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Lo mein, chow mein, chicken, and fried rice are piled into a white takeout container from Trinidad Golden Place in Crown Heights.
Chicken over lo mein and fried rice at Trinidad Golden Place.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

An Essential Guide to Eating in Crown Heights

Twenty-one of our favorite places for cou-cou, currant rolls, and Trinidadian chow mein in this vibrant Brooklyn neighborhood

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Chicken over lo mein and fried rice at Trinidad Golden Place.
| Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Crown Heights is best known for its impressive array of Caribbean restaurants, with representation from the islands of the West Indies and a smattering of Central and South American countries that border the Caribbean sea. But nestled between decades-old shops advertising currant rolls and cou-cou, a newer generation of businesses have opened their doors, bringing Ethiopian, Nigerian, and Burmese flavors to the neighborhood.

Franklin and Nostrand avenues serve as lively hubs for this expansive Brooklyn neighborhood, but sources for roti, oxtail, red snapper, and brisket provide plenty of reasons to venture further south and east. For the purposes of this list, Crown Heights is defined as between Atlantic Avenue and Empire Boulevard, from north to south, and between Howard and Washington avenues, from east to west.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; the latest data about the delta variant indicates that it may pose a low-to-moderate risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial transmission. The latest CDC guidance is here; find a COVID-19 vaccination site here.

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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Puerto Viejo

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Puerto Viejo in Crown Heights is a Dominican restaurant that’s been a part of this neighborhood for more than 30 years. The menu includes expected Dominican dishes like hearty sancocho with pieces of chicken and pork, along with surprises like the encebollado steak sauteed with wine and onions. The homemade hot sauce, available to order online, is a must and adds fruity heat to the simple and satisfying dishes.

The exterior of a gray-colored, brick restaurant on the border of Prospect and Crown Heights.
Puerto Viejo, located on the border of Prospect and Crown Heights.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Greedi To-Go

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This first location of vegan restaurant Greedi Kitchen, which opened in 2018, has since been renamed Greedi To-Go, but it continues to serve a menu that accommodates a range of dietary restrictions. There’s hearty vegan sandwiches — a “turkey” sandwich with banana peppers and a jerk-style burger are standouts — along with entrees like a meatless and gluten-free take on fried chicken and waffles.

La Ñapa

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Nostrand Avenue’s La Ñapa comes from Francisco Anton, a chef who ran a similar concept in Miami. He opened this Latin American restaurant right before the pandemic, serving wine and snacky dishes, including croquettes with salted cod, patatas bravas, and a hunky chicken torta with black bean puree, cheddar, and guacamole, on a brioche bun. The arepas in particular, between $10 and $15 each, are heaping and well-worth their higher-than-usual price tag.

The colorful, blue-and-yellow storefront of La Ñapa, a Latin American restaurant in Crown Heights.
The exterior of La Ñapa at night.
Emma Orlow/Eater NY

Rangoon

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First-time Rangoon visitors are easy to spot because they’ll burst out with some version of — “Wow, this is cool!” — while walking up to this Burmese restaurant, run by chef Myo Moe and co-owner Daniel Bendjy. And it’s true: It’s impossible not to stare at the storefront, with its aluminum flaps imprinted with Victorian wallpaper designs that expand outward in warm weather, or the white aluminum outdoor dining tower ribbed with side flaps, loosely modeled off of Burmese temples found across the city of Bagan. Inside Rangoon’s white brick dining room, diners huddle over crispy onion fritters, subtle curries, and creamy noodle soups that arrive in deep bowls filled to the brim.

A bowl of soup with crispy shallots, two boiled eggs sliced in half, a pile of cilantro, all swimming in a red sauce
Rangoon’s fish noodle soup.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Peppa's Jerk Chicken

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Founded in 1995 as Danny & Pepper’s, Gavin Hussey moved his iconic jerk chicken establishment further up Flatbush Avenue a few years later, occupying a very modest storefront near Prospect Park. A flock of newer branches operated by family members later sprung up, including this very slick one decorated with reggae album covers in Crown Heights. The jerk chicken and escovitch fish are as good as ever, but a handful of other Jamaican staples like oxtails and curry goat have been added to the regular menu, and are also well worth ordering.

