Honestly ... one of the best restaurants on Emmons Avenue and seriously has to be mentioned among some of the best in the Sheepshead Bay area. Yes, I REALLY MEANT THAT.
For the longest time I ignored Next Door because, well, no one thinks of Emmons Avenue as an Italian food haven. Typically, if you wanted good pizza, you could just go to Del Mar, V&S or the hundred other pizzerias in Brooklyn. If you wanted a good sit-down Italian meal you would visit restaurants like Anthony's Place, Joe's of Avenue U and Michael's of Brooklyn, which are further inland. And if you wanted good seafood, Randazzo's was right there. Next Door just seemed to be lost amongst a new wave of restaurants that opened in the area post-Sandy, but DO NOT overlook it like I did.
My wife and I visited on Christmas Eve for our annual "just the two of us" Christmas dinner. It was pretty quiet at the restaurant, but there was a large party and a few other 2 person tables occupied. First thing's first, we loved how modern the restaurant was for the area. It was definitely different from the old school establishments that had been there for many years. Everything was very neat and clean, yet it also very casual inside. The Christmas decorations were simple and perfect.
We knew the restaurant was known for their pizza, so that was a given that we were going to order it. In fact, a large portion of their menu was dedicated to just pizza. In addition to the pizza, the restaurant served some appetizers, salads, small/first course entrees, as well as some larger and more expensive second course entrees. To be honest, I didn't have much expectations when we came here, but we were shocked at how good just about everything was.
GRILLED OCTOPUS
- The octopus was served as small bite-size pieces and was excellent. We loved how light it was, yet very flavorful. We've been to quite a few seafood restaurants and, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it was one of the best grilled octopus dishes I ever had. Like mos things that are good, we wanted more!
RISOTTO PORCINI - Risotto with porcini mushrooms
- I had my doubts after ordering this, but it was quite delicious. Risotto is really a hit or miss dish at a lot of restaurants and it's so dependent on the texture. Some restaurants make it too creamy and some restaurants make it too watery, but props to Next Door because they got it just about right. My wife thought it could have used a bit more flavor, but I felt it was almost perfect. It was one of the better risotto dishes I have had in a while.
FUNGHI e TARTUFO PIZZA - Shiitake mushroom, caciocarvallo, fontina and truffle oil
- This was the ABSOLUTE highlight of our meal and now that I had a few days to let it sink in, it is still one of the best pizzas I ever had. I know it's a bold statement, but we've been to some of the best pizzerias in America (Roberta's, DiFara, Paulie Gee's, Frank Pepe) and this was shockingly right up there with what we consider to be the best. If this pizza was served at a famous pizzeria, it would be getting so much attention because it was everything you'd want in a pizza - very thin crust, just the right amount of oil, plenty of shiitake mushrooms and, the ingredient that molds it all together, that ever-so addictive truffle oil. The truffle oil scent was so sharp and pungent it got us at hello. It was as perfect of a mushroom pizza that our taste buds ever enjoyed.
NUTELLA PIZZA
- Lastly, for dessert, we decided to indulge a little .. or a lot in the Nutella pizza, with strawberries and bananas on top. The pizza was solid, but we did have a few gripes. First, the pizza, wasn't really a pizza, but more of a doughy flatbread. We assumed they couldn't use pizza dough to hold it all together, but we would have preferred it as a base. To call it a pizza because it was shaped like one was an absolute sin. Second, where was the banana and strawberries? Yes, they added slices of bananas and strawberries, but they were cut so thin and small and were far and few in between. Bottom line, we would have preferred that they didn't skimp on the toppings.
Our waiter throughout the evening was friendly, but he did forget to bring us a water refill. The restaurant was also pretty quiet, even though there was a large party celebrating. I'll be the first to tell you that I underestimated how good Next Door was and their food taught me a lesson. In fact, the Funghi e Tartufo is dare I say, pilgramage worthy! Everything we ordered was good, but the Funghi e Tartufo was literally to die for. read more