The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff

Reported by Vogue.

Brooklyn's restaurant scene is honestly out of control—in the best way possible. According to Vogue, the borough hosts thousands of establishments ranging from Michelin-caliber fine dining to bodega counters, each with devoted followers swearing theirs is the only one that matters. Ask five people for a recommendation and you'll get five completely different answers, each delivered with the certainty of someone who has found the only acceptable version of chicken parm or soup dumplings in existence. The competition for reservations at places like Bong—where diners score audible-groan-worthy Indochinese dishes like whole fried dorado with peanut tamarind sauce—can feel like a second job.

What makes Brooklyn's food culture distinctly Brooklyn is its refusal to pick a lane. You've got Peter Luger, a 137-year-old German beer hall that's basically a New York institution at this point, delivering steaks that taste like butter and sides of creamed spinach that justify the pilgrimage to Williamsburg alone. Meanwhile, Badaboom—a natural wine bar that's really a chicken restaurant—is serving half-bird plates swimming in sauce for thirty bucks, with sides of French-inspired green beans bathed in enough butter to make Julia Child weep. Saraghina's Neapolitan pizza converts Brussels sprouts haters into fans. Taqueria Ramirez's tiny menu of precisely executed tacos in Greenpoint has people already planning trips to its upcoming seafood wine bar expansion. The unassuming Good Ol Days Diner in Bed-Stuy lines out the door on weekends for fried chicken breakfast sandwiches served between syrup-soaked pancake buns.

Institutions, newcomers, and the in-between

The borough's real magic happens when you realize that legacy spots and buzzworthy newcomers exist on the same plane. L&B Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst still draws crowds for its square Sicilian slices and legendary spumoni ice cream, while Bernie's—a maximalist fever dream of stained glass lamps and red booths—requires military-level timing to snag a table but rewards you with architectural wedge salads and Jenga-unstable sundaes. Briscola Trattoria in Crown Heights nails the modern trattoria thing with long wooden tables, house wine by the carafe, and tagliatelle bolognese served with a side dish of extra sauce for bread-dunking purposes. Then there's Milly's Neighborhood Bar, which technically isn't a restaurant but functions as a family party you're somehow invited to, run by co-owner Ron Leakey with the kind of warmth that makes everyone feel like a regular immediately.

The takeaway? Stop asking which Brooklyn restaurant is the best—instead, pick your moment, make your reservation (or don't), and commit to the experience, because nearly everything worth eating is happening here.

Read the original at Vogue.