Junior's Restaurant (Downtown Brooklyn)
The cheesecake is tangy, sweet and browned on top, and the graham crust under it does not go soggy, which Will Hartman singles out.
Why go
A New York cheesecake stands on how tangy it is and on whether the crust survives the weight of it. Hartman, in The Infatuation, says this crust holds. Check that on your own plate.
Everything else in the building is a 1950s diner. Red leather booths, a theater marquee out front, newspaper clippings of New York sports figures on the walls. Hartman rated the place 7.4 and says the food is mostly skippable.
The counter sells slices and whole cakes in several sizes. Newer Junior's rooms trade across the city, Times Square included, and this is the Flatbush Avenue Extension original.
Order this / avoid
- Order: a slice of the New York cheesecake, or a whole cake to carry.
- Avoid: the rest of the menu.
What locals & experts say
- Will Hartman, The Infatuation, 29 October 2024, at 7.4:
You come for the near-perfect New York cheesecake that's so thick you'll struggle to get it all off your fork, even after you've scraped your teeth against the tines.
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Good to know
- Getting in: walk in, or queue at the takeaway counter and skip the dining room entirely.
- Jeff put this on the list himself, 3 September 2026.
Jeff's take (his words)
Not on Jeff's saved list. He named the place on 3 September 2026, in the paragraph he wrote on what New York is to him, and asked for it.
Verdict
could-visit — Order the cheeseburger if somebody at the table needs feeding; Hartman calls it juicy, massive and a pleasantly well-seasoned surprise. Everything else is a way of passing the time until the cake arrives.