Places we’ve stood behind.

Williamsburg · Australian restaurant

Hole In The Wall

$$ · Reviewed July 2026

An Australian café that actually stays open past dark, with salt and pepper squid and espresso martinis on a Bedford Ave corner patio. The day version is better than the night version. Show up anyway — just don't call it a dinner restaurant.

Williamsburg · Patisserie

Patisserie Tomoko

$$ · Reviewed July 2026

A Le Bernardin-trained chef doing a three-course dessert tasting — black sesame crème brûlée, yuzu cheesecake, sake on the side — at a horseshoe counter in Williamsburg. The pastry case alone is worth the trip. The prix fixe is worth planning around.

Williamsburg · Oyster bar restaurant✶Editor’s Pick

Maison Premiere

$$$ · Reviewed July 2026

Fourteen years on Bedford Ave, and the marble horseshoe bar, the candlelight, and thirty-plus rotating oysters haven't moved an inch. Order the tableside Sazerac. Watch the bartender. Stay until the room thins out and you realize you've been here three hours.

Williamsburg · Art cafe

recess grove

$$ · Reviewed July 2026

An art café and studio in an 1890 Williamsburg building where you show up, order wine, and make something with your hands. Friday nights go 21+, the mural wall is communal, and nobody expects you to be good at it.

Williamsburg · Cocktail bar

Deux Chats

$$$ · Reviewed July 2026

A Belle Époque cocktail bar under the Williamsburg Bridge — vaulted ceilings, antique mirrors, a hand-painted cat mural, and martinis that actually earn the hype. Order oysters. Order the crab dip. Stay until the room gets loud.

Williamsburg · Video arcade

Barcade

$$ · Reviewed June 2026

The original arcade bar — a former Williamsburg metal shop, still running Donkey Kong for a quarter. Twenty-plus rotating craft drafts, thirty-plus cabinets, and a crowd that arrived unironically. Works for the right date; fails for the wrong one.

Williamsburg · French restaurant

Recette

$$$ · Reviewed June 2026

A 2023 Williamsburg bistro opened by two competition bartenders who clearly know their way around a room: art nouveau ceiling, checkered floors, French onion soup that earns its Gruyère, and cocktails worth staying for. Reliable, easy to book, and prettier than it needs to be.

Williamsburg · Wine bar

Pomp and Circumstance

$$ · Reviewed June 2026

Thirty seats, a brick-walled room, a hearth oven baking pita to order. Chef James Ahearn's Armenian-Sicilian DNA is all over the menu — lamb meatballs, trout roe pasta, labneh that disappears before you remember ordering it. Quiet enough to actually talk.

Williamsburg · Cocktail bar

Bar Madonna

$$$ · Reviewed June 2026

An Italian-American cocktail bar in Williamsburg where the drinks are fun, the food actually matters, and the room has enough glow to make Metropolitan Avenue feel briefly cinematic.