Rucola

190 Dean St., Boerum Hill, NY

5.8

map & more

Neighborhood
Boerum Hill

Cuisine
American
Italian

Nearby
Brooklyn Academy of Music

718-576-3209

Official Website

By Chris Stang
July 7, 2011

Sometimes buzz can be a bad thing. Rucola might be the perfect example of that.

In this town, restaurant coverage is competitive business. For instance, a “first look” at a new opening is actually something that food media fights over. We don’t really understand that. If you ask us, a “first look” should be reserved for things like a new baby hippo at the zoo, scenes from the next terrible Ryan Reynolds movie, or anything related to a celebrity nip slip. A picture of an empty restaurant and a blurb from their publicist isn’t really telling you anything.

But these things get published and email blasted anyway, heralding the arrival of some new place that nobody really knows anything about, other than that it’s new. And so begins the buzz. In Rucola’s case, Time Out had excitable Brooklyn residents circling before it was even open. We made our way in a few weeks ago to actually eat food there, and found it to be pretty disappointing. The restaurant looked just like it did in those early on press shots, as did most of the plates that we ordered. But nothing we ate was worthy of a news bulletin. A plate of asparagus was just a plate of asparagus…an artichoke just an artichoke. The place was packed with young Brooklyn families (and a few old ones) that seemed to be enjoying themselves, but we found Rucola to be more style than substance. I guess you can call that the official “second look”…or maybe it’s the third. Either way, I don’t think we’ll be back.

Food Rundown:

Stuffed Artichoke
We’re always game for a good stuffed artichoke in the summer, but this was nothing special. Bread crumbs and lemon juice didn’t do much to get my taste buds excited.

Roasted Asparagus
This was another unimpressive plate of vegetables. I guess we’ll give them points for accurate menu descriptions, but the plate was really just roasted asparagus with some egg on top. That’s usually a thing we love, but for some reason, this did not satisfy. Pass.

Crudo
This was a really pretty plate of bronzino crudo, but it was just so/so. The flavors weren’t as punchy as we’d have liked.

Strozzapreti
If you come to Rucola, this is what you should order. It’s a pile of short pasta with squash and zucchini, and it’s the one thing that we finished on the table. Excellent and summery.

LI Monkfish
The entrees seem to be more successful that the starters and small stuff here, and this giant monkfish was serviceable, but not amazing. We liked the raisins on the plate. A little sweetness goes a long way. As for the seven huge carrots…those we could do without.