Another consideration if you go to River Cafe is to get on the NYC water taxi and take a ride over to Manhattan and back.
It’s a great way to get on the River for not a lot of Spumoni.
If you are going to Coney Island Totonno’s is great and checks most of your boxes, but might not fit the minimal waiting criteria. I haven’t been in a few years, but we went right then they opened and got right in.
Yep good pizza. But like you we haven’t been in a while. Last couple of times in that area we’ve gone to Randazzos or Brighton Beach for Russian.
If you check the Google reviews for Totonnos there are more than the usual service and cleanliness complaints recently which gave me cause to pause in recommending them.
Jeez not one pic on this entire thread? Lol
Let’s go folks. We need to ramp this up and get some pizza footage!
I oblige you with this Di Fara’s mushroom slice, from my visit in November 2017. At 4pm on a Wednesday, I didn’t have to wait at all.
And I will add another suggestion to the list, Joe and Sal’s, near the Botanic Garden. It looks like it’s been there for decades, but the first Yelp review says it opened in 2016. Very good pizza, very nice people.
1 Like
Juliana’s on Old Fulton Street in Dumbo is one of the best around. Much better than (the more popular and touristy) Grimaldi’s down the street.
Yes, but absolutely railed on the weekends.
Ok here goes:
Luigis South Slope:
Sals Carrol Gardens/Boerum Hill:
Fascatis
Di Fara
Motorino
Paulie Gees
Titonnos
Juliannas
Artichoke Basilles
2 Likes
Finally, and this is a new opening at the Atlantic Ave station, Rat’s Subway Pizza:
1 Like
Very true. But, weekends are for tourists!!
Fascatis isn’t what it used to be.
Hey Einstein, if you check carefully the original poster is visiting for the Memorial weekend, and is looking for places that won’t entail long waits.
Seeing those Sal’s slices brings back memories - it was my lunchtime slice spot when I was in school over there many moons ago. How is it holding up, have you been recently?
We like the pies to go, and it was close for us. It’s also open late.
The attached restaurant was famous for a while too, it got a Ramsay makeover.
Thanks to everyone for their recommendations. Our pizza adventures didn’t go as planned, partly due to weather, but we luckily managed to get Sicilian, grandma, and regular slices on Long Island before heading to Brooklyn.
Here is where we ate, pizza and otherwise:
Julianna’s: We got on the line at Saturday at 2:45, and waited until 4pm to enter (The line at Grimaldi’s was longer and unshaded). A small margherita, a small white pizza, and a no-egg Caesar salad filled us and our 14 month old. This was very good pizza, and I’m glad we waited, but like many people have told me, old-school coal oven style wasn’t earth shattering. Margherita was my favorite. Crust thinned out toward the center, and bounced back upon compression. I enjoyed the lack of bitterness in the char. Like a neopolitan pizza, the center got a bit soggy as it sat, but it was not soupy.
Frascati’s was going to be our Sunday dinner, but it turns out they’re closed Sunday night and were also closed for memorial day. Not wanting to risk a soggy delivery pizza from Roberta’s or another respected place, we ordered pasta from Aita via Caviar, and had quite a good meal in.
Vinegar Hill House: on Memorial day at 6, an easy walk-in for our party of 5. Asparagus with bottarga and ricotta cavatelli with a ramp pesto were the standouts.
Ample Hills ice cream: Forager’s Market in Dumbo has a nice selection of bougie foods and few varieties of Ample Hills ice cream. Pints of allowed us to skip lines at the Pier 5 (Brooklyn Bridge Park) location. Delicious stuff.
Mile end deli: top notch knish (served with a super garlicky sauce) put the slop at Yonah Schimmels to shane. The best poutine I’ve had outside Quebec. Montreal smoked meat was disappointing and dry, But I liked the peppery and clove intense seasoning. Cole slaw doesn’t have the oniony flavor more typical of NY delis.
Damascus bread and pastry shop: regretfully, we weren’t hungry enough to eat anything savory here, but the desserts (honey cake & knafeh) were excellent.
Kosher bagel hole (midwood): close to DiFara’s. Good bagels and bialy’s and half sour pickles. I haven’t had dry, salty lox in years so this was a treat. Good smoked salmon too.
6 Likes
Pardon me if I’m perplexed since the title of your thread was “Brooklyn Pizza, whole pie, minimal waiting…”
You probably spent almost as much at Juliana’s as you would have at the River Cafe.
For pizza that wasn’t worth the wait.
Glad you wound up enjoying Julianna’s, Mile End, Vinegar Hill House & Aita’s delivery, but I have to admit that I’m somewhat confused as well, since very little of this was pizza or met your original criteria. If Juliana had an over 1 hour line on Sat. afternoon & Fascati’s was closed on Sun., both of my pizza place recommendations above, Sottocasa and Table 87, were/are close by (doors away from Damascus bakery, closer than Aita) & were open to eat in or to get delivery either day/evening. And you went all the way out to DiFara’s area for Bagel Hole? As I said, I’m glad you wound up doing well & had a nice time, but it sure looks like you disregarded just about everything you asked for.
1 Like
I’ll just add at the River Cafe they could have made a res and saved all kinds of time.
It really is a spectacular venue, even if it’s an old barge.
