Calyer

Great looking. Warm and cozy built with lots of love.
Servers are awesome and as we were there early, we had all of their attention.
The drink list is really interesting I’d like to do a sampler plate — but alas I only tried one… the special bourbon cocktail and although it was good — it was much too sweet.
The menu… sounded really good… but… um no.
It changes all the time so there’s not much point in going on about any particular dish but…
carrots were tasteless, duck was tasty, pig was terrible (dry and awful), and foie gras was… delicious (of course. can you f up foie gras?) the freshly baked bread… eh. It was okay.
Our friends live in the neighborhood and they love the place and go there all the time. Maybe we were their on an off night?
Way too many great restaurants in the city to return to this one.

I have to say I was skeptical when my friend from out of town suggested this place for dinner. The reviews (at least here on Unilocal) are mixed and the menu was limited. But how else do you learn about new places if you don’t try them? So I went and was surprised by a very good meal.
We started off with mussel soup, which had great flavor – the coconut gives it a Thai feeling. I had the chicken breast, which is a safe choice, but it was so moist with perfect crispy skin. It paired very well with the butternut squash sauce. After all of this, plus a bottle of wine, we were too full for dessert.
The restaurant itself is small and cozy, especially during dinner. The waitstaff was charming and very attentive. I felt that the quality of food and the experience justified the prices – definitely a special night out meal. I left feeling full but not stuffed, and would recommend dining here for people who want a fancy, quality food experience without having to go into Manhattan.

We just had the most amazing dinner at Calyer! The atmosphere is really lovely. The music was great, the service spot on. My fiancé had the Calyer cocktail, which he loved.
Everything we ate was delicious — the kale salad, mussel soup, tempura mushrooms, and chicken. We also had the poached pear for dessert — wow. It’s one of the best desserts we’ve ever had! Head to Calyer now!

I just had the most amazing supper at Calyer! Every dish was cooked to perfection and included a complexity that left me wanting more!
I’ve been a regular at Calyer for about a year now and it’s always my «go to» when I’m craving a well balanced, innovative cocktail and a thoughtful meal. The food has always been solid, but, they’ve recently switched up the menu and stepped it up a notch (which I didn’t think was possible).. . the dishes were AMAZING! I have always loved Calyer and raved about the bartenders and food. However, the menu is even better than before, which I couldn’t think was possible! I’m half hesitant to write this review because I want to keep this local gem all to my self. LOVE the FOOD, AWESOME STAFF and AMAZING BARTENDERS (both friendly and talented!).
If you are looking for a dope little cozy spot with a super chill vibe and amazingly delicious food, go to Calyer, you wont be disappointed!

I went here for dinner with my girlfriends and the actual space is very charming. I loved the ambiance and décor and the staff was very friendly too. What bothers me is how this place can possibly charge so much for the smallest and most tasteless portions of food?! I ordered the $ 19 chicken breast (granted chicken is not the most flavorful meat, but come on!!) and it was 1 breast cut in half and there was some butternut squash sauce swirled around the place along with some parsnip, but I finished it in like 5 minutes and was so hungry I went home and ate 2 pieces of leftover Roberta’s pizza. My friend ordered the crispy tofu but it just a block of tofu the size of a stick of butter, fried, and when you put your fork in it, the whole thing crumbled apart. Bottom line, the food is very, very bland for the absurd prices and I wish they could be more innovative.
I would come back just for drinks though, because the place was beautiful.

(If you’ve never been to Calyer, you MUST go – it is AWESOME)
Calyer is one of my boyfriend and my absolute favorite restaurants (I realize it’s a bit lame for me to open this way — «my boyfriend and I» — a bit pathetic/​girly, but we truly talk about Calyer and its brilliance on a daily basis and I feel I had to write this review on our joint behalf). It is so good, it makes me want to be a spokesperson. Not only are the dinner (I could live on the crostini with cheese and beets, butternut squash soup, and chicken) and brunch (corned beef hash = dreams) absolutely scrumptious, but they are genius. So much thought and creativity goes into each dish. The service is excellent and the ambience is chill and cozy. I live in LIC (so Calyer is not very far) and the idea of dining at Calyer is a constant temptation (in the good way :)). It is perfect for a romantic meal, but also serves as a great restaurant for groups. Bravo, Calyer!

