Cafe On Clinton

 

3

8

Amy R.

Brooklyn, NY

I have never eaten here, so I can't vouch for that but the bartender is super nice and the drinks are great. Last Saturday my friends and I tried a bunch of cocktails from the menu and they were all really amazing. I would recommend the mojito, pimms cup, french 75 or pomegranate fizz. The bartender also fixed a delicious corpse reviver and dark and stormy. This place has an intimate, neighborhood old timey feel that's really nice.

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0

5

P S.

Cleveland, OH

Our first visit. Great food, excellent service!  We had the Italian bread salad (great!), fried oysters (pretty good), salmon (yum!) and the soft shell crab (okay).  

The best part was the dessert- the corn pudding with saffron and homemade vanilla ice cream was outstanding!  I could eat buckets of this!

The host and wait staff were attentive without constantly hovering around.  Very relaxed meal and nice ambiance.

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Elite '08

13

92

Andrew D.

New York, NY

Didn't have brunch here but had a bloody mary while surfing the Net on a Sunday afternoon. Wasn't bad... and yelping while I sit here. By contrast, the service was fabulous and very friendly. They seemed really relaxed and seem to enjoy what they do. I'd come by for brunch just try it out.

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0

20

grampa g.

Brooklyn, NY

Wow.  Now under new management, the Cafe on Clinton should definitely have stayed closed.  We had the most terrible brunch there, with matching terrible service...and difficulty getting the check, even though there seemed to be a number of "staff" hanging around not smiling.  

While the Cafe before the change-over was at least a FRIENDLY place with hit&miss food, their strike-outs would somehow balance out somehow.  The somber (bored or stressed) staff sets a weird mood, as does the burnt coffee, which tasted like it was made 5 hours previously...and the old stale bread basket was the intro for the lackluster 12.95 brunch.  (which does not include the extras of what was offered with the previous Cafe's brunch)  

Advice- don't bother trying the new place, at least until the staff gets their sea legs.

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Elite '08

14

113

Catherine H.

Brooklyn, NY

The boyfriend is a regular at this place, which is about half crazy-old-man bar and half half-decent restaurant. We'll start with the former aspect: This place attracts weirdos, but friendly weirdos. Bartender Kevin is hilarious and good-natured, as are most of the waitstaff. There's a nice vibe in there; as Carl says, "it feels like home." It's a really good place to go have a glass of wine (i go for the white burgundy) or a beer (brooklyn beers only on tap, everything else in bottles). Go in the evening, or even the late afternoon. But don't expect too many young folks to be sitting next to you.

As for the food, wellllllll.... It's not great. I can vouch for the warm spinach salad, which comes with chicken, shredded carrots, mushrooms, and a tasty dressing, as well as bacon if you want it (I abstain). I also like the tuna salad oriental...crunchy noodles are the best! They make a good burger, too, and the frequent duck special is pretty tasty. For brunch I go for the French toast. Eggs are eh. And stay away from the veggie burger at all costs.

The food could be getting better, though: The owner is selling the place. The rumor is that the buyer is the guy from Patois. So. More duck, please!

UPDATE: It's now closed, but set to reopen "within the month" with the chef from Patois at the helm.

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Elite '08

18

165

carl g.

Brooklyn, NY

UPDATE: Under new management (the chef from Patois, another crappy restaurant) and not worth your time, money, or taste. Please see my homage to a friendly neighborhood eatery that kind of felt like Cheers in its dysfunction but always had you coming back. Continue reading for my new review of Cafe on Clinton Redux.

To start, what is the point? Why would you want to take a restaurant that had some great dishes and some that were maybe not right on and  throw the menu out and make food that can't even be called mediocre?
To take away a once welcoming staff (even the new people were immediately friendly)? It's like walking into an alien space that feels so completely foreign that the hours of time logged with friends, family, and other patrons never existed. Why is this place still called Cafe on Clinton? Obviously I have some hang-ups as a former regular. And obviously I can't expect everything to be the same but isn't it also obvious when something just totally sucks?

I wanted to have at least three experiences here before I wrote this review. I'm usually not as thorough in judging a spot but I just wanted to be sure everything I knew and loved about this restaurant was dead and gone. Except the horrible typeface on the menu (that's just my inner design nerd talking).

I've had my regular bar interaction here twice. Once was for its unofficial "soft" opening and once just to grab a beer after a day of meetings and errands and ready for a solid happy hour on Friday. I was greeted with my myriad bags by a front-of-the-house persona and a sommelier asking if "they can help me." They didn't like the looks of my large load, clearly. The soft opening was a celebratory social experience that was supposed to bring the regulars, friends, and new management together. Appetizer plates of fried crap were served. Really. It was tasteless over-fried garbage. But the chef wasn't cooking. Huh? I mean the chef will be cooking when the restaurant is really open, right? He's trying to introduce his food to the public, right? Why serve crappy stuff that's not on the menu? But it was free. Give the guy a break. At least I can get a fresh Brooklyn Pilsener. Nope. Only Jever on tap, folks.

