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Brooklyn Star

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Has anyone been yet?
I'm hoping to make my first visit this weekend. Would love any words of wisdom.

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  1. hey there, i just went last night. i'd love to say that it was great as i had high expectations, but it was disappointing. maybe other things on the menu are good, but the things i had were just okay. first off, they don't have sweet tea. whats the point of a southern inspired restaurant with no sweet tea? i had the wedge salad with bacon buttermilk, fried green tomatoes, and the chicken and dumplings. the wedge salad could have been something i got in a cafeteria...i usually dont like iceberg lettuce except in the wedge salad format and there was nothing special about this salad, just some slices of tomatoes, a wedge of iceberg, and a not memorable dressing. the fried green tomatoes were sliced too thick so the tomato inside wasn't soft or mushy enough to me. the chicken and dumplings were probably the best, but as an entree it still wasn't memorable. it was very brothy, kind of tasted like something you would make at home. imagine broth, pieces of chicken in it, and some mushy dumplings in it. not bad, but not amazing. overall the flavors through all my dishes were just kind of bland and not very exciting. i'd be willing to try it one more time...the cornbread that the waitress described sounded pretty good. if you try some other dishes let me know if something jumps out as excellent.

    7 Replies
    1. re: winniechow

      Sigh!....Where is it and is there a web site/menu? Thanks

        1. re: citygrrl2000

          Oh Gee.... Now why didn't I think of that?
          I guess I was hoping to inspire other 'Hounds to more readily share info with others w/o making them go through the bother of hunting it down.
          Silly me... :-)

          1. re: Tay

            This place is in Williamsburg, BTW. I agree with Tay that chowhounds should give at least some idea of where a place is located when they post about it.

            So, plumtart, did you end up going to the Brooklyn Star? What did you think?

      1. re: winniechow

        It's a shame New York chefs aren't willing to put enough salt, pepper, white flour, butter, white corn flour, sugar (in the mains and sides but not the cornbread), and cream of mushroom soup into their Southern cuisine. Southern food can be greasy, fatty, salty, overcooked, sickeningly sweet and made from frozen/canned/SYSCO ingredients; but it should NEVER be bland.

        My favorite roadside meal of the past few years was a plate of extremely overcooked spaghetti topped with a tomato sauce made from, I think, tomato paste and molasses, and a hunk of meatloaf that was mostly ground round, ketchup, sugar, and breadcrumbs. And plenty of pepper. Nobody cooks like that up here (thankfully?)

        1. re: PAL

          I went to Brooklyn Star last night with my wife. We had the wedge salad with buttermilk and bacon, mac and cheese, meatloaf sandwich, and country fried steak (or did they call it chicken fried steak).

          I felt the food was pretty good overall. The wedge salad we devoured, not a revelation or anything but a solid item if you like wedge salads. I prefer this to the the more common blue cheese variatons. The ma&cheese again was no big revelation, but this is supposed to be southern fair (front Kentucky, almost south) so it is more of a comfort food and the mac and cheese in the skillet was very comfortable and easy to eat. Chicken fried steak was a miss. Too much breading, too airy, not enough gravy, just not what I had hoped for. Now the meat loaf sandwich, that was delicious and served as lunch today as well and was almost as good today as last night. Definately recommended if you like meatloaf sandwiches.

          Negative early reports kept us away until just now but based on last night I would go back and try some other items plus the salad and for sure the meatloaf again.

          1. re: dhs

            SO and I ate there on Sunday. Overall it was a disappointing experience for a few reasons.

            1) The food was a mixed bag. We really like the mac & cheese; its creamy, flavorful, nicely charred and had a unique mustard-tinged flavor that we really enjoyed. We also enjoyed the shrimp and grits: nicely charred shrimp, creamy, salty grits and two perfectly soft eggs. The corn bread wasn't anything special; its hyped as made to order, but it didn't really taste like corn. I commented that it tasted too much like cake and I kept thinking of banana bread. The chicken fried steak wasn't good. It was pretty bland and the breading separated from the beef way too easily. The mashed potatoes were fine but combined with the thick cream gravy they felt too 'full' to the taste. The best thing about the dish was the slaw; that was a special dish - tangy, great texture, excellent.

            2) Service - not good, and the bottom line is that we felt completely rushed. The mac & cheese app came out at an appropriate time. But the cornbread we ordered to be served with our dinner came out not long after we started out appetizer. Then the entrees were served when we were only halfway through the M&C; to make it worse, they didn't come out together. Mine came out a few minutes after my SO's dish. The server also cleared my plate before my SO was finished, which I hate.

            3) The space - its very narrow and tight, and unless you're lucky enough to get one of the tables/booths in the corner, prepared to be jostled. Its hard to relax at dinner when servers bump your chair literally every 2 minutes. That, along with being rushed with food, made me want to get out of there ASAP.

            Add it all up and it was a bad experience. I'm sure the food and course timing could improve, but man that space is too tight.

            Brooklyn Star
            593 Lorimer St, Brooklyn, NY 11211