A round foil container of chicken blackened and chopped up into irregular pieces.
Peppa’s epic jerk chicken.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Brooklyn Suya

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This tiny Franklin Avenue lunch counter packs a punch with its suya bowls, the namesake Nigerian spice blend made with peanuts and spices that’s dusted over several proteins like steak, shrimp, and tofu. Here, you can opt for kale or rice as your base and choose from three different heat levels. Add-ons include plantains, hardboiled eggs, eggplant, and more items that help round out the meal with color and crunch.

Customers eat and wait for orders outside of Brooklyn Suya, a fast-casual bowl restaurant in Crown Heights.
Customers eating outside of Brooklyn Suya.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Cafe Rue Dix

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From this western Crown Heights restaurant, owners Lamine Diagne and Nilea Alexander are serving Senegalese and French fare that often comes with a side of searing Scotch bonnet sauce. Cafe Rue Dix is named for the street Diagne grew up on in Dakar, and like in the Senegalese capital, French influence abounds here. Beignets and steak frites appear on a menu alongside mafe, stewed beef in a spicy peanut sauce, and thiebou jen, a whole steamed fish served over rice.

The exterior of a corner storefront with a red awning that reads “Cafe Rue Dix” in yellow letters.
Outside of Cafe Rue Dix on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Park Place.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Ras Plant Based

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Nestled between Brooklyn Suya and Island Cz Cafe is Ras Plant Based, a pandemic newcomer that’s become a quick hit in the neighborhood for its vegan Ethiopian fare. Owners Romeo and Milka Regalli also run the non-vegan, Cobble Hill location of Awash Ethiopian Restaurant, but here their tibs are made with mushrooms and their kitfo comes from crumbled pea protein. Platters with five to six dishes can be portioned for larger groups ($19 each), and extra injera costs a dollar more.

Colorful yellow, red, and teal murals adorn the walls of Ras Plant Based, an Ethiopian restaurant in Crown Heights.
The mural-filled dining room of Ras Plant Based.
Ras Plant Based

Island Cz Cafe

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Though there’s probably better jerk chicken or rice and peas in the neighborhood, there’s few better places to eat it than the usually humming dining room at Island Cz Cafe. This corner restaurant specializes in moderately priced Caribbean fare, including satisfying callaloo (a Jamaican vegetable dish), saucy jerk chicken wings, and takeout containers of oxtail priced around $12. Heaping cocktails, previously seen up and down Franklin Avenue in plastic takeout containers during the pandemic, are served with names like “Hennessy Shirley Temple” and “Call a Cab” (around $12 each). Order them “king size,” a 32-ounce serving, for double the price.

An overhead photograph of an aluminum takeout tray of saucy jerk chicken wings.
An order of jerk chicken wings from Island Cz Cafe.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Ursula Brooklyn

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Breakfast burritos are the draw at this Sterling Street takeout counter, which also sells stuffed sopapillas, green chile cheeseburgers, and other New Mexican fare. Come before noon, when burritos are sold, and prepare for a wait that’s well worth it, especially if you order the version made with chorizo. The flour tortilla-wrapped creations come stuffed with scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese, and smoky red or green chiles that owner Eric See imports from New Mexico.

Tattooed hands rip apart a breakfast burrito next to piles of red and green chiles and a cup of coffee.
Don’t ask for a burrito after 12 p.m.
Noah Fecks/Ursula

Joy & Snook

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On a stretch of Nostrand Avenue packed with Caribbean restaurants, Joy & Snook distinguishes itself with a bright orange storefront and an awning that advertises “GT Style” (Georgetown, the capital of Guyana) cooking. Like many restaurants on this list, there’s no menu, but ask and hope that the daily selection includes cook-up rice, a Guyanese staple made from rice, yellow split peas, coconut, and shredded beef, and cou-cou, which resembles grits or polenta, but is made from cornmeal.

Outside of Joy & Snook, a Crown Heights lunch counter whose orange storefront and faded white sign reads “GT Style.”
Joy & Snook, a “GT style” restaurant and bakery along Nostrand Avenue.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Lakou Cafe

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You’ll find plenty to enjoy on the wide-reaching menu at this Haitian-American cafe, opened by Cassandre Davilmar in 2018. Daily offerings include a Haitian boulette with vegan meatballs that can be ordered as a sandwich or a plate, as well as a fried oyster mushroom sandwich with an herby epis sauce. Crepes are feature heavily throughout the menu, with flavors that range from Haitian peanut butter and ginger jam to a savory curry chickpea version.

