In this day and age, more and more people are starting to care about what they eat and about knowing where the food they are eating comes from. The lofty vision of sustainable dining is obviously harder to accomplish than one imagines, but that hasn’t stopped some creative folks in New York City from trying. Olmsted in Brooklyn certainly put that aspiration into a wildly successful restaurant last year. Another group, this time with shining pedigrees like Major Food Group (of Torrisi and Carbone duo fame) and Atera, has opened up a new restaurant late last year in Williamsburg to showcase what they can do on their own. The moment my girlfriend and I walked into Sunday in Brooklyn, we were immediately charmed by the cozy setting, with a stack of woods on the one side oozing nice aroma and the kitchen sitting next to a mini-market with all sorts of fresh ingredients that you can buy. Did the food match the positive feelings that we had from the restaurant’s space? I wouldn’t call the dining experience at Sunday in Brooklyn perfect, but there were some memorable dishes.

The meal started somewhat on a mixed note, partly because we ordered snack dishes that we should’ve known would have strong flavor to overwhelm our palate, such as the Japanese sweet potato chips with red sambal sauce on top that tasted like fiery sriracha (yes, we missed that part just thinking sweet potato chips would be a nice snack to start the meal) or the deviled eggs with smoked paprika that created intense, spicy kick we weren’t used to from eating deviled eggs. After our initial shock, the meal got better over time. We enjoyed black cod pastrami that we were able to add rye sour cream on top and with garden pickles on the side (the nice, smoky feel to the cod was also moderately seasoned to my liking), and I would definitely give a thumbs up to the phenomenal honeynut squash with cultured cheese and crushed nuts and seeds that displayed very nice balance of flavor and certainly fit what the kitchen was trying to achieve in terms of sustainability of dining.

For main dishes, we ordered sea trout and pork chop. Sea trout with potatoes, clams and sea lettuce was serviceable although it was hard to find a particularly special attribute to it. I also liked that the 30-day dry aged pork chop with hazelnut Dijon mustard on the side was nicely cooked, but found it unfortunate that the massive piece of meat contained almost half in fat. After somewhat mixed entrees, my girlfriend and I certainly had no complaint about the burnt honey tart with sheep’s cream that was so delightfully sweet that I swear we could’ve devoured another slice even though we were pretty full at the time.

Getting a reservation online wasn’t too difficult although the dining space got quickly packed over the course of our dinner with local Brooklynites, reflecting how this place has become a neighborhood favorite quickly since its opening. There is full bar at Sunday in Brooklyn but I wish the restaurant would stock some non-natural/organic wine selections (I get all the sustainability edge to its drink selection, but still I just can’t get fond of natural/organic variety!). As noted above, the neighborhood charm of the restaurant is definitely there and I think it’s a terrific place to have a casual dinner with friends and family when you’re in Brooklyn. I wish the food were a little bit more put-together, but otherwise Sunday in Brooklyn is a welcome addition to the burgeoning Brooklyn dining scene.

KenScale: 8.0/10

• Creativity: 8.0/10
• Execution: 8.0/10
• Ingredients: 8.5/10
• Flavor: 7.5/10
• Texture: 8.0/10

Address: 348 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11249

Telephone: (347) 222-6722

Website: http://www.sundayinbrooklyn.com/