Applewood
501 11th Street, Park Slope; (718) 768-2044
According to Leah Cheatham, the restaurant’s gatekeeper: “There are 44 seats and a bar, which can be problematic on weekends, as we offer dinner at the bar, and many people do dine there, leaving very little space for those waiting or just interested in drinking. We generally save at least one table for walk-ins. On a typical weekend night, there are 3 turnovers. I can take your number, as you walk around Park Slope.” [Eater]

After the jump: NY Magazine recommends the Queen’s Hideaway in Greenpoint, Smith Street gets (yet another) “homey Italian menu,” Fort Greene’s Cambodian spot reopens, and one of our readers gives props to Bed Stuy’s Brooks Valley.

Queen’s Hideaway
222 Franklin St. (near Green St.), 718-383-2355
“Sweet-potato pecan pie is the dessert delicacy to order at The Queen’s Hideaway, a quirky little establishment buried deep in the backwoods of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Every evening, Liza Queen scrawls out her dinner menu on a piece of paper, puts an old LP on the house Victrola, and serves up home-cooked delicacies like spicy venison and duck gumbo, Brussels sprouts and nuggets of smoked sausage poached in sweet pear cider, and the aptly named ‘Lap of Luxury,’ a nourishing stew of slow-cooked chicken smothered in a creamy mash of garden vegetables, with big blocks of battered cornbread ‘French Toast’ on top.” [NY Magazine]
Plus: Check out Adam Platt’s favorite Brooklyn restaurants.

Pó
276 Smith Street (DeGraw Street), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, (718) 875-1980
“Steven Crane will open a branch of his Greenwich Village spot in Brooklyn next month. The chef, Lee McGrath, will oversee both restaurants with a homey Italian menu. The new place is in a brownstone that looks remarkably like the one on Cornelia Street that has housed the restaurant since 1993.” [NY Times]

Cambodian Cuisine Reopens… Across the River
“Jerry Lay’s restaurant, which left Fort Greene, Brooklyn, last summer, will reopen in Manhattan in about a month: 1664 Third Avenue (93rd Street).” [NY Times]

Brooks Valley
415 Tompkins Avenue, Bed-Stuy
“My girlfriend and I decided to eat there last Saturday night and
we can’t say a bad word about it. The only thing that seemed strange is that for being a Saturday at 8:30pm, the place was kind of empty. Maybe a lot of people in the nabe don’t know about the place since it was only opened in August. The food was delicious, an influence of Caribbean and Southern flavors and the price was reasonable. The decor is modern and entrees were about $12. I don’t think it has a liquor license though.” [Reader tip!]

Got more local restaurant tips? Please send them to editor[at]brooklynrecord.com.