Trinidad Golden Place

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Step inside this Nostrand Avenue bakery whose front window advertises divorce lawyers ($349 before a $335 court fee) to find reasonably priced Trinidadian-Chinese fare, along with doubles, roti, and a lengthy display case of pastries. “Chicken and fried rice,” are some of the most common words uttered here, and at $8, there’s no confusion about why the sizable takeout containers of Trini-style chicken with Scotch bonnet sauce on the side are a hit. Time your visit around 3 p.m., when currant rolls ($2 each) come fresh from the oven like clockwork.

A person stands at a counter making an order from a lengthy list of specials that include chow mein, roti, and other Trinidadian-Chinese specials.
Don’t miss the currant rolls at 3 p.m.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Colina Cuervo

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Though Colina Cuervo is ostensibly a coffee shop — with a standout horchata latte — you won’t find the usual cafe fare here. This Latin American spot offers excellent brunch options like scrambled eggs with salsa verde, tamales, empanadas, mushroom tacos with chimichurri sauce, and a pork hash with Peruvian hominy. The cafe is from Ecuadorian chef Jorge Salamea, who pulls experience from Anissa, Ssam Bar, and Ma Peche, among other restaurants.

Cock’s Bajan Restaurant and Bakery

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Cou-cou with flying fish, a Caribbean specialty of cornmeal and fried fish that’s especially loved in Barbados is the thing to order at this decade-old Bajan (meaning Barbadian) restaurant. Note that the hours and days of operation at Cock’s change from time to time, so be sure to call before visiting.

A blue and white awning hangs above Cock’s Banjan Restaurant and Bakery in Crown Heights.
Cock’s Bajan Restaurant on Nostrand Avenue.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Agi’s Counter

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This recently opened Eastern European lunch counter highlights dishes that pull from owner Jeremy Salamon’s Hungarian and Jewish-American roots in a vintage, diner setting. Sandwiches run the gamut from the “Ritzy Titzy,” a pickled grape and chicken salad that’s a play on a Waldorf, to the leberkase, a pork pate and fried egg version with a pear mostarda. A range of pastries, from chef Renee Hudson, include the gerbeaud cake with apricot and chocolate ganache, as well as a Friday-only sacher-torte cake.

Two rolled crepes on a white plate sit side by side to a poached pear, atop a marble white table with silverware and a vase.
Rolled crepes at Agi’s Counter.
Adam Friedlander/Eater NY

Ali's Roti Shop

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Ali’s is a reliable option for quick, reasonably priced meal with lots of flavor. Stop by for West Indies dishes such as its plentiful doubles — stuffed with chana — or the curry goat roti. Bolstered by its popularity, this Trinidadian restaurant, located on Utica Avenue, has expanded with additional outposts at Francis Lewis Boulevard and on Flatbush Avenue.

Joenise

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In a residential stretch of southern Crown Heights, Joenise continues to prove there’s no such thing as too much sauce. Dishes come served in aluminum takeout containers (around $15), often bobbing with bits of collagen and okra, but they’re not complete without a dab of pikliz, a sit-upright Scotch bonnet relish, and a spoonful of sos pwa nwa, a black bean sauce. A menu listing daily specials spans one wall of the establishment — goat okra on Wednesdays, shrimp on Sundays — but most dishes can be ordered around the clock.

An aluminum takeout container of fried chicken in a brick-red broth at Joenise, a Haitian restaurant in Crown Heights.
Fried chicken and Scotch bonnet pikliz at Joenise.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Izzy's BBQ Smokehouse

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Izzy’s, originally known as Izzy’s Barbecue Addiction, was one among a rash of kosher barbecues that opened a half-decade ago in Brooklyn, and eventually, it brought the phenomenon to Manhattan. When available, the hulking beef rib is a good choice, but the brisket here is always fine, fat-edged and smoke-ringed.

Slices of pink edged meat with a lake of sauce spreading in front.
Izzy’s smokes some pretty serious brisket.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

German's Soup

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German’s Soup is a unique dining institution, an actual branch of a place famous in Guyana’s capital of Georgetown, founded in 1960 by Hubert “German” Urling. This Crown Heights outpost, run by son Clinton Urling, sells more than its namesake dish, though the cow foot soup, with its unctuous and viscous broth, and collagen, would be a standout on any menu in town. Additionally, find Caribbean-Chinese lo meins, pepperpot, oxtails, and red snapper stew.

