Greenpoint restaurants giving New York dining its edge

Greenpoint is one of Brooklyn’s most dynamic culinary neighbourhoods, which lies just north of Williamsburg. The district was a major shipbuilding and industrial hub during the 19th century, drawing Polish, Italian and Irish immigrants. It remains home to one of New York’s largest Polish communities, alongside a laidback creative scene. In recent years, the area has undergone a cultural shift, attracting a swell of Japanese businesses, garnering a reputation as the city’s next Little Tokyo.

Greenpoint Avenue is referred to as ‘restaurant row’ for its thriving culinary community, spanning Vietnamese, Mexican and Japanese. It is also where Noma co-founder Mads Refslund chose to open his latest culinary venture, Ilis. Restaurants sit between bars, coffee shops, and vintage clothing stores, while Greenpoint Terminal Market is a weekend flea that takes place on the waterfront. The area also has a burgeoning hotel scene, with several stylish home-from-home boutique lodgings.

From upscale Japanese-French tasting menus to buckwheat noodles and loaded tacos, here is where to eat in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Restaurant Yuu

Best For: Occasion-worthy French cooking with a Japanese flex
Address: 55 Nassau Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$$

From behind an 18-seat black stone counter, chef Yuu Shimano (formerly of Guy Savoy in Paris and Mifune in Manhattan) is quietly plating some of New York’s most technique-driven French fare. A decadent 18-course tasting menu (250 USD per person) highlights the finest Japanese ingredients, all presented amid industrial high ceilings and sleek interiors. Seasonal dishes include creamy vichyssoise soup accented with Hokkaido uni (sea urchin); crispy fried baby ayu fish bundled in spring roll skin and served with a bonito liver and egg yolk sauce; or the signature duck, foie gras, and seasonal mushroom en croute. Finish with a Burgundy black truffle soufflé alongside truffle ice cream, accented with a hazelnut-Cognac foam.

Uzuki

Best For: Artisanal soba noodles in a converted warehouse
Address: 95 Guernsey Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$

Uzuki is Greenpoint’s minimal buckwheat boîte, which excels in Japanese soba noodles. The curtained-off restaurant can be found in a converted warehouse, and has an eight-seat counter with a handful of snug tables. With more than two decades of experience, soba veteran Shuichi Kotani makes buckwheat noodles by hand – a rare skill that takes years to master, due to its dry texture. Menu highlights include a richly-flavoured duck broth, spiked with fresh green yuzu and a nest of speckled soba noodles (42 USD) and a bowl of cold noodles heaped with raw uni, scallops, tuna, and salmon (72 USD).

House

Best For: Hyper seasonal Japanese-French tasting menu
Address: 50 Norman Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$$

Kyoto-born chef and restaurateur Yuji Tani brought his French-Japanese tasting menu concept, House, from Tokyo to New York in 2022. It is located inside 50 Norman, a minimal modern Japanese marketplace in Greenpoint designed by architect Jo Nagasaka, which also houses a lifestyle shop named Cibone, and Okume, a dashi specialist. The narrow restaurant features an ten-seat dining counter, where guests gather for a nine-course tasting menu (180 USD per person) of Japanese small plates. The seasonally changing menu might include a gratin made from Kamo eggplant and yam in shiitake mushroom broth, and horsehair crab with a sweet corn mousse.

Fulgurances Laundromat

Best For:  A roster of roving chefs
Address: 132 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$$

This natural wine bar and chef incubator concept landed in Greenpoint in 2021 by way of Paris, taking over a former laundromat (hence the name). It hosts an ever-changing roster of up-and-coming chefs that change every three to four months. Past talent has included Greg Wong of Mission Chinese in San Francisco and Galen Kennemer, formerly of Blanca in Bushwick. Each chef places their own unique spin on a seasonal menu that uses New York State ingredients and typically spans six courses (89 USD per person). For a view of the show, book one of ten counter seats, and if nearby Japanese tea shop Kettl is still open post meal, you’ll want to pop in for the matcha soft serve.

Oxomoco

Best For: Frozen margaritas and modern Mexican plates
Address: 128 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$

Brooklyn dwellers pack out this white-washed modern Mexican restaurant from chef and restaurateur Justin Bazdarich. Its lauded frozen margaritas are flavoured with cucumber and sotol or strawberry, grapefruit and gin, and served with light, bright dishes. Grab one of the half-moon-shaped booths and order smoked cherry tomato guacamole and soy-marinated tuna tostada enriched with spicy house salsa macha. Tacos, made from hand-shaped, house-made tortillas are a draw here, piled with lamb barbacoa and topped with squash blossoms, or laid with grilled American wagyu and black truffle sauce.