Our first meal in the newly run establishment was a family occasion for the GF and included her father and brother for dinner. She had been trying to get our name on the list, if there was one, unsuccessfully for several minutes and was snubbed again with the arrival of people behind us. Frustrating to say the least, but we finally were seated and ordered. Some got steak, others got the leg of lamb. Both were overseasoned to the point of killing the meat flavor and charred way too much. There was nothing particularly special about the side accompaniments and I felt a little bad we had decided to make our debut meal at the new Cafe on Clinton a group occasion. I noted the chef/owner was making calls on his cell phone and hanging around the bar throughout the entire meal. Shouldn't he be in the kitchen?

Enter my last attempt. We have guests in town and they arrived far later than expected but we stayed up partying for a few hours after they arrived. Normally I'd make brunch but didn't have the food or the capacity this morning and Catherine's suggestion that we try the Cafe for brunch seemed easy and perfect. We noted Bocca Lupo's seating availability as a plan B on the walk over since the Cafe was so packed last time. We were immediately given a front table for six at 1 p.m.
There were no tablecloths and vinyl had been stapled over the wood tables. Did we just enter a raw bar? Were we going to be hosed down after the meal?

The brunch menu had the same price of $12.95 but no longer included the appetizer course, fresh bread, alcoholic drinks, or fresh juice. Am I missing something? Well, the coffee was included. Phew. Out of the six choices offered for brunch entrees we ordered four. I love eggs benedict and also find it a great gauge of who gives a damn about what comes out of the kitchen. Catherine ordered the duck hash. My friend (and former Cafe patron) ordered the Salmon Nicoise salad, and the visitors ordered French toast and eggs benedict. It was a bit like watching the total collapse of the Mets. Was it really happening? Was I really going to swear off this place I had so frequented for nine years? I came out of the meal reeling. Stunned. I was sad. Not only were my potatoes not cooked, the orange/brown hollandaise was glumpy and tasteless, while the Canadian bacon was just barely there. My limp, wilted greens offered no consolation. My visiting friend wondered whether that strange taste was in the syrup or on her charred French toast. Catherine's potatoes were also not cooked through and her duck hash was "tough and horrible." The salmon nicoise was "unremarkable" and "a little dry." And the chef/owner socialized at the end of the bar throughout the entire meal.

Shouldn't HE be in the kitchen?

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Elite '08

152

82

Sokrates F.

Los Angeles, CA

I was sorry to read that this wonderful little joint closed up shop. I'm now on the West Coast but still pine for the Big Apple at times. Maybe I pine for it a little bit less now.

I used to live in a tiny studio apartment in the brownstone next to this restaurant. While my place was cramped and not terribly comfortable, I loved eating brunch next door. The food was great, the price couldn't be beat, and the waitstaff was friendly. Great outdoor seating in back, too. While I'd usually just do the brunch, I chose to eat my last dinner in NYC here.

Today, in my new home of LA, I had brunch at a place that reminded me a bit of Cafe on Clinton. Three thousand miles from Brooklyn, the spirit of the homey neighborhood brunch joint lives on.

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Elite '08

93

681

Heath R.

Brooklyn, NY

A wonderful spot for brunch. This cozy and comfortably decorated neighborhood restaurant offers a multi-course brunch special for $12.95. With juice, coffee, fruit salad or another breakfasty appetizer, and a brunch entree, you get quite a bit of food -- especially because the brunch entrees are quite large in an of themselves. You can also get a breakfast drink such as a mimosa or bloody mary instead of the usual juice if you're so inclined.

C. ordered the French toast, which was thick, chewy, and sweet, with bacon, which was plentiful and cooked well. Excellent. I ordered the devil's mess, an omelet chock full of vegetables and fennel sausage (it can also be ordered vegetarian) that comes with a side of potatoes. The eggs were a tad dry -- I'd order it with cheese -- and the potatoes utterly unnecessary (nondescript and largely flavorless), yet I enjoyed my meal.

We got the sense that this place attracts regulars, and a friend of the bartender nursed a bloody mary at the end of the bar as we left. We'll be sure to return for another meal!

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1

4

Jessica M.

Brooklyn, NY

Last week after my yoga class I met my husband at this little bar-cum-cafe near our apartment. I had a class of wine (pinot noir, my staple) and a salad. It was delish and the place unbearably cute, so on Sunday after our stroll through Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope we meandered back to the cafe for an early supper. I ordered the linguine al cafe and my husband ordered the sword-wich and I have to say it was one of the worst meals I've ever had. The linguiine appeared to have been leftover from the previous evening and then pan-fried in an effort to re-warm. Think Italian lo-mein. I didn't taste the sword-wich, but my husband claimed it tasted like cardboard--overcooked or not marinated enough.

I'll stop in for a class of wine from time to time, but I won't eat there again.

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