Went here for a pre-​pre-​Thanksgiving meal with a pal. I did not realize how cozy it would have been or I would have worn my PJs. This place comes across as a straight up romance generator. It’s dark, beboothed, and sort of has a «I’m in a ship» sort of thing going on. The positive is that there weren’t that many people there on this Tuesday, which made for a more relaxed meal.
I had the special, which was pappardelle with braised lamb and, I forget, but a cavalcade of other delicious shit that made this dish as rich and as gut busting as I had imagined. It was fireplace food. Winter hibernation food. And it was damn good. Prior to that I had some sort of garlic toast with ricotta, herbs, and beets on top of it. Also excellent.
The dessert was an assortment of sorbets. I had to step my sorbet game up on this evening so that was a choice that had to be made. All the while the waiter was actually endearingly chipper, not aggravatingly chipper. A rare look from an all-​smiles waiter.
I really, really enjoyed the food and now have to find a reason to go back.

We went here on a snowy Wednesday evening in hopes of finding something to warm us up — I had always wanted to try Calyer after having noticed it en route to Diamond Bar. The menu looked like it had all the right components for a successful, delicious, though slightly pricey meal — too bad it failed.
I will say that the ambience of the restaurant is very nice and cozy — if we were just there for a drink it would have been fine. I ordered the butternut squash soup and the Kale and Bread salad, my friend ordered the Lamb burger. The soup was standard but the Kale and Bread salad was no good. Too salty and too much cheese with a sad attempt at a poached egg. The lamb burger was not cooked in the middle at all so we had to send it back. The drinks were fine but a little stunted (not memorable). The price was WAY too high for the quality of the food and my friend and I were so angry about this ordeal that we went and had dessert at Five Leaves (which was AMAZING).
Moral of the story: just go to Five Leaves

With Gabriel Moya, the previous chef, this was my favorite restaurant in NY.
Local vegetable dishes, that scallop ceviche every positive review was talking about, awesome specials all the time… everything was spot on.
Now, it’s just another boring brooklyn restaurant serving sweetbreads and pork loin and all the same expected crap. And honestly, they’re not even doing it that well. In fact, it sucks. Everything is too rare and bland.
I hate to hate. I really, really want to like this place… i just don’t anymore.
We miss you Moya!

Ok ok
been here quite a few times to test it out and
They just don’t fail me ever!
I find that the menu has changed often which makes it more interesting in every visit
Staff is friendly
There r probably…12 tables? That seat four 2 people? So for a Greenpoint spot that is a few tables but do expect to wait on a Friday/​Saturday night
Dishes are presented in an art form and at the same time it transfers to ur palate
I went w a group of six and we ordered everything on the menu
I loved it all except the arepas… I. d skip that one and the chicharrones
But of those two, skip the arepas… it. s not an arepa

This restaurant is really cute! The décor is so fun, it makes me want to go home and decorate my apartment just like it. Except it would never be half as cute.
I liked Calyer and would definitely come back. I came here with a very large group for a friend’s birthday — so it was a little chaotic. The staff handled the large party very well, especially considering a few people had one too many drinks and were getting a little rowdy. (sorry about that!)
Remember that this is a tapas style restaurant, which means that its great to share a number of dishes. Some of the plates were on the large side, so to fill up a person I would recommend one or two small plates and one large plate plus a few drinks.
The cocktails were outstanding, I definitely had a few of them :)
We tried pretty much everything on the menu and even ordered a few additional dishes after enjoying them so much. Their menu rotates so at the moment everything we enjoyed is no longer on their menu, sorry for not being more helpful. Just understand that their food is fresh, extremely flavorful and well prepared. They paired really interesting flavors and textures together, so its definitely a great experience if you’re into trying new things.
This is the perfect place for a date, so if you’re looking for a cute restaurant this is it.