A styrofoam container of chunked beef in a dry stew over rice.
Guyanese pepperpot at German’s Soup.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Gloria's Caribbean Cuisine

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Gloria’s permanently closed following a tragic, decades-long legal battle last year, but owner Gloria Wilson’s Trinidadian fare remains available from this second location in southern Crown Heights. There’s no menu listed, so come prepared with your order or follow the recommendation of whoever’s working the counter, as one should. Nourishing, tamarind-packed doubles are a reliable bet, or opt for the gargantuan oxtail dinner (around $15 for a large), which comes with plantains, rice and peas, and a choice of two sides.

The exterior of Gloria’s, a Caribbean takeout counter in Crown Heights, photographed at night.
The exterior of Gloria’s at night.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Puerto Viejo

Puerto Viejo in Crown Heights is a Dominican restaurant that’s been a part of this neighborhood for more than 30 years. The menu includes expected Dominican dishes like hearty sancocho with pieces of chicken and pork, along with surprises like the encebollado steak sauteed with wine and onions. The homemade hot sauce, available to order online, is a must and adds fruity heat to the simple and satisfying dishes.

The exterior of a gray-colored, brick restaurant on the border of Prospect and Crown Heights.
Puerto Viejo, located on the border of Prospect and Crown Heights.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Greedi To-Go

This first location of vegan restaurant Greedi Kitchen, which opened in 2018, has since been renamed Greedi To-Go, but it continues to serve a menu that accommodates a range of dietary restrictions. There’s hearty vegan sandwiches — a “turkey” sandwich with banana peppers and a jerk-style burger are standouts — along with entrees like a meatless and gluten-free take on fried chicken and waffles.

La Ñapa

Nostrand Avenue’s La Ñapa comes from Francisco Anton, a chef who ran a similar concept in Miami. He opened this Latin American restaurant right before the pandemic, serving wine and snacky dishes, including croquettes with salted cod, patatas bravas, and a hunky chicken torta with black bean puree, cheddar, and guacamole, on a brioche bun. The arepas in particular, between $10 and $15 each, are heaping and well-worth their higher-than-usual price tag.

The colorful, blue-and-yellow storefront of La Ñapa, a Latin American restaurant in Crown Heights.
The exterior of La Ñapa at night.
Emma Orlow/Eater NY

Rangoon

First-time Rangoon visitors are easy to spot because they’ll burst out with some version of — “Wow, this is cool!” — while walking up to this Burmese restaurant, run by chef Myo Moe and co-owner Daniel Bendjy. And it’s true: It’s impossible not to stare at the storefront, with its aluminum flaps imprinted with Victorian wallpaper designs that expand outward in warm weather, or the white aluminum outdoor dining tower ribbed with side flaps, loosely modeled off of Burmese temples found across the city of Bagan. Inside Rangoon’s white brick dining room, diners huddle over crispy onion fritters, subtle curries, and creamy noodle soups that arrive in deep bowls filled to the brim.

A bowl of soup with crispy shallots, two boiled eggs sliced in half, a pile of cilantro, all swimming in a red sauce
Rangoon’s fish noodle soup.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Peppa's Jerk Chicken

Founded in 1995 as Danny & Pepper’s, Gavin Hussey moved his iconic jerk chicken establishment further up Flatbush Avenue a few years later, occupying a very modest storefront near Prospect Park. A flock of newer branches operated by family members later sprung up, including this very slick one decorated with reggae album covers in Crown Heights. The jerk chicken and escovitch fish are as good as ever, but a handful of other Jamaican staples like oxtails and curry goat have been added to the regular menu, and are also well worth ordering.

A round foil container of chicken blackened and chopped up into irregular pieces.
Peppa’s epic jerk chicken.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Brooklyn Suya

This tiny Franklin Avenue lunch counter packs a punch with its suya bowls, the namesake Nigerian spice blend made with peanuts and spices that’s dusted over several proteins like steak, shrimp, and tofu. Here, you can opt for kale or rice as your base and choose from three different heat levels. Add-ons include plantains, hardboiled eggs, eggplant, and more items that help round out the meal with color and crunch.

Customers eat and wait for orders outside of Brooklyn Suya, a fast-casual bowl restaurant in Crown Heights.
Customers eating outside of Brooklyn Suya.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Cafe Rue Dix

From this western Crown Heights restaurant, owners Lamine Diagne and Nilea Alexander are serving Senegalese and French fare that often comes with a side of searing Scotch bonnet sauce. Cafe Rue Dix is named for the street Diagne grew up on in Dakar, and like in the Senegalese capital, French influence abounds here. Beignets and steak frites appear on a menu alongside mafe, stewed beef in a spicy peanut sauce, and thiebou jen, a whole steamed fish served over rice.

