Chez Ma Tante
Ordering pierogi in Greenpoint takes some nerve, and Chez Ma Tante buys theirs from a Polish lady around the corner and has her stuff them with ramps or snap peas. The pancakes sit in the cast iron long enough to build a thick fried char. Ruth Rogers eats on this corner every time she is in New York, and she orders the caesar and the chicken Milanese.
Why go
Katherine Lewin's argument is that the room is designed to tell you nothing. It is white, it has a long wood bar, a few outside tables and no other decor, and the menu on the door says roast chicken and caesar salad. Then the caesar arrives with every radicchio leaf carrying an unreasonable amount of pepper, garlic, breadcrumbs and cheese, and the chicken comes sitting in a broth with grilled buttery bread and a big spoonful of aioli. Lewin calls the falafel one of the best things on the card.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the pancakes on a Saturday morning. Lewin says they are
absolutely worth making a trip out of bed for
.2 - Order: the thick-cut fries with the aioli, which Lewin recommends dipping liberally.
- Avoid: treating this as a quick dinner. Rogers goes at night and plans to sit through the evening.
Good to know
- Booking: Lewin found a room that is busy without being packed, so a walk-in is a fair bet.
What locals & experts say
- Katherine Lewin, The Infatuation, 22 August 2022, rated 8.5:
While lots of restaurants try very hard to make interesting food and end up with dishes that look like edible versions of tchotchkes you'd buy in an overpriced design store, Chez Ma Tante is focuses on making straightforward food taste extremely good.
2 (Her sentence, her typo.) - Ruth Rogers (The River Cafe, London), 2026-05:
Another place I go every time I'm in New York is Chez Ma Tante. It's in Brooklyn and has that cool Brooklyn atmosphere, but without trying too hard. The cooking is very simple and bistro-style, with a bit of Montreal influence behind it.
1 Her order names a chicken Milanese; the review describes a roast chicken. Both are printed as they stand.
Verdict
should-visit — Ruth Rogers eats here on every New York trip and Katherine Lewin rated it 8.5, and neither of them has any tie to the other or to the room. What holds it back is the date: the newest review I have found is August 2022. Go for the Saturday pancakes or a long evening, and expect the card to have moved since Lewin wrote.