The good news: I ate a Calyer twice last weekend.
The bad news: its amazing chef, Gabe Moya, is leaving New York for more Midwestern pastures in Chicago (good for you guys! Bad for us), in about 2 weeks.
If you can get there before then — GO. The food is inventive, delicious, and affordable — South American with a crazy cool kick. It’s a shared plated situation, most of them are about $ 11-​$ 16, and they are pretty good sized. So, for real, get some of your friends with good taste (not to be confused with friends who taste good) and get to Calyer ASAP. It’s also cozy and could definitely be romantic. So, if you feel comfortable getting piggy (and then jiggy) with a significant other, do it here. You’re welcome. But, again, you’ve only got a few days. Time is ticking away as you read this. Go, go, go!
Not convinced? Okay. Over the course of two days, we enjoyed the Scallop Ceviche, which has corn nuts (Corn Nuts! Heathers!) and was zippy and fresh and awesome; the Broccoli with hazelnuts, super fresh, probably one of the best broccoli dishes I’ve ever had. It brought out the flavor for real; the Skate, a hearty dish with taro root purée; the Grilled Mackerel, grilled to perfection; the Pork Belly (oh my my my); and the Duck Terrine, with quail egg (freakin’ crazy good).
They have a serious cocktail menu (and a nice bar), but with all the food insanity, I think it is best to stick to beer and wine. I had a fantastic Albarino for about $ 9 — the full wine menu is a small, but well-​chosen selection. Same with the beer — lots of good ales and IPAs since it’s summah.
So, apparently the food chef from Northern Spy is slotted to take over — the menu is guaranteed to change. For the better though? Doubtful. But we’ll see.

I’ve gotten quite cynical about North Brooklyn/​Greenpoint/​Williamsburg and rarely visit that much anymore apart from bike rides through there on the way to the Queensboro Bridge.
Calyer was a very nice surprise.
Cozy and warm. The staff was all very friendly, professional, helpful and all that.
Food is small plates and we ordered around ten dishes and there wasn’t a dud. Oxtail arepas, poached eggs and panchetta, skate, blackened carrots, Scallop Ceviche, Braised Short Ribs… Good stuff. Nice wine list as well.

On the recommendation of a friend I took my beau here for his birthday.
I was looking for someplace that was nice without being too nice (because I haven’t been seeing this guy for very long, and I didn’t want him to think that I was overly committed, or that I was trying too hard, or god forbid that I was gonna tell him I loved him).
Unfortunately, I think Calyer was a little too nice, because shortly after dinner he told me never wanted to get married, and that I was basically a stopgap girlfriend.
Fuck you, Calyer. Just, fuck you.
That aside, this place was actually pretty good.
I loved the ceviche so so so much — the corn nuts were, surprisingly, a nice touch.
We had a few cocktails, and the Pisco Sour was the standout for the evening.
The décor reminded me of the dining hall at the sleepaway camp where I spent most of my early-​90s summers.
I’d go back. Although, not with a date. My love life has suffered enough at the hands of Calyer.

I arrived around 7pm on a Fri night and discovered there was 0 wait for a table for two. Lucky fluke!
We attempted to sit outside but even after being doused w bug spray, I still got bit from a mosquito. The interior of the restaurant reminds me of a log cabin — def not your prettiest restaurant but really, can you eat a pretty chair? NO.
But, you can eat their scallop ceviche. And, yes, their skate, broccoli rabe, sugar snap peas, duck confit, pork belly… DELICIOUS. We came w the idea of getting 3 tapas (B had already eaten) and after having the skate, sugar snap peas, and the scallop ceviche, we ordered another 4 — skate (yes, again), broccoli rabe, duck confit and pork belly.
Food was overall amazing. Def would get everything again. maybe not the pork belly because it’s too fatty, but that’s the nature isn’t it?
Portions are perfect. And, the servers were curiously attentive — it was as if, they weren’t attentive because it was their job, but because they actually wanted to be in a non-​earnest kind of way.
But, to be honest, I think i like this place most is because it was such a pleasant surprise.

I’ve come here twice now — for a light dinner/​drinks and also brunch. I have to say that this place is adorable-​looking and feeling. Its kind of like being in the dining room of a way cute house boat. The night we came for dinner was way hot and while the sign outside advertised a/​c, there was not much evidence of it once we stepped inside unfortunately.
I had the skate with taro purée, etc and my partner had some short rib thing. The skate was okay but I think over-​crispy and didn’t really do justice to the delicate fish. The taro was nice but in general all the elements were way salty which to me is pretty bush league. My partners ribs were good from the couple bites I had. One aside — I guess this place is meant to be latin-​inspired but I wasn’t totally seeing it. It just seemed like a regular fancy brooklyn type menu (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) with a couple latin ingredients here and there. The service was really nice ill say — the bartender was very responsive and we also got a complimentary «amouse» juice shot before our meal that was fun, if a bit weird-​tasting. conclusion: good enough dinner but didn’t deliver deliciousness and pricy to boot.
We also tried brunch. My meal was totally delicious — some masa pancakes w/​poached eggs (like eggs benedict). But my partner I felt really got the shaft with the huevos rancheros. It really is just a bowl of slightly undercooked beans with some eggs on top and a sprinkle of salsa — pretty ridiculous. Also wasn’t a fan of the waitress, who seemed a bit intrusive to me. I really wanted to love this place but unfortunately its just one more place that promises big things that it can’t quite execute consistently but its early days yet and I like the ideas.