The exterior of a corner storefront with a red awning that reads “Cafe Rue Dix” in yellow letters.
Outside of Cafe Rue Dix on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Park Place.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Ras Plant Based

Nestled between Brooklyn Suya and Island Cz Cafe is Ras Plant Based, a pandemic newcomer that’s become a quick hit in the neighborhood for its vegan Ethiopian fare. Owners Romeo and Milka Regalli also run the non-vegan, Cobble Hill location of Awash Ethiopian Restaurant, but here their tibs are made with mushrooms and their kitfo comes from crumbled pea protein. Platters with five to six dishes can be portioned for larger groups ($19 each), and extra injera costs a dollar more.

Colorful yellow, red, and teal murals adorn the walls of Ras Plant Based, an Ethiopian restaurant in Crown Heights.
The mural-filled dining room of Ras Plant Based.
Ras Plant Based

Island Cz Cafe

Though there’s probably better jerk chicken or rice and peas in the neighborhood, there’s few better places to eat it than the usually humming dining room at Island Cz Cafe. This corner restaurant specializes in moderately priced Caribbean fare, including satisfying callaloo (a Jamaican vegetable dish), saucy jerk chicken wings, and takeout containers of oxtail priced around $12. Heaping cocktails, previously seen up and down Franklin Avenue in plastic takeout containers during the pandemic, are served with names like “Hennessy Shirley Temple” and “Call a Cab” (around $12 each). Order them “king size,” a 32-ounce serving, for double the price.

An overhead photograph of an aluminum takeout tray of saucy jerk chicken wings.
An order of jerk chicken wings from Island Cz Cafe.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Ursula Brooklyn

Breakfast burritos are the draw at this Sterling Street takeout counter, which also sells stuffed sopapillas, green chile cheeseburgers, and other New Mexican fare. Come before noon, when burritos are sold, and prepare for a wait that’s well worth it, especially if you order the version made with chorizo. The flour tortilla-wrapped creations come stuffed with scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese, and smoky red or green chiles that owner Eric See imports from New Mexico.

Tattooed hands rip apart a breakfast burrito next to piles of red and green chiles and a cup of coffee.
Don’t ask for a burrito after 12 p.m.
Noah Fecks/Ursula

Joy & Snook

On a stretch of Nostrand Avenue packed with Caribbean restaurants, Joy & Snook distinguishes itself with a bright orange storefront and an awning that advertises “GT Style” (Georgetown, the capital of Guyana) cooking. Like many restaurants on this list, there’s no menu, but ask and hope that the daily selection includes cook-up rice, a Guyanese staple made from rice, yellow split peas, coconut, and shredded beef, and cou-cou, which resembles grits or polenta, but is made from cornmeal.

Outside of Joy & Snook, a Crown Heights lunch counter whose orange storefront and faded white sign reads “GT Style.”
Joy & Snook, a “GT style” restaurant and bakery along Nostrand Avenue.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Lakou Cafe

You’ll find plenty to enjoy on the wide-reaching menu at this Haitian-American cafe, opened by Cassandre Davilmar in 2018. Daily offerings include a Haitian boulette with vegan meatballs that can be ordered as a sandwich or a plate, as well as a fried oyster mushroom sandwich with an herby epis sauce. Crepes are feature heavily throughout the menu, with flavors that range from Haitian peanut butter and ginger jam to a savory curry chickpea version.

Trinidad Golden Place

Step inside this Nostrand Avenue bakery whose front window advertises divorce lawyers ($349 before a $335 court fee) to find reasonably priced Trinidadian-Chinese fare, along with doubles, roti, and a lengthy display case of pastries. “Chicken and fried rice,” are some of the most common words uttered here, and at $8, there’s no confusion about why the sizable takeout containers of Trini-style chicken with Scotch bonnet sauce on the side are a hit. Time your visit around 3 p.m., when currant rolls ($2 each) come fresh from the oven like clockwork.

