SADLY, THE BROOKLYN STAR IS NOW CLOSED.
My heart dropped tonight. We got to The Brooklyn Star in Williamsburg to order the roasted maple-crust chicken. It sounded delicious and I had checked their website to make sure they had it on the menu. The restaurant was hidden on a quiet, unassuming street. It was rather small with some communal counter space in the center, but we found a table on the side which looked into the open kitchen. It was very comfortable and cozy and hip.
Now’s where my heart dropped. We looked at the menu and there was no roasted chicken to be found. What did I do wrong? I’ve been strategizing and very thorough to make sure I’m able to hit all the 100 dishes. I questioned the waiter who I told I read about it in Time Out. He told me they had made a misprint. It wasn’t maple crust chicken, it was Maplecrest (farm) chicken.
But crest or crust, I still didn’t see any roasted chicken. The waiter said that they are now making chicken and dumplings and that they use the same Maplecrest chicken. And that was the key to the dish.
Caught at an impasse, I reluctantly ordered the chicken and dumplings, but felt like a failure. Maybe they will bring the roasted chicken back after the winter? Chicken and Dumplings are definitely more of a winter dish, so maybe that’s why we get that instead.
So I will review the chicken and dumplings and count it as #24, but with the hope that I’ll be able to fix the situation in the coming months.
The rest of our experience at Brooklyn Star was nice enough. We started with complimentary BBQ oysters since our food was taking a while. The cornbread with bacon and jalapeño was delicious with smoky spicy sweetness. The brussels sprouts were not what I expected, as they were sort of a bright, sweet hash with apples and ham. And the Dr. Pepper ribs were a bit overcooked, but had nice flavor – although I wish the soda flavor had been more prominent.
And now we come to the chicken and dumplings. This was like a Southern matzoh ball soup but with a lot less flavor. The broth was rather bland and the dumplings were soft, but also could have used a spike in seasoning. The chicken itself was very moist and had the most flavor of the dish. I can only imagine what the chicken would have tasted like roasted. Oh, there goes my heart again!
Would The Brooklyn Star’s Roasted MapleCREST Chicken make my Top 100 of the year? Well, I just don’t know since I didn’t taste it. But the actual Maplecrest chicken was moist and flavorful although didn’t shine in the chicken dumplings dish and for now, it gets a 5 out of 10.
