Chowing down in Greenpoint

Until recently, I'd never stopped IN Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Walked through, rode through, drove through, but never stopped. Thank goodness Yoga Jen and her BF Tom invited me to dinner and broke THAT foolish streak!

I can't say the name of this restaurant, but I can tell you where it is and WHY YOU HAVE TO GO THERE NOW. Mamma mia, THIS is some of the best home-cooked food I've ever had! The decor? Well, it's...different. As if someone mixed Nana's welcoming home with a hunting lodge's leftover animal heads. :)

Look! This guy's got his party lei ready to go!

You can BYOB at this place, and there is NO CORKAGE FEE, ie the 25 bucks and up that many establishments charge to let you open your bottle of wine at their table. What a treat! Tom picked up a nice Malbec around the corner and the server happily brought us an opener.

The menu was a bit overwhelming, so we ordered a little bit of everything. First up: Pickle soup. Stay with me, because one spoonful of this and you'll also be saying "Why have I never had this before!??!" So. Insanely. Scrumptious.

You don't go to a steakhouse and order fish; neither would you go here and NOT order pierogies.

We ordered sauerkraut/mushroom and potato/cheese. The s/m blend was good--the p/c blend was DREAMILY DELICIOUS. Crispy, crunchy exterior, savory, yumtastic, soft yummy innards. Add your own 'yum' derivative here.

Tom got the Hungarian pie ($8.00), which is a ginormous potato pancake wrapped around a hearty serving of goulash. Delicious, delicious, deeeeelicious! How did they keep the pancake so crunchy outside, soft inside, and not go all gushy with all that goulash? Magic, I decided.

I ordered the chicken cutlet ($8.00), stuffed with mushrooms and surrounded by a pool of chicken juiciness. I didn't even TOUCH this. Okay, I cut off a tiny piece so I could sample it at the height of its freshness--the other 3 pounds of it came home with me that night.

Oh this? Just our table o' food, minus Jen's mushroom soup, which was also good, but NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS PICKLE SOUP!!!--Photo Credit: Jen A :)

We were beyond stuffed, but Jen had already ordered the cherry blintzes, and it's a sin to waste food (so says my late, great Nana Jo), so really, we had to sample them.

I did not realize these were also fried. Holy caloric intake...cherry-tastic bites of yum yet again. I took the second one home with me for leftovers. Yum.

A quick glance back at the kitchen showed several women hard at work, churning out delicious dish after delicious dish. My compliments to all of the chefs!

Oh, and the leftovers? I reheated them Sunday night and they were just as delicious. Don't you love it when a good thing gets even better after a day or two in the fridge? Even better? When the bill (including generous tip) comes to about 50 bucks for 3 very stuffed, very happy people. Seriously...why aren't we there right now, having some pickle soup?!?!?