A person stands at a counter making an order from a lengthy list of specials that include chow mein, roti, and other Trinidadian-Chinese specials.
Don’t miss the currant rolls at 3 p.m.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Colina Cuervo

Though Colina Cuervo is ostensibly a coffee shop — with a standout horchata latte — you won’t find the usual cafe fare here. This Latin American spot offers excellent brunch options like scrambled eggs with salsa verde, tamales, empanadas, mushroom tacos with chimichurri sauce, and a pork hash with Peruvian hominy. The cafe is from Ecuadorian chef Jorge Salamea, who pulls experience from Anissa, Ssam Bar, and Ma Peche, among other restaurants.

Cock’s Bajan Restaurant and Bakery

Cou-cou with flying fish, a Caribbean specialty of cornmeal and fried fish that’s especially loved in Barbados is the thing to order at this decade-old Bajan (meaning Barbadian) restaurant. Note that the hours and days of operation at Cock’s change from time to time, so be sure to call before visiting.

A blue and white awning hangs above Cock’s Banjan Restaurant and Bakery in Crown Heights.
Cock’s Bajan Restaurant on Nostrand Avenue.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

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Agi’s Counter

This recently opened Eastern European lunch counter highlights dishes that pull from owner Jeremy Salamon’s Hungarian and Jewish-American roots in a vintage, diner setting. Sandwiches run the gamut from the “Ritzy Titzy,” a pickled grape and chicken salad that’s a play on a Waldorf, to the leberkase, a pork pate and fried egg version with a pear mostarda. A range of pastries, from chef Renee Hudson, include the gerbeaud cake with apricot and chocolate ganache, as well as a Friday-only sacher-torte cake.

Two rolled crepes on a white plate sit side by side to a poached pear, atop a marble white table with silverware and a vase.
Rolled crepes at Agi’s Counter.
Adam Friedlander/Eater NY

Ali's Roti Shop

Ali’s is a reliable option for quick, reasonably priced meal with lots of flavor. Stop by for West Indies dishes such as its plentiful doubles — stuffed with chana — or the curry goat roti. Bolstered by its popularity, this Trinidadian restaurant, located on Utica Avenue, has expanded with additional outposts at Francis Lewis Boulevard and on Flatbush Avenue.

Joenise

In a residential stretch of southern Crown Heights, Joenise continues to prove there’s no such thing as too much sauce. Dishes come served in aluminum takeout containers (around $15), often bobbing with bits of collagen and okra, but they’re not complete without a dab of pikliz, a sit-upright Scotch bonnet relish, and a spoonful of sos pwa nwa, a black bean sauce. A menu listing daily specials spans one wall of the establishment — goat okra on Wednesdays, shrimp on Sundays — but most dishes can be ordered around the clock.

An aluminum takeout container of fried chicken in a brick-red broth at Joenise, a Haitian restaurant in Crown Heights.
Fried chicken and Scotch bonnet pikliz at Joenise.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Izzy's BBQ Smokehouse

Izzy’s, originally known as Izzy’s Barbecue Addiction, was one among a rash of kosher barbecues that opened a half-decade ago in Brooklyn, and eventually, it brought the phenomenon to Manhattan. When available, the hulking beef rib is a good choice, but the brisket here is always fine, fat-edged and smoke-ringed.

Slices of pink edged meat with a lake of sauce spreading in front.
Izzy’s smokes some pretty serious brisket.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

German's Soup

German’s Soup is a unique dining institution, an actual branch of a place famous in Guyana’s capital of Georgetown, founded in 1960 by Hubert “German” Urling. This Crown Heights outpost, run by son Clinton Urling, sells more than its namesake dish, though the cow foot soup, with its unctuous and viscous broth, and collagen, would be a standout on any menu in town. Additionally, find Caribbean-Chinese lo meins, pepperpot, oxtails, and red snapper stew.

A styrofoam container of chunked beef in a dry stew over rice.
Guyanese pepperpot at German’s Soup.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Gloria's Caribbean Cuisine

Gloria’s permanently closed following a tragic, decades-long legal battle last year, but owner Gloria Wilson’s Trinidadian fare remains available from this second location in southern Crown Heights. There’s no menu listed, so come prepared with your order or follow the recommendation of whoever’s working the counter, as one should. Nourishing, tamarind-packed doubles are a reliable bet, or opt for the gargantuan oxtail dinner (around $15 for a large), which comes with plantains, rice and peas, and a choice of two sides.

The exterior of Gloria’s, a Caribbean takeout counter in Crown Heights, photographed at night.
The exterior of Gloria’s at night.
Luke Fortney/Eater NY

Related Maps