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All Reader Reviews of...

River Deli

32 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, NY, 11201
at Columbia Pl.
718-254-9200

Avg. Rating

7
Food: 8
Service: 7
Décor: 8
"Recommended"

Average Reader Rating on a Scale of 10.

67% would go back.

 Write your own review

great restaurant

By alisa_718 on 5/7/2012

  • Overall Rating: 10
  • Food: 10
  • Service: 10
  • Décor: 10
  • Yes, I would go back!

this is one of the most charming, delicious, cozy restaurants I've been to. The food is great, the atmosphere couldn't be more charming and the service is always good. It's my favorite spot in Brooklyn Heights.

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10 out of 20 people found this review helpful.

Welcome Italian

By ellengoldberg on 7/6/2011

  • Overall Rating: 10
  • Food: 10
  • Service: 10
  • Décor: 10
  • Yes, I would go back!

I grew up on this block and played with bottle caps in a a run-down playground. Now, I am delighted that there is such a low-key, open, Italian Restaurant....and a real playground with a fountain. It is an experience just to walk through this Historic Neighborhood, marvel at Brooklyn Renaissance and when you get hungry, dine on Pelligrino and wine, Pasta and a little Tiramisu at River Deli.

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22 out of 35 people found this review helpful.

unprofessional

By KM135 on 7/2/2011

  • Overall Rating: 4
  • Food: 5
  • Service: 1
  • Décor: 5
  • No, I would not go back!

We live in the neighborhood, and I wanted to try out dinner with my son. They don't take reservations for two, so we arrived at 5, their opening time. (I called at 4:30 to verify this time.) When we walked in the door at 5, the woman who greeted us told us that they were having delays and that the staff still needed to eat. She asked us to step out and come back in "two minutes". Since she clearly didn't mean just "two minutes", this made the whole situation ambiguous, and so we went elsewhere. This woman had a rather "put-off" manner, as if we were rude to show up right at 5. Overall, I found this place very unprofessional, even for a small neighborhood place. We've promised ourselves never to go back. I will rate food and decor as average since we didn't get to eat there; I will rate service as awful.

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25 out of 80 people found this review helpful.

Gorgeous and real Italian

By EricB on 11/13/2010

  • Overall Rating: 10
  • Food: 10
  • Service: 10
  • Décor: 9
  • Yes, I would go back!

River Deli is a charming, romantic and unpretentious place. The food is real Italian and quite memorable: buratta appetizer is creamy and delicious; the special Sardinian pasta with Bottarga is definitely my favorite plate, papardelli ai funghi also very good. Solid Italian wine list at reasonable price, outstanding ricotta cake and panna cotta. Very attentive and friendly staff. Great place!!!

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30 out of 63 people found this review helpful.

I wanted to love this place!

By Abbey on 11/3/2010

  • Overall Rating: 2
  • Food: 2
  • Service: 2
  • Décor: 5
  • No, I would not go back!

So hard to find really good food in Bklyn Hts - and so it was with high hopes that we went to River Deli for dinner. In our minds, it was so close to Iris Cafe that maybe, just maybe, the good food 'thing' was linked to the street. Sadly not so. The food was beyond tired. The service was weak (and also tired). The place was nice looking, but be forewarned - very loud. The menu seemed fine - much what you would expect with rustic Italian. But the execution was just off. We got a fennel salad to start - limp. We got the special fish dish - over cooked and over salted. And the pasta - just fair - nothing to lift our spirits or or give us hope that we just ordered wrong. Injury to insult? their pannacotta which was tough, not soft and smooth, and drizzled with strawberry jam. Sad to say I'm not rushing back anytime soon.

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56 out of 81 people found this review helpful.

A delicious new restaurant in Brooklyn Heights ~ Love River Deli!

By ToddSimmons on 5/20/2010

  • Overall Rating: 8
  • Food: 8
  • Service: 7
  • Décor: 9
  • Yes, I would go back!

Finally tried River Deli tonight and it was excellent! Better than I expected it to be. Mouth-watering mozzarella salad. Tasty raviolis. Inventive, fresh pastas. An extensive and SOLID Italian wine list. But the location itself comes close to stealing the show. River Deli is on a quiet, cobblestone side street in quiet lower Brooklyn Heights that feels exactly like a charming European lane. That theme continues inside too but in a cool, contemporary way. Nice, diverse crowd light on "hipsters" but plenty of down to earth hip, neighborhood people. As the Brooklyn Bridge Park finishes up to the south I can only imagine how much business River Deli will do from people on their way back to the subway at Borough Hall or Clark Street from the park. With the stellar subway access (A/C/2/3/4/5/R/F) I can foresee one inevitable dilemma: it won't take long for Manhattan foodie tourists to sniff this joint out and make it crowded. 15 minutes from Soho on the R? You do the math. I wonder if they're working on getting some sidewalk seating soonish though? That would be great if they put a few tables on Columbia Pl instead of Joralemen but either way. Just in time for summer. With the new Cafe Iris (Stumptown in the house!) a few doors down this little pocket of the Heights that some call "Willowtown" is developing into a very cozy hideaway from Atlantic Ave and Court Street. And especially from Manhattan, a water taxi ride away.

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63 out of 108 people found this review helpful.

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