Đi Ăn Đi

Best For: A New York go-to for Vietnamese 
Address: 68 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$

Lush foliage and a tropical feel paired with piping hot bowls of Hanoi-style pho is the vibe at chef Dennis Ngo’s Đi Ăn Đi, a casual restaurant that is not just beloved in Greenpoint, but recognised as one of New York’s top Vietnamese joints. The soup to try is the Phở Thìn Hà Nội, enriched with brisket soured from a Pennsylvania farm, plus pickled garlic and Thai chilli. Also popular are the six banh mi options that come studded with lemongrass-grilled pork shoulder or Vietnamese sausage and head cheese.

Chez Ma Tante

Best For: Brunchtime pancake stacks
Address: 90 Calyer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$

Neighbourhood favourite Chez Ma Tante is widely known to serve the best pancakes in NYC. Drop in for brunch to try these buttery, crispy stacks, enjoyed either in the pared-back dining room or on the outdoor terrace. For dinner, chef Gabriel Borges offers a menu inspired by upmarket London gastro pubs. Seasonal, elevated dishes might include duck leg with Brussels sprouts and chestnuts, grilled mackerel, smoked trout rillette, sweetbreads with white asparagus and radish, and veal tongue schnitzel with celery root remoulade.

Paulie Gee’s

Note: Temporarily closed for rennovations

Best For: Neapolitan-style pizzas
Address: 60 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$

This casual neighbourhood pizzeria from owner Paulie Giannone is a Greenpoint stalwart, serving excellent wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas for more than a decade. It was one of the first restaurants to spike a pizza with chilli-laced honey – now a common trend in New York – when it collaborated with Brooklyn-based Mike Kurtz of Mike’s Hot Honey to create its fiery Hellboy Pizza, topped with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, spicy soppressata and Parmesan cheese. For those looking to grab a New York-style slice, Paulie Gee’s also has a slice shop around the corner.

Glasserie

Best For: Richly-flavoured Mediterranean dishes in a beautifully rustic space
Address: 95 Commercial Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$

Sara Conklin’s Greenpoint restaurant Glasserie has quietly been serving some of the best Mediterranean fare in Brooklyn since 2013. It is set in a former glass factory (hence the name), with industrial brick walls, high ceilings and a large outdoor space strung with atmospheric lights. Culinary honcho Yusuf Lovett leads the Mediterranean menu, which includes signature dishes such as confit garlic and Calabrian chilli-stuffed fried olives, and pomegranate seed-studded grilled branzino. The mezze brunch is also popular, including shakshuka, crunchy chicken and flatbreads served with generous swirls of Labne and harissa dip.

Taqueria Ramirez

Best For: Authentic Mexico City-style tacos
Address: 94 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $

There’s almost always a line at Taqueria Ramirez, a fast-paced tiny taco joint on Franklin Street. The menu follows the tradition of Mexican street tacos, which are served loaded with beef and pork sausage, slow cooked in a stainless steel choricera pot that was custom-made in Mexico City. There is no wrong move at Taqueria Ramirez, and don’t be put off by the perpetual line – it moves fast.

ILIS

Best For: Wood-fired cooking from a world-revered chef
Address: 150 Green Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$$

Ilis is the first solo venture from Noma co-founder Mads Refslund, which debuted in October 2023 to much fanfare. It takes its name from the Danish words for fire and ice and focuses on wood-fired cooking. The open kitchen is the star of the show, set in a brick-walled warehouse with 58 covers. Chefs cook and serve the menu, which embraces hyper-seasonal North American ingredients. Try bison tartare with berry vinegar and hazelnut oil, or a whole brown Pennsylvania trout wrapped in grape leaves, covered with birch wood and grilled over fire.

Lingo

Best For: Inventive Japanese-American fare
Address: 27 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$

The kitchen at Lingo is led by chef Emily Yuen – an alumni of Daniel Boulud kitchens – and serves casual Japanese dishes that have gained popularity across the US. Highlights include milk bread with sake kasu butter, egg sandwiches topped with salmon roe, and maitake mushroom tempura with matcha oil. This cute and modern Japanese-American restaurant also places a unique spin on Americana, serving hot fried chicken with chilli gremolata, or filling a pie with Hokkaido-style braised beef curry, complete with a protruding marrow-filled bone. Cocktails are mixed with Japanese spirits such as the Momo, stirred with Japanese gin, unfiltered sake, white peach, lemon and egg white.