These Brooklyn Dishes, Restaurants Are Among NYC's 'Best Of 2021'

BROOKLYN, NY — Brooklynites won't have to go far to check off New York City's best food from their bucket list in the New Year.

Five Brooklyn restaurants and seven meals from the borough's eateries have landed on Eater critic Ryan Sutton's round-ups of the Best Restaurants and Best Dishes of 2021.

In fact, on top of those that made the "long list," all dishes in Sutton's top three list hailed from the borough. A Brooklyn eatery was also chosen as one of two "Restaurants of the Year" by the food critic.

From Greenpoint down to Brighton Beach, here's the food you should try in 2022:

The Restaurants:

Aldama

"This hotspot is the city’s most creative and technically astute modern Mexican restaurant in years. Chef Gerardo Alcaraz garnishes tostadas with tart daikon ribbons curled up like Thai rolled ice cream. He forges mole negro with so much flavor the notes seem to last longer than a Lars Von Trier film. And he whips up what might be the city’s best al pastor-style taco, thanks to a modernist quenelle of pineapple gel that tames the umami-rich meats. One could legitimately serve this fare in the type of quiet, subdued rooms that Michelin inspectors seem to like; the crew here, however, prefers to hire a DJ." 91 South 6th Street, near Berry Street, Williamsburg

Taqueria Ramírez

"This studio-apartment-sized Greenpoint establishment is where Tania Apolinar and chef Giovanni Cervantes sell some of the city’s best tacos. Cervantes fishes his meats out of a bubbling choricera as aromatic as a Sichuan hot pot, before ladling them onto lard-slicked tortillas. Expect excellent pork al pastor, beef suadero, trippa, nopales, and longganisa sausage. Nothing is vegetarian." 94 Franklin Street on Oak Street, Greenpoint

Sofreh Cafe

"Nasim Alikhani and chef Ali Saboor are almost single-handedly responsible for modernizing New York’s Iranian culinary scene; in this case they’ve given Brooklyn what feels like a cross between an Apple Store and a Persian cafe. Patrons sit at a long communal table while snacking on rose rice pudding, rose almond cookies, rose custard doughnuts, and pirashki stuffed with braised beef or walnuts with feta. If I lived anywhere near Bushwick, I’d be there twice a week, typing away on my laptop for a few hours while sipping on free refills of black tea — laced with more rose. This is, without question, one of the bakeries of the year." 252 Varet Street, near Bogart Street, Bushwick

Falansai

"Chef Eric Tran isn’t interested in serving safe, middle-of-the-road tasting menus at his American-Vietnamese-Mexican spot. He instead sends out bony fish cheeks, funky legs of sliced lamb, chicken heart skewers, beef tongue spring rolls, and bruleed pates of chicken liver as part of his ambitious, awesome $82 set menus. A la carte dishes are also available." 112 Harrison Place, at Porter Avenue, Bushwick

Ursula

"This New Mexican-leaning spot might have been the best reason to wait outside in a line in snowy weather in 2021. Chef Eric See rewards your patience with green chile cheeseburgers, cups of aromatic rose tea, puffy brioche doughnuts, and chile-laced burritos that will warm you to your core." 724 Sterling Place, near Bedford Avenue, Crown Heights

The Dishes:

Tacos at Taqueria Ramirez

"You wait in line. Tania Apolinar takes your order. You wait some more. Chef Giovanni Cervantes pulls a mess of tripe out of the bubbling choricera, torches it, then places it on a lard-slicked corn tortilla. He hands it to you, and you eat it right there, on the spot, or maybe a few seconds later if you step outside. The process is as intimate as at an omakase sushi parlor, and the flavors — the warming longaniza, the slippery innards, the crisp al pastor pork — are no less precise. These are some of the city’s best tacos, period." 94 Franklin Street on Oak Street, Greenpoint

Pirashki at Sofreh Cafe

"New York is going through a mini bakery boom of sorts, but Persian pastries are still reasonably rare within the five boroughs. Enter Ali Saboor and Nasim Alikhani of Sofreh fame, who are serving some serious Iranian pirashki in this modern Bushwick space. For a savory version, Saboor stuffs kale, feta, mushrooms, and walnuts into a doughy bun, balancing a tangle of bitter, salty, and umami-rich notes against the sweetness of the roll. For an equally lovely take on an Iranian street snack, the chef takes rounds of fried dough, as yeasty as good zeppoles, and fills them with a faintly sweet rose custard. That dessert pirashki is easily one of the city’s best new doughnuts." 252 Varet Street, near Bogart Street, Bushwick

Vegan Mole at Aldama

"The flavors of ash, salt, sugar, fungi, pepitas, sugar, and soil in Aldama’s mole negro appear on your palate like freeform trumpet notes in a Miles Davis ensemble, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere. The inky dish includes no clunky proteins to hide the nuances. Chef Gerardo Alcaraz instead gives us a minimalist $30 sauce — along with a scattering of mushrooms and truffles — on a gray ceramic plate, a preparation that skirts the line between traditional and avant-garde. It is one of the city’s great moles, and unlike most of its counterparts, this one happens to be vegan." 91 South 6th Street, near Berry Street, Williamsburg

Plov at Tashkent Supermarket:

"New York has scores of great places to eat plov, the regal rice pilaf of Uzbekistan. What sets Tashkent Supermarket apart, however, is the sheer variety and pricing of the rice. Patrons circling the hot buffets might encounter schmaltzy chicken plov, slicked with aromatic poultry fat, as well as polychromatic Afghan plov, teeming with yellow rice, black rice, and pink pomegranate seeds. Meanwhile, over at the separate plov station, cooks stand behind giant kazans, spooning fork tender slabs of lamb and beef over piles of sugary carrots and broth-infused rice. Prices start at just $8 per pound." 713 Brighton Beach Avenue at Coney Island Avenue, Brighton Beach

Falansai fish ssam

"Most tasting menus make things luxurious and easy for patrons. Falansai’s Eric Tran, by contrast, likes to make diners work a bit more, with offal-y, off-the-beaten-track preparations. Case in point is the fish three ways: a head, collar, and belly, grilled and brushed with fish sauce caramel. Diners must navigate all the bony nooks and crannies before placing the sweet, gelatinous flesh into lettuce wraps for munching." 112 Harrison Place, at Porter Avenue, Bushwick

Burrata slice at L’Industrie

"The local slice renaissance continues, with compelling pizzaiolos around town finding affordable ways to bring airy crusts and creative toppings to more New Yorkers. Massimo Laveglia’s newly expanded L’Industrie in Williamsburg does particularly compelling work on this front, especially with regard to his burrata slice: a light pizza that contrasts warm tomatoes with cool, milky cheese. Summer is far off, but when it returns, the naturally chilling and restorative properties of that slice will come in as handy as a pocket fan." 254 South 2nd Street, near Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg

Jalapeno makdous at Tanoreen

"Most Palestinian cooks prepare makdous by marinating stuffed eggplants in olive oil and vinegar, a process that yields delicious snacks to be enjoyed throughout the wintertime. Tanoreen makes a fine eggplant makdous, but chef Rawia Bishara also does something a bit different, filling jalapeno peppers with walnuts and red peppers, a hat tip to the Mexican cooks who have long helped run her kitchen. The result is a bracingly tart, spicy, and crunchy vegetable, a reimagining of Levantine food through a Southwestern lens." 7523 Third Avenue, at 76th Street, Bay Ridge