Desy’s Clam Bar

Great food! Just like Little Charlie’s from the city. Everything on the menu is delicious. All the sauces mild, spicy and extra hot. I had the cold seafood salad, fried shrimps and calamari pasta.

Fantastic food. Just like Little Italy, s Little Chatlies. Service is great. A true gem of Williamsburg.

Absolutely positively one of the best Italian Food spots in New York. If you like hot shrimp and linguini this is the place. Great friendly service. Anyone I have introduced to this restaurant becomes a lifetime customer.

Really good service. Bread, marinara, water, lemon, and butter was promptly broad to the table. Delicious espresso. The salad and eggplant parmigiana were yummy! And overall good vibes.

AS GOOD AS IT GETS !
A fan since a young boy the food is the same if not better !
staff Is Super Nice !
PROUD OF YOU GUYS ! Going on your own thanks for doing this you guys made a lot of people happy now my kids get to enjoy the food I ate as a kid and they love it just as much
Fried cheese
Mushrooms & Peppers
Chicken Parm
Shrimp Balls
Fried Calamari
Fried shrimps & Linguini
I could go on forever …
ALL IN ALL — THERES NOTHING NOT GOOD HERE !
You won’t be disappointed !

GREAT FOOD!!! A must try, you won’t regret it. Nothing fall short of mouth pleasing. #orgasmic

The Former LITTLE CHARLIE’s sauce! I too, thought I would never taste the deliciousness again! I was so happy to learn one of the chefs had opened up his own spot and continued the tradition of creating mouth watering spaghetti! I highly recommend the” medium «sauce if you enjoy spicy flavors — the «hot» is only for the brave! The mild is pretty awesome too. Even the salad is great here! Can’t say enough about this spot

I have been going to Little Charly’s Clam bar for 20+ years till they closed. When I heard the Chefs started this place, it was must for me. The food is amazing and is exactly how I remember home cooked Italian food to be. I would travel from SF just to eat here for one weekend.

Great place that has traditional southern Italian food. Big dishes, one dish can serve two… Not to sound cheep but you have to be really hungry to finish a dishes by yourself…

I must say i never dined in. Desy clam bar or the old name little charlies. So I can not comment on how fast they are or how rude they are. But I can tell you they deliver when they say they will. I can also say little charlies is a stand by for all of wall street. I have been ordering them since 1996. They make incredible sandwiches and dishes. Let me tell you what to order and then rate them. The steam scrimp parm or sauted shrimp and calamari sweet. The get the hot sauce on the side. If you do not like this you do not like food! A couple guys here like the chicken parm and eggplant parm. They can be a little heavy considering they are they size of a baseball bat. Today I am trying the sauted hot peppers and mushroom with garlic oli. I am very excitred for it.

The service was slower than it should be for a Saturday afternoon and when we were the only 2 people there, but man… that sauce. At first only marinara, lemon and butter were brought out and we were so confused… then the bread came five minutes later. The house marinara has a slight kick to it and tasted amazing. For apps, we got a dozen baked clams which were very well breaded and tasty.
We got the calamari/​shrimp small platter (with the SPICIEST of spicy sauce… who knew Italians knew spice??) and the Angel Hair Frutti di Mare. The latter was great with most little sea critters and a buttery pasta; so filling.
Other than the service, this place was pretty good for a random desire for seafood in Williamsburg. I wouldn’t go at night – who knows how long service would take then – but a lunch or early evening dinner is the perfect time to go!

We stopped in last Friday night for dinner because we found parking right out front. Definitely a good spot to bring the family, most of the other people dining had kiddos with them. It’s a medium sized space with square tables around the perimeter of the restaurant.
The waiter started us off with bread and three red sauces for dipping — one sweet, one medium and one spicy. They were all delicious, my favorite was the medium sauce even though I love spicy everything — it had a great red pepper, smokey flavor. I had the Baked shrimp oreganata which was shrimp (with tails on — kind of annoying) topped with oil and bread crumbs and baked, very delicious — the oil and bread crumbs created a great (very oily) dipping sauce.
My companion had the broiled fish and broccoli — it also was extra oily but really tasty. It came to $ 50 for two entrees and two glasses of white wine, not bad at all. I will say the service was paaaainfully slow. We had the bread to munch on with the sauce but it wasn’t like the restaurant was packed — I don’t understand why it took over a half hour for our entrees to come out. The waiters were nice and not pushy, the white wine was forgettable but not over chilled, at least. Overall the food was the best part, definitely better than the experience but I would still come back.

Decent seafood. Love the shrimp cocktail. Service and atmosphere leaves something to be desired.

