Sunday, July 15, 2007

Thumbs Up: The Good Fork in Red Hook


Last night we went to The Good Fork in Red Hook for dinner (391 Van Brunt Street) upon our friends' recommendation. Not thinking we'd have to make a reservation, we called the day of and left a voicemail requesting a table for four at 7:30. We received a call back later that afternoon offering us a table at 8:30, but that we needed to call back quickly to confirm as there was a waiting list.

We took the 8:30 table and ate in the front room. Parking was easy on Van Brunt. The place is very unpretentious, with romantic lighting and rustic features. The garden seating area was also beautiful and I would definitely request to sit there next time we go for dinner. There is a middle room that seems fine as well, but our friends sat there previously and didn't like the atmosphere.

The menu is small compared to other restaurants in the city, but we found ourselves having a hard time choosing based on the wide variety of tasty looking dishes (and two tempting specials). One of the things the restaurant's menu is built on is accessible ingredients. On the menu, several dishes are marked with an "AV," which stands for Added Value which is the name of its local organic farm, only two blocks away (luckily not next store, which looks like a trash yard).

For drinks, there was an ample wine selection and my husband ordered his favorite drink, a Dark and Stormy, which he became a fan of during our rainy honeymoon in Bermuda. I had a sojito, a take on the mojito, traditional with lime and mint.

Three of us started with the AV Green Salad, which had a lovely vinaigrette dressing. My husband had the crispy cornmeal (i.e. friend) oysters, which was accompanied by greens and beets that were really good.

Then for main courses, the boys ordered the signature dish "steak and eggs" korean style (grilled skirt steak, kimchee rice, fried egg for $18), I had the crab cakes as a main course (with mashed and asparagus) and my other friend had the grilled shrimp special (served with mashed fava beans - a really tasty surprise, similar to hummus). My crab cakes were especially good as they had little to no breading. I enjoyed them, but think I slightly prefer the crab cakes from Henry's End. But it would be a close edge.

For dessert, we had Steve's Key Lime pie, a Red Hook staple my husband has been dying to try for a year now. We definitely we NOT disappointed. It was delicious!

Definitely try The Good Fork for dinner sometime soon or you'll be missing out on a great new Brooklyn edition! Service was great as well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love Good Fork. Glad you had a chance to go there. The husband and wife team obviously love food and the service there was great. We got attentive service and I loved the Steak and Eggs!