Best French Fare in Brooklyn?
Every time we turn around, there’s a new French restaurant opening — like Le Petit Marche in Brooklyn Heights and Chez Lola in Clinton Hill, to name just a couple of newcomers. Our question is — which ones serve the best food? We’re partial to Pit Stop (pictured above), Columbia Street’s kitschy, racecar-themed French restaurant…
Every time we turn around, there’s a new French restaurant opening — like Le Petit Marche in Brooklyn Heights and Chez Lola in Clinton Hill, to name just a couple of newcomers. Our question is — which ones serve the best food? We’re partial to Pit Stop (pictured above), Columbia Street’s kitschy, racecar-themed French restaurant with Petanque in the backyard — but we wish it were called “Grand Prix.” We put off checking it out for a long time because its real name kinda makes it sound like a truck stop specializing in jerky and malt liquor. Instead, they’ve got a stellar wine list and refined bistro fare, including an incredible warm lentil salad and a savory goat cheese tartine. Any other nominees for the best French fare in Brooklyn? Are any of the new spots worth checking out?
Pit Stop is located at 127 Columbia Street in Red Hook/Carroll Gardens West/Columbia Heights, depending on which realtor you ask; 718 875 4664.
Pit Stop [Homepage]
Photo by (michelle)
Moutarde is a chain restaurant and tastes it. Belleville is perfectly OK, but not fantastic. I’ve only eaten at Quercy once, but was deeply impressed.
Belleville isn’t authentic? Its run by a French family who run around speaking French all the time! As far as I’m concerned, food cooked by French people is French, maybe its a regional difference in what is considered “french” or “not french”? I do know that the food I ate in Paris on my honeymoon summer before last tastes alot like Belleville…
Re Anon 5:26– how many people have been injured in fires that occur in restaurant backyards in Brooklyn? Probably not too many. Should people who have brownstones with backyards not use the yard because of danger of being trapped there if a fire breaks out? If people live in an area that is zoned for restaurant use, then they have the benefit of a restaurant nearby and the risk that they might have to hear some children and adults enjoying themselves outside.
Re: Sorrel. Been there three times. I would place it a close second to 360. I am placing increasing emphasis on ambience and staff warmth as a factor in my restaurant selection and find Sorrel more conducive to quiet conversation than 360. Zagat 2007 included a comment that the owner of 360 can be rude. I certainly have never found him to be so and enjoy hearing him wax rhapsodic about his selection of biodynamic regional French wines. I have found the owner and staff of Sorrel to be nearly as warm. Give 360 a “9” and Sorrel a “7,” but add a fraction to Sorrel for the ease of getting there from Park Slope.
Like Belleville, Moutarde is a shade of its former self. Both carved out niches as “authentic” Parisian bistrots, but both have somewhat gotten away from that model. I may be criticized for this, but I believe that both have adopted the mass-produced French food model.
I’m surprised no votes for Moutarde on 5th Ave.!! That is my favorite restaurant in Park Slope and in my opinion one of the best French Restaurants out there.
The kids at Pit Stop are annoying and the food is terrible.
Belleville is not authentic at all. French natives swear by Quercy.
Sucker
I believe Pit Stop has an exit to the street from the backyard. The lot next to them is empty and the few times I’ve sat in the backyard the gate has been open/unlocked.