Williamsburg?

[lavendula]

Venturing out of Manhattan and looking for a fun/relaxed place for dinner on a Friday night in Williamsburg - preferably somewhere that can take reservations.

1 vegetarian, 1 pesce-tarian in the group, any type of cuisine is okay.

I was looking into Isa but the menu might be too limited for us given the food restrictions.

Any help is appreciated!

[LItransplant]

I must disagree about Dressler. Based on good reviews from this board, I ventured there for an early Friday dinner. Made reservations. I was served the cocktail I ordered, but then my waitress completely ignored me as she waited on the table next to me, brought bread to that table, etc. She approached my table once to ask if I wanted a second cocktail, but spent most of her time loitering around with the bored wait staff. I paid for the cocktail and left.

While strolling around Williamsburg, I happened upon a fabulous tapas bar and restaurant, Cadaques Tapas Bar. Had an amazing tomato tasting menu. Service and food get a thumbs up.

[runningdiceman]

Dont go to Aurora, pasta was right from the grocery store, and the shellfish gnocchi my girlfrind had was unedible, its like they cooked the clams a week ago and threw them in old disentagrating gnocchi..Their food is about as good as my grammer. Baci-northern italin-big selection good food at a fair price.. rye restaurant had some quality food as well.

[supineny]

Allow me to dissent on Aurora. I've been going there for years and never had an experience resembling the one described above; have had many very good meals there and enjoyed the laid back vibe and Italian staff. Not fussy or fancy, but affordable, good, solid, tasty. The steaks are good, too!

[hannahcampbell]

I second the recommendation of Gwynnett St. and would also recommend Cadaques (tapas, but the portions are large) and Fiore, both on Grand St.

[brooklyngypsy]

Consider Bellwether. Brand new, so won't be packed YET - but it's great. In fact, I'd easily put it up there with BK's best (Dressler, Rye, etc.)

They have the former chef of Pillar and Plough, which was a terribly conceived place that closed after just a month (in the basement of the Williamsburg Hotel, go figure) but the food was outrageously good and I was happy to follow him here.

It's definitely better for the Pesce-tarian with dishes like seared oysters in coffee and poblano chiles or the lighly smoked salmon (also has a great, varied raw bar and lots of seafood stuff), but the Vegetarian I ate there with loved the baby artichokes and the Toasted Grains as a main dish.

Me? I went all in and had the Tripe Mole and the hangar steak roasted in Bone Marrow :) Yum.

The decor is lovely and the music is fun - unless you go late, when it gets loud and seems to turn into a bit of a party (I was also there on a Friday).

[tex.s.toast]

Caracas arepa bar's brooklyn location takes reservations and offers some pretty awesome veggie friendly options (if i didnt love the chicken/cado one so much id even dare say they are some of the best options).

[sgordon]

Gwynneyt St., Dressler, DuMont, and 1 or 8 would be your best bets I think... all take rezzies via opentable, all have veggie options (though at Dressler for main courses the vegetarian might have to ask them to make an entree-size version of an app (which I'm sure they'd do) or just combine a couple apps together to make an entree. At DuMont they'd likely be limited to the "pasta of the day" or something. But then I suppose at any restaurant there's usually, at most, only one veggie entree - if they even have one.

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Dressler
149 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11211

DuMont
432 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

1 or 8
66 S 2nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Gwynnett St.
312 Graham Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211