Boom. With 5 small plates, 1 dessert and 2 cocktails, this unassuming and sparsely-​populated restaurant blew everything I know and love about culinary Williamsburg out of the water.
Calyer’s Latin American-​inspired «tapas» (despite what they tell you, 1.5 — 2 of the $ 10-​$ 15 selections is more than enough to suffice as a meal) are better and more beautiful than Traif’s. The dark-​wood interior, with subtle accents of the Wild West, is more charming and authentic than Mesa Coyoacan. The unintrusive, unpretentious and genuinely pleasing service surpassed Marlow & Sons.
The winning dish was easily the pancetta-​fried sugar snap peas; however, the intensive labor and ingenuity that went into conceptualizing and plating each dish did not go unappreciated. The scallop ceviche — served in a bright orange puddle of picante pumpkin purée and sprinkled with corn nuts was no less delicious than similar dishes I’d eaten in Peru; the grilled mackerel, served against gently seared zucchini, was accompanied by dollops of pureed lemon and cilantro. The dessert — a kiwi-​lemon tart served with candied kumquats over an almond crumble — resembled modern art, and tasted like summer.
Wonderful restaurant; wonderful meal.

I like to think that I am an adventurous eater, but this place is extreme. For super foodies only!
Some of the food was good, but most of it was so weird, not the kind of stuff I’ll need to have a second time. Foam on mussels, really? Ears, throat, kidneys… monkey brains would not suprise me at this place…
Difficult to put together a cohesive meal.
Interior is really nice and the drink menu was very appetizing, but I was hungry for dinner and left there still hungry with empty pockets.
Definitely worth trying once, especially if you aren’t very hungry and you have some money to blow.

A very good restaurant, situated unassumingly on a corner near the border of Williamsburg/​Greenpoint. On a cloudy, blustery Saturday, this was a perfect spot to find the warmth of the dark, wood-​dominated room and the company of my brunch buddy, Lauren.
The bathroom, and its old school door handle, is nothing short of amazing. The SINK!
And so is the food.
We did brunch, so the requisite bloody marys were transformed from requisite to ethereal! Just the right amount of spicy, and a generous dose of horseradish for the kind of KICK you need on a Saturday afternoon. We both had the beet salad with Granny Smith apples, bok choy, and toasted almonds (so so so good), and then the chicken sausage «sandwich» (think benedict): two poached eggs with a white bean purée underneath are served on a small bed of chicken sausage and then laced with some thick tomatillo salsa, and the «muffin» underneath is their delightfully prepared «spice bread,» which has a nutty, almost holiday kind of taste to it.
The ceiling fan made from the fan blades of a tour bus (or was it school bus?) is an amazing element to the décor and the green plank ceiling is terrific. The staff is great: knowledgeable about the menu, fun to talk to, easygoing, and not caught up in being all «edgy.» My kind of people — and just the kind of people you’d expect to find in this neighborhood, I suppose.
I need to come back for dinner — and for brunch. Greenpoint, here I come!

This is to you Calyer:
J took me out for a belated dinner and picked this amazing place.
We had:
–Roasted beets.
I love beets, but this was the best beet dish I’ve had ever in my life. Yes, it’s that serious.
–Duck confit terrine.
It was a strange texture for me, but full of flavor and the quail egg on top really made the dish. Delicious.
–Pig ears.
I wasn’t too impressed with this dish, it was the special so we decided to give it a go. It was deep fried, and really tough. We both were not too impressed with it.
–Pork belly.
Ah, yes. My favorite. I love pork belly. They perfected it, it wasn’t too salty like how most places would usually prepare it. Cripsy on top and nice and fatty on the bottom. Something I’d never tasted was pickled watermelon and I’ve got to say I am a huge fan. Simply amazing dish.
Cocktails were amazing, I had the black+white. Which was made with, high west silver whiskey, vanilla, root liqueur, and egg white. This cocktail could easily be considered a speakeasy cocktail for half the price.
The ambiance, vintage décor, and A+ service made this experience amazing. I’d definitely reccommend and I will be returning again and again!