Best Brooklyn Restaurants 2015
Composite photo via Yelp

The people have spoken, and it turns out their favorite Brooklyn eateries range far afield from Michelin and Zagat’s top picks.

Using a complex mathematical technique, Yelp has calculated Brooklyn’s top 100 restaurants, taking into account each eatery’s star ratings and number of reviews.

The highest-ranked restaurant, with 136 reviews and four-and-a-half stars, is the Coney Shack, a two-year-old Coney Island–based food truck that serves up Vendy Award–winning hot dogs and tacos.

In second place is another underdog, Bay Ridge’s The Family Store, a small market and takeout counter with only 65 reviews but all five stars for its special take on traditional Middle Eastern cuisine.

Best Brooklyn Restaurants 2015
Coney Shack. Photo by Chelsey C. via Yelp

In terms of neighborhoods, the known foodie havens ranked predictably high, with Williamsburg landing 28 markets, cafes and sit-down joints on the list, the most of any neighborhood. Next up were the combined results of Park Slope and South Slope, for a total of 12 restaurants. Eight Crown Heights restaurants made the list, Carroll Gardens and Bed Stuy tied with five each, and Bushwick placed a strikingly low four.

It is notable, however, that the list hardly adheres to what most consider to be neighborhoods’ formal boundaries.

Brooklyn's Best Restaurants
Nargis Cafe. Photo by Dmitry S. via Yelp

An additional 19 neighborhoods made the list, placing one, two or three eateries each. Of these, not a single spot made the list from Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Ditmas Park, or the majority of southern and eastern Brooklyn.

Some surprises came with Yelpers’ apparent knowledge, and appreciation for, the borough’s under-the-radar locales, like Ba Xuyen, a Vietnamese sandwich joint in Borough Park (Sunset Park, really) with 422 reviews, and an Uzbek cafe in what the list sites as Gravesend, but is really Sheepshead Bay.

Moderate or cheaply priced pizza and Italian food are by far the most prominent cuisines here, while there is a surprising lack of diners or classic foodie must-haves. Indeed, neither Peter Luger’s nor Grimaldi’s made the list — but hey, they don’t need the hype.

Brooklyn's Best Restaurants
Ba Xuyen. Photo by Dave K. via Yelp

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What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. I think people are tired of eating ridiculously complicated food. Contempt has grown for knowing where every ingredient is sourced or that each component must be ‘artisinal’. But, more often than not lines and waits drive my decisions. I’m tired of waiting an extra hour or more to eat, I’m willing to try something new and fun and I don’t care if the chef hurt the feelings of the arugula when picking it for my salad.

  2. I think people are tired of eating ridiculously complicated food. Contempt has grown for knowing where every ingredient is sourced or that each component must be ‘artisinal’. But, more often than not lines and waits drive my decisions. I’m tired of waiting an extra hour or more to eat, I’m willing to try something new and fun and I don’t care if the chef hurt the feelings of the arugula when picking it for my salad.

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