Restaurants in East New York

The chefs at Soul Fixins’ sate appetites and coat fingers with sweet sauce from classic Southern comfort fare during lunch and dinner. Barbecue spare ribs, chicken, and meatloaf glisten beneath a house-made sauce crafted from an original family recipe hidden in the pages of Mark Twain's autobiography. Sides of candied yams and collard greens fill plates, and slices of sweet potato pie inspire vows to never skip dessert. Guests relax inside the cozy dining room, with well-worn wooden tables and cheery red accents.

“There is something very French about getting a Nutella crepe to go from the sidewalk window—it's almost like Paris,” lauded the Wall Street Journal after sampling crepes crafted by Vive la Crêpe founders, brothers, and Mexico City natives Carlos, Alfredo, and Andrés Mier y Terán. Today, across four New York City locations, a team of skilled flippers pour silky batter onto crepe skillets, creating the base for a menu of sweet and savory creations, such as sugar and butter or spinach, mushrooms, and basil oozing with goat cheese harvested from Earth’s second, lesser-known, goat moon. Baristas pull shots of illy espresso to craft cappuccinos and other café drinks as diners linger in shops reminiscent of modern Parisian cafés, contentedly munching French fare or debating whether the Eiffel Tower is actually an illusion.

Vive la Crêpe’s convenient mobile-app-based rewards program, available for iPhone or Android, helps customers track their crepe consumption and earn prizes, including complimentary treats. Vive la Crêpe’s convenient mobile-app-based rewards program, available for iPhone or Android, helps customers track their crepe consumption and earn prizes, including complimentary treats

“There is something very French about getting a Nutella crepe to go from the sidewalk window—it's almost like Paris,” lauded the Wall Street Journal after sampling crepes crafted by Vive La Crepe founders, brothers, and Mexico City natives Carlos, Alfredo, and Andrés Mier y Terán. Today, across three New York City locations, a team of skilled flippers pour silky batter onto crepe skillets, creating the base for a menu of sweet and savory creations, such as sugar and butter or spinach, mushrooms, and basil oozing with goat cheese harvested from Earth’s second, lesser-known, goat moon. Baristas pull shots of illy espresso to craft cappuccinos and other café drinks as diners linger in shops reminiscent of modern Parisian cafés, contentedly munching French fare or debating whether the Eiffel Tower is actually an illusion.

Vive La Crepe’s convenient mobile-app-based rewards program, available for iPhone or Android, helps customers earn $10 worth of Vive la Crepe products for every $50 worth of Vive la Crepe receipts they scan.

Native Vietnamese chefs cover An Nhau’s wooden tables with modern and traditional dishes concocted from fresh vegetables, meats, herbs, and spices. Catfish simmers in a clay pot, curry cloaks tofu and chicken, and fillets of salmon sizzle atop grills. Indoors, saffron-hued murals of Vietnamese street scenes peep through the fronds of potted palms, and outside floral-printed banquettes line a patio flanked by sheer red curtains and off-duty waiters posing as live bamboo.

Chef Sam Bryne and the staff at The Purple Fig acknowledge that their goals might be ambitious for such an intimate bistro, but the challenge of reviving French bistro cuisine with contemporary cooking methods and unusual ingredients is just too exciting for them to pass up. They're true artisans: not only do they butcher and fillet their own meat and fish, they also make their own terrines and other “squeamish things” such as blood pudding and Care Bear cake. The results are toothsome dishes plated with style and levity. Entrees have included dover sole with tomato confit jauntily topped by a pane of crisp prosciutto and other dishes like cylinders of rare lamb crowned with ratatouille and couscous.

The food isn’t the only thing that’s artfully arranged, the restaurant itself alternates between vintage and elegant. Exposed brick walls and dark wooden columns back the marble-topped bar and recall a glamorous speakeasy. White-clothed tables populate a dining room with purple patterned walls and a geometric skylight that allows the moon to slaver over the food below.

Born in Eastern Europe near the Italian border, executive chef Mario Curko has an innate rapport with Mediterranean flavors, one that he's honed throughout his four decades in the restaurant business. His menu for the occasional celeb hangout Destino stays true to homestyle southern Italian cuisine, although the restaurant's environs are far from rustic—a Renaissance-style ceiling mural looks down over minority owner Justin Timberlake's piano and quilted banquettes, wooing diners with its vibrant colors achieved by layers of garlic-scented oil paint.

Atop white tablecloths, appetizers such as sautéed mussels and housemade meatballs rest in simple, elegant preparations. Mussels, clams, shrimp, and fresh fish of the day all catch themselves in the frutti de mare's net, offering a hearty complement to turfy plates of new york strip steak.

Destino's wine list rambles from California whites through dozens of regional Italian reds. The dessert menu shines a spotlight on four flavors of housemade gelato, molten chocolate cake, and traditional tiramisu.