As a wine lover I will say that this is the best wine bar that I know of in Brooklyn. Good selection of natural wines at fair prices. The place is lovely inside and on a quiet block - a fun night out especially in winter when the fireplace is going. Seems to attract all sorts of people too, which is nice. The food is more hit or miss. Sometimes excellent, other times average, sometimes sub-par. But it's worth going every now and then for the wine bar, and maybe a small plate.

http://brooklynguyloveswine.blogspot.com/2008/01/brooklyn-wine-bars-black-mountain-wine_04.html

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you go for Tom's, not for the food. food is average, experience is fun, although it is rataher silly to go on saturday. any other morning is fun, and you get to eat next to the plainclothes detectives from the undercover cop station across the street.

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this is the best neighborhood Indian available. the food is actually seasoned well and very fresh, and the range of dishes, appetizers in particular, are authentic. to do better than this you have to go to one of the city's Indian enclaves. ambiance is no better or worse than comparable places, value is fine. the problem here (park slope location) is the service. they take Indian restaurant blasée to a whole new level. waiters answer cell phones, don't bring water, don't really answer questions, and it takes forever for the food to arrive, even when they're slow. go for the food, but go with patience or on your own and with a magazine.

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The food is good, yes, but the absurdly poor service makes this an impossible place to recommend to anyone. We've been on several occasions, most recently a year ago when we decided that it is a ridiculous experience. we waited literally almost an hour for our food one time, and the place wasn't even busy. and the food isn't so good as to justify this kind of thing.

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i'm stunned reading these comments. have our standards really sunk this low? this place is good on a good night, average on most nights. the service leaves something to be desired, and there is a bit of an attitude that pervades everything, as if the guest is lucky to be there. and it's really expensive too for what you get. and c'mon, nothing on the wine list except south american wines? that's gimmicky, and the wines are monsters that don't even match with the food, ironically.

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Never had the sunday regu, and it sounds great. I've been several times though, always happy. This is not ambitious food. It's classic hearty Italian with surprisingly fresh seafood too on the menu. Pastas are reliable, pizza is excellent, apps like mushrooms and broc. rabe are hit or miss. Very kid friendly too. Not sure i agree with the date place though, more of a family vibe.

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yum on the various wursts (weisswurt is my favorite), goulash, and various slaws and pickles. the schnitzel is not so good though. but the wine braised beef is excellent. skip the seafood in general. nice austrian beer selection too, skip the wine, which is a shame because austrian wine can be delicious even at low prices. they've chosen insipid ones, though. and the place feels exactly as it should - a bustling, noisy jovial place.

maybe the best thing, other than lunch a the counter on a wintery day, is the sunday night movie thing.

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This is a Moonstruck type of old school place that hosts Department of education retirement parties, and things like that, in addition to quietly putting out truly excellent red sauce-joint food. And the food is well prepared, even details, like the crisp vegetable side dishes with the perfect amount of garlic. A great place to go with a friend on a wednesday night, and you can bring wine too - reasonable corkage at $20.

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good service and a pleasant atmosphere do not make up for the inconsistency. one great meal there, two subsequent meals that were bad enough to make it a "no-return." the food is way less inventive than it reads on the menu and the winelist is a joke - completely overpriced and full of wines that are very difficult to drink because of their high alcohol content. how many australian grenaches does one restaurant really need?

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Absolutely one of the best restaurants out there, manhattan or brooklyn. The last few times we've gone, though, there has been an obvious drop in food quality compared with about 3 years ago. little things, like doughier pasta, sauces for main dishes that rely more on butter...most recently (2 weeks ago) i thought the beet ravioli and the malfatti were both just so-so. i guess it's hard to be fantastic when the menu doesn't really change for 8 years. they need an injection of new energy there.

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We LOVED this place when we first went about 5 years ago. We've been maybe 5 times and it has never been as good, at times quite poor. Sadly, this place is now an average restaurant. They do have a really good wine list though.

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Only ate their once, but we really liked it. Beautiful atmosphere, good service, creative and skilled cooking using quality ingredients. Would return without question.

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One of those places that expects you to be grateful that you're eating there, and therefore offers little in the way of service. I went 4 times and then I stopped going almost 2 years ago. This is what I thought of my last experience there: expensive food and drink, but not well executed, with some holier-than-thou service to top it off. My cocktail came in a half empty martini glass (fill that puppy up for $11, pal) and was utterly flat and way too sweet. A bad omen.

Our thick pork chops were burned black on the outside, and raw on the inside. My wife's steak was rare although she asked for medium, and although she politely sent it back for more fire, it returned in the same bloody state. The corn gratin it came with was cold, right out of the walk-in or something. Our friend's salmon was also raw on the inside with tough and inedible chinese broccoli. They then served us cold "warm chocolate cake" and cold tart tatin.

When the bill came our lovely bottle of 2005 Calera Central Coast Pinot Noir, $33 was not there. That's nice, I thought - comp us the wine after a clearly screwed up dining experience. I let the waiter know I appreciated this gesture, and he took the check and added the $33, thanking me for my honesty.

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