and there are always a few little kids running around. You'll love it, I swear!!

Subject: Re: La Villa?

italianfoodjunkie wrote: can someone please explain to me why La Villa is constantly crowded and busy when the quality of the food is on a par with an Olive Garden?

I've never eaten at Olive Garden, but the takeout pizza at La Villa is dandy. Their Speciale is just the thing after a long day doing whatever you're doing that makes it impossible to imagine cooking dinner.

italianfoodjunkie wrote: Does anyone know any really good Italian places in Park Slope?

al di la
that's why there's such a wait to get a table . . .

maybe la villa's so popular because the owner is a cutie-pie.

(that, and i think the food is yummy)

Subject: Re: La Villa?

Rose wrote: And -- I hate to say this since I feel like I'm always defending the children of Park Slope on this board, but there was a young child in clunky shoes or maybe even tap shoes who was continuously running back and forth across the dining room and no one did a damn thing about it. :evil:

Yes, this parent (and Stone Park patron) agrees that is not cool.

Subject: Re: La Villa?

Rose wrote: No, don't say that! I love Anthony's. Why do you think they won't be around long? I agree about La Villa, gross. I'd rather go to a Pizzeria Uno:

Don't worry just a vibe I had (I worked in restaurants for a long time and can usually smell the odor of an impending bankruptcy). I am probably totally wrong.

Regular Italian? I am not a fan of heavy red sauce--my grandfather's bolognese was pretty light and fresh. If I want Italian that isn't too high falutin' I often go to Max Court in Carrol Gardens.

friendlypitbull wrote: I really dont know where you anti-La Villa people eat 'regular' italian food (when your talking gross in the genre - Aunt Suzies jumps out to me)
; but in my opinion La Villa is the best around and every time I bring friends or relatives (or order in) they express the same sentiment.
Besides the food, the service is friendly and good, the place is immaculate, and it is just noisy enough to make it good for kids but not so noisy as to be unplesant.

I hate mediocre Italian-American places, and I never go out for that stuff. I can make much better Italian food at home with almost no effort. A box of De Cecco costs $1.39 through Fresh Direct, and a can of plum tomatoes costs about a buck fifty.

Subject: Re: La Villa?

italianfoodjunkie wrote: can someone please explain to me why La Villa is constantly crowded and busy when the quality of the food is on a par with an Olive Garden? I thought Brooklynites were relatively sophisticated foodies in general. The food at this place smacks of crappy Long Island italian--it's awful!! Does anyone know any really good Italian places in Park Slope? Sorry to sound so critical, but I've given it about 5 chances over the past year and a half, and it has greatly disappointed each and every time. AND I had to wait a minimum of 20 minutes to be seated in every single instance.

Come on... while La Villa isn't like dining in the Old World, it's pretty good Italian. If you want crappy Italian, may I direct you to Aunt Suzies or Tutta Pasta? Now that's crappy Italian. La Villa actually does a decent job of pasta and pizzas. I don't think it's fair to put La Villa, which is a decent, locally-owned restaurant, on par with the Olive Garden... they're apples and oranges.

Subject: Re: La Villa?

8thandPrez wrote: [quote=italianfoodjunkie]can someone please explain to me why La Villa is constantly crowded and busy when the quality of the food is on a par with an Olive Garden? I thought Brooklynites were relatively sophisticated foodies in general. The food at this place smacks of crappy Long Island italian--it's awful!! Does anyone know any really good Italian places in Park Slope? Sorry to sound so critical, but I've given it about 5 chances over the past year and a half, and it has greatly disappointed each and every time. AND I had to wait a minimum of 20 minutes to be seated in every single instance.

Come on... while La Villa isn't like dining in the Old World, it's pretty good Italian. If you want crappy Italian, may I direct you to Aunt Suzies or Tutta Pasta? Now that's crappy Italian. La Villa actually does a decent job of pasta and pizzas. I don't think it's fair to put La Villa, which is a decent, locally-owned restaurant, on par with the Olive Garden... they're apples and oranges.

I totally agree witcha 8thPrez.
I am utterly opposed to bad Italian, 'cause I too am cooking up the Good Italian at home (and I got the Babbo Cookbook last week after reading it at the bar at Stone Park a bunch of times, so watch out!)

Yeah, anyway, they make a couple of good pizzas at La Villa. So it makes me wonder if it's a matter of ordering the right thing, like is the case at sooo many places.
The Speciale square has carmelized onions and peppers on it, along with a bunch of meaty stuff. They have good ovens there. It is very tasty pizza. Somebody else on the boards used to post about how good the D.O.C. was. Girlfriend won't order anything BUT the Speciale tho...

Always takeout that we call-in and pickup, because of the mall-ish "family atmosphere", but PS has plenty of parents and kids that need that...

Carnivore wrote: I can make much better Italian food at home with almost no effort. A box of De Cecco costs $1.39 through Fresh Direct, and a can of plum tomatoes costs about a buck fifty.

Hyperbole aside, this thread on Italian food makes me think that its participants are either Old-Country snobs or over-imbibing enophiles. I have eaten in and out at La Villa and Aunt Suzie's and was never disappointed. More to the point, I could not tell the difference. That it can cause such excitement in this space boggles my mind. What am I missing? Can the fans of either (yeek, there may be no Suzie fans reading) give me a rundown?

Disclaimers: I admit that I am less a foodie and more just plain hungry most of the time, and that my experience with Italian restaurants has been largely limited to the peculiar Italian steakhouses of my hometown. But I can at least pick out canned tomatoes from fresh.

[quote="Carnivore"]

FYI: Good canned tomatoes are better than fresh for tomato sauce.

Oops. :roll: That sounded snotty on my part. Obviously, I've never made any; I was counting on the Green-Bean Corollary. My family is German. ...Any thoughts on this dispute? Does my Canned Tomato Ignorance brand me as a rube? My gratuitous bold-facing?

Restaurant-wise, I think you have to rule out service as an issue. Service in New York City is poor everywhere you go. If you want to complain, fine. But you can't say, for instance, that one place is better than another because of the service. The only way to get good service around here is to make friends. And that works only half the time, but by then you probably don't care.

And I'm not interested in the prices on the menu, not because I am wealthy, but because I limit how often I eat out. That being said, if the entrees average more than $20 apiece, the food is going to have to be fantastic to match up with a comparable, but cheaper, place.

Those things being equal, (help!) what makes good Italian food? And why did no one mention those two places with the maroon awnings way up Fifth Avenue?