PRO:
Loved the bread and marina sauce they bring out before you eat your entrée. They are both warmed up and it taste even better like that.
Ordered: Shrimp alfredo dish, which was pretty good, the plates are average size, though I think they jip you off by putting in on a plate instead of a bowl like other Italian restaurants.
CON:
Their menu is also their place mats… I thought I was at a Chinese restaurant for a second when I sat down, and then realized they really don’t have menus. It is literally a paper, not pretty, or fancy at all — –for the price you pay, you’d expect much better.
Really bad service. There was one waiter, who was really really distracted by another waiter who wasn’t taking care of any customers at all. They were both sweet guys don’t get me wrong, but really really lacking in the customer service area. It took forever to put in our order (I had to ask after waiting at least 10 mins). There were only 3 people there so it’s not like it was busy. And I had to ask for water, twice, I shouldn’t have had to ask even once, that should be common sense for the waiter to bring it out without a customer having to ask. Getting the water was another process… let me stop here.
Ordered: Veal Marsala. The marsala taste itself was really good, but the veal was either old or overcooked. I’ve had veal a number of times and it should not have been that hard to chew.
For the size of the food they give you, I think they are overpriced. My shrimp dish was $ 20 and I’ve definitely had larger portions for less.
Verdict:
I’ll pass. If the veal was better, and the customer service was MUCH better, I would have even recommended it to others. But — — woomp woomp.

Having grown up on «Little Charlie’s», I was so happy to find that one of the cooks took the recipes and opened his own place. (Little Charlie’s closed years ago). I was afraid I would never have their sauce again! And I was not disappointed — the sauce is the same!
This is not fancy, nauvoo cuisine. I would call it «down and dirty» Italian food, like you would find in the heart if Little Italy. And for good reason, as Little Charlie’s was a Little Italy mainstay for decades.
My favorites:
fried calamari — large chunks of squid in a homemade batter are deep fried in oil.
Eggplant Parmesan — nicely fried and smothered in shredded mozzarella and sauce.
The Sauce — better than my grandma’s, I could drink this by the quart, and I do… The sweet is great, the medium can run on the spicy side sometimes, and the hot is simply a crapload of crushed red pepper simmered in olive oil with a spoonful of tomato paste, so I stay away.
Whenever I am in town, I stop by and buy several quarts of sweet sauce and a ½ pint of hot so I can mix my own medium sauce. I also grab a few eggplant parm platters. Both freeze well and taste great reheated.
I love this place!!!

Favorite restaurant in the area. Great meatballs. Great sauce. No frills.

It’s nice that the staff from the former Little Charlie’s Clam Bar had the ability to open this new location. Thankfully it’s not too far out of Manhattan.
All dishes remain consistently and pleasantly the same. My absolute favorites are the Linguini with fried squid in mild tomato sauce entrée. The cold seafood salad and baked clams are always winning appetizers. The meatballs are to die for, and I love the fried shrimp. Eggplant and chicken parmesan rock as well.
They serve fresh baked bread as well.
The ambiance is very casual. The staff is always friendly and attentive. I wish they were still in Manhattan.
Tip:
I often mix the Medium and Mild red sauces. The Hot red sauce I enjoy in small doses.

Good food.
Seafood is nice. Italian standards are great. Pasta is consistently great.

PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW BEFORE YOU ORDER DESY’S:
Thank you. A few tips from a man who knows:
Tomato sauce dishes are offered in mild, medium, and hot iterations. Medium is hot. Hot is unbearable. I cover everything in sriracha, I hope that is a hint to my relative tolerance.
Cheesey dishes are topped with a layer of goopy, papa John’s-esque melt. I hope you’re into that sort of thing.
Whenever I look in Desy’s, there is about one to two medium sized families inside eating. They are not tourists, hipsters, «New williamsburgers», no, they are authentic New Yorkers who have been around here for longer than you have. A bit of cred is due to Desy’s and to those families, whoever they are.

A group of us ended up here for lunch the other day, and we’re still talking about how terrible it was.
I’ve walked by the place several times and I always expected it to be a quaint Little Italy-​style restaurant. The inside looks more like a run-​down pizzeria.
The waitress seemed annoyed we were there and took forever to do simple things like refill water and get us the check, even though we were the only table. She also didn’t smile the entire time.
The food was the worst part and I’m surprised by how many reviews say it’s great. There were 5 of us so I got to try a few different dishes:
1. Fried Mozzarella – Not terrible, but nothing of note. The cheese was a bit hard and chewy instead of gooey.
2. Shrimp Scampi Linguine – I could barely even eat it, the sauce was sour from too much lemon and the texture was gritty/​clumpy from where the cream or butter didn’t melt fully and congealed. The shrimp were overcooked and dry.
3. Chicken Scarpariello – This was the least offensive in terms of flavor but the potatoes were hard and undercooked and the chicken was chewy and overcooked.
4. Chicken Eggplant Parmigiana – This just looked gross, it was a big sloppy plate that was topped with a giant glob of low-​quality cheese.
5. House Salad – Hard to screw up, but drenched in dressing that was a bit too tangy and the ingredients weren’t very fresh.
On top of having a cook who cannot cook, the prices are pretty steep for the quality of the ingredients and the end result. Horrible experience, skip it!