Restaurants in Red Hook: Where to eat in the Brooklyn neighborhood

Now in its tenth year, this sprawling barbecue destination near the Red Hook waterfront is the best in New York City. Lines still form out the door for Hometown's brisket, ribs, pulled pork and all manner of sandwiches. 

There’s been much written about how Billy Durney’s Red Hook Tavern draws inspiration from New York institutions. The font used for the restaurant’s name could be mistaken for Minetta Tavern’s from afar, and there are two ales dedicated to McSorley’s. But once we secured a seat (if you manage to score a prime-time reservation, play the lottery), we quickly realized the experience here is its very own thing.After an affable employee leads you down the narrow dining room or to one of the 18 bar seats, your first priority is to order the Dry Aged Red Hook Tavern Burger ($24). This pub-style burger is hefty but manageable. The simple dish—a dry-aged patty cloaked in American cheese and topped with raw white onions, then sandwiched between sesame rolls—is cooked to a perfect temperature. This juicy burger is one of the best we’ve tasted in the city.It’s no surprise that the burger and the menu’s other meat options are also expertly executed. Durney showed off his expertise with proteins at Hometown Bar-B-Que, a popular destination despite its location in difficult-to-get-to Red Hook, that’s known for its ribs, brisket, sausages, pastrami and other barbecue dishes with global touches.Executive chef Allison Plumer interprets the nostalgia that Red Hook Tavern strives for with an unfussy approach that results in plates you’ll want to devour on a cold winter day. The country-ham croquettes ($10), which are filled with white cheddar and sit atop a swath of dijonnaise, can be popped...

If you visited Van Brunt Street in Red Hook once or twice prior to the winter of 2020, it might have seemed like the nautical hamlet’s main street was abundant with places to eat and drink. If you visited 10 times or lived nearby, you’d be well into repeat bar seats and reservations before too long. The apparent plenty was a little deceptive, but almost all of the options were pretty good. The Good Fork, at the base of a brick walkup a few blocks from the water’s edge, was among the best of the bunch.  Chef Sohui Kim and her husband Ben Schneider opened The Good Fork in 2006 and earned acclaim for Korean-style steak and eggs, chicken and waffles and croque madame at brunch, duck confit, burgers and excellent pork chops at dinner and dumplings whenever, with more overlap here and there. Significant damage during Hurricane Sandy caused the restaurant to close for two months at the end of 2012.  The next pause would be longer, about two years, due to the pandemic, though a smattering of pop-us bloomed in the interim before a full reopening as The Good Fork Pub last month. Kim and Schneider, who’s fun Korean BBQ restaurant-cum-karaoke bar Insa is a few miles away, also opened one of 2021’s best restaurants, Gage & Tollner, (with St. John Frizell, their hospitality neighbor from Fort Defiance up the block) during the break.  The Good Fork Pub’s old address is as familiar as its new moniker, with some modifications. Up front, the bar is longer, with fewer tables in the narrow,...

Channeling Maine's minigolf clam shacks, this hulking 250-seat eatery brings putt-putt facilities and seaside tastes to Red Hook's waterfront. Elevated on stilts, the three-story stand-alone restaurant is done up with wharf-themed flourishes: lobster traps, fishing rods, Christmas lights and a mounted shark's head. Gather friends for a round of minigolf or cornhole (beanbag toss) outdoors. After hitting the greens, grab a picnic table and dig into simple coastal fare, such as peel-and-eat shrimp and steam pots brimming with lobster, Jonah crab and mussels, along with potatoes and corn. Drinkers can sip frozen daiquiris or split a bucket of beer (Corona, Bud) with pals on the open-air roof deck, which boasts clear views of New York's Upper Bay.

This lobster seller trucks the critters from Maine to the storefront every week. You can order two styles of lobster roll—the warm and buttered Connecticut version or the cold and mayo-laced New England one—plus Maine Root sodas and Robicelli treats.

Hurricane Sandy couldn't stop the beloved Red Hook pie shop from making a sweet return to the Brooklyn waterfront. Waist-high flooding ravaged the original factory on Pier 41, putting owner Steve Tarpin and his pastry lieutenants out of commission during their busiest season. The Miami native makes his big comeback on the next pier over, with a sunny kitchen three times the size of his old one. Find his signature graham-cracker-crusted pies—filled with a condensed-milk custard laced with zesty lime juice—and the Swingle—a tartlet dipped in dark Belgian chocolate—inside the tropical-orange-hued bakery. The pies may be the same, but Tarpin will hang a new vintage glass sign etched with the shop’s motto: "Always Freshly Squeezed."

At this snug bakery and café in Red Hook, kids can load up on homestyle American sweets like fruit pies, brownies, cupcakes and red velvet cake. The traditional apple pie is the best we've ever had (sorry, Mom).

Wonderful red sauce restaurants have splashed the adjoining neighborhoods of Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and the Columbia Waterfront district for years. Some great ones have closed (I still miss Red Rose) but new efforts in this cuisine category continue to be served up in this specific part of Brooklyn more many than others. A short distance away, Red Hook is a little less saturated. There are a high number of great restaurants on and around its main drag, but not a ton of Italian.  Fort Defiance is one of those great places. It occupied 365 Van Brunt Street for more than a decade before moving a few doors down and operating in a few different forms before fully reopening last summer. Bar Mario followed, opening at Fort Defiance’s original popular address this past January.  The outline is still recognizable from the corner locale’s previous iteration. The window seats up front are now high tops paired with backless stools upholstered in velvety jewel-toned deep teal. Those line the bar, too, which is a little more open, now absent the former cap of enclosed shelves above the bar that gave the space part of its cabin-like, near-nautical aesthetic. The vintage florals that covered tables are gone, too, and the walls are now a pretty millennial pink with a patina that abstractly recalls mottled clouds and makes the old familiar black-and-white checkered floors pop. The petite dining room is already popular and fills up fast. (Meanwhile, a couple of the outside spots are...

From their seasonal station at the Red Hook Ball Fields, siblings Marcos and Janet Lainez serve Salvadoran pupusas made from their mother's recipe. The handmade corn cakes are stuffed with a variety of fillings (including pork, chicken or cheese) and griddled.

This 15,000-square-foot ice cream factory is Willy Wonka’s dream. After you see the entire ice cream–making process in the free interactive museum, go to the scoop shop for a few post-tour cones.