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East New York, counted

East New York by the numbers.

Every restaurant we track in East New York, Brooklyn — measured on exactly the same scale as every other street in the region, which is the only way these figures mean anything next to anybody else’s.

28
Median Sweet Scoreacross 106 scored places

The reason this site exists

Star averages can't tell anyone apart

47% of every place we track lands between 4.0 and 4.7 stars. The most common score of all is 4.2 — that badge is worn by 16 different restaurants. A number that everybody has is not information. The Sweet Score spreads the same places across 19 bands instead of one.

2.3: 12.4: 12.5: 22.9: 13: 33.1: 23.2: 23.3: 43.4: 63.5: 43.6: 63.7: 113.8: 53.9: 154: 104.1: 104.2: 164.3: 94.4: 84.5: 84.6: 44.7: 44.8: 34.9: 35: 92.533.544.55
Star average — one spike, no separation
0: 25: 1210: 915: 620: 1225: 1430: 635: 940: 745: 650: 555: 360: 565: 170: 475: 280: 185: 190: 10255075
Sweet Score — the same places, actually spread out

How the Sweet Score is built →

Where a street has a specialty

The blocks that are actually known for something

Not folklore — arithmetic. For every neighbourhood we ask what share of its restaurants belong to a category, and compare that to the same category’s share of the whole region. East New York is 2× more Deli than the region average. These are the streets you go to on purpose.

  1. East New York · Deli2×35 places · 24% of the block

Bars are the multiple against the regional average. Every town →

What people actually order

The 16 dishes reviewers name most

Pulled from what reviewers wrote, not from menus. If a dish shows up here it’s because people kept bringing it up unprompted — which is the only kind of recommendation worth anything.

  1. Fried Chicken18 places
  2. Fried Rice13 places
  3. Jerk Chicken10 places
  4. Oxtail8 places
  5. Chicken Over Rice8 places
  6. Curry Goat7 places
  7. French Fries6 places
  8. Dumplings6 places
  9. Empanadas5 places
  10. Roti5 places
  11. Burger5 places
  12. Rice And Peas4 places
  13. Chicken Sandwich4 places
  14. Mac And Cheese4 places
  15. Lo Mein4 places
  16. Philly Cheesesteak3 places

All the dishes →

The question everybody asks

Does spending more get you a better meal?

A little, and then it stops. The median $ place scores 36; the median $$$$ place scores 14. Four dollar signs buys you -22 points — on a scale where the gap between #1 and #50 in a single town is bigger than that.

PricePlacesMedian Sweet ScoreMedian ratings
$7336144
$$332793
$$$222133
$$$$11450

The categories

What this region is made of

Every place belongs to every category it earned, so these add up to more than 147. The median column is the honest one — a category with a lot of places and a low median is a category where picking badly is easy.

CategoryPlacesMedian scoreRatings behind it
Deli35452,585
Chinese19352,679
American13204,018
Pizza13224,923
Burgers92612,576
Coffee9277,748
Fast Food93713,509
Bakery718228
Dessert6221,454
Seafood6363,435
Latin5533,029
Caribbean3227,844
Bar & Grill373508
Breakfast & Brunch3738,257
Indian310279
Mexican3402,440

Every ranking →

The list nobody else can build

Loved, and almost nobody knows

High Sweet Score, barely any ratings. These are the places where the people who have been are near-unanimous and the crowd hasn’t arrived. This is what a percentile can find and a star average can’t.

    The other end

    The most-rated restaurants in the region

    Volume, not quality — though the two turn out to be less related than anyone expects. These are the places everybody has an opinion about.

    1. Lindenwood DinerEast New York · 7,391 ratings82
    2. Wendy'sEast New York · 2,978 ratings9
    3. McDonald'sEast New York · 2,882 ratings30
    4. White CastleEast New York · 2,719 ratings50
    5. McDonald'sEast New York · 2,674 ratings22
    6. Popeyes Louisiana KitchenEast New York · 1,818 ratings34
    7. East Coast Street TacosEast New York · 1,803 ratings90
    8. Cachapas BrooklynEast New York · 1,238 ratings88
    9. Domino's PizzaEast New York · 927 ratings5
    10. Domino's PizzaEast New York · 700 ratings4

    What the board can do for you

    Counted, so you can filter by it

    Every one of these is a list. Outdoor seating in August, somewhere that takes a reservation, somewhere that will let the dog sit down too.

    Every filter →