ESH Restaurant- Gorbals Brooklyn

Amazing. Did a tasting here with Nibble & Squeak. Could not get enough! Mediterranean deliciousness that would definitely be worth coming back. Mmmmm.

My husband and I came here to meet up with some friends at their rooftop bar. A bit confusing to find only because we didn’t realize you had to go inside the Urban Outfitters to take the stairs/​elevator up to the restaurant. We took the elevator up to the rooftop bar and it was very cute. Picnic tables and cute little cabanas. Seating is first come first serve, so we waited a few minutes until a picnic table opened up.
Ordering and receiving our food was a pain in the butt! There are no waitresses so everything is done at the bar. We waited almost an hour to get our entrée and we didn’t receive our fries for almost 2 hours. I was not alone in this because a good portion of the people there was complaining about this as well. The bartender was obviously flustered by this and tried his best to get the kitchen to hurry our orders up. He did comped everyone with food orders with drinks so at least he tried to make it up for us. It’s still ridiculous that it would take so long to get french fries! I would not come back until their service is improved.

2 words: ROOFTOP BAR!
It was a hike to go up the stairs but totally worth it. Menus are taped to the bar, so you’ll have to walk up to see for yourself. I had the «sleepwalker» cocktail and I liked it, very refreshing and strong.
It was a nice location, very chill and laid back.

I have to say I was a little thrown off by the restaurant being basically inside a clothing store, but was very happy with my experience.
Came with a large group for a birthday party. We split a bunch of appetizers, and each had a main course.
Starting off with the menu — takes a little googling to figure out what some items are, but the menu gives a bunch of good options. For apps we got the cucumber dish, pita and baba ganoush /​hummus and regular /​poutine fries. Everything was tasty. The hummus especially was some of the best I’ve ever had. Poutine was obviously great because it was poutine.
For the main course, a lot of us went with the chicken schnitzel. Delicious. It can sometimes be a little on the dry side, but this was not at all. My buddy got the burger which I tried and was impressed as well. Other got the ribs and the lamb, and I heard nothing but good things.
As it was a birthday party we kept the waiter busy with drink orders, but the service was very attentive and fast.
Overall, great experience and pretty reasonably priced. Don’t find myself in Brooklyn too often but if I do, I’ll probably stop by.
Great roof deck also!

Cucumbers — I can make them better myself at home
Broccoli — too greasy and saucey
Ribs — tender but no flavor at all
Bahn mi poutine — tasty but too soggy
Sunflower seed risotto — no, just no

This review should have been done several months ago. I stumbled across this rooftop lounge/​bar with a group of girlfriends and had a great time. I frequent Williamsburg quite often but I never knew this existed. There was a nice diverse crowd, good music, really cute guy greeted us at the door, no cover charge, and it was also an opportunity to check out the Urban Outfitters before going up to the roof. I cant wait to come back here once the weather gets warmer. Great place for a group of friends or date night.

This reviews is way overdue, from last summer. I simply forgot to review and this place popped into my head today as the spring is coming.
I came here with 3 friends in August and I have to say they have one of the coolest roof-​decks.
We ordered octopus and shared it. It was really fresh and tender. Sometimes octopus can be rubbery, but this was not the case here.
I also ordered the schnitzel, which was breaded. It was a little greasy but pretty good.
I’m not sure I would venture over here for dinner again, but will gladly make the trek during the warm months to hang out on the roof again.

Went to ESH/​The Gorbals because of Knife Fight, half expecting much ado about nothing but was amazed at the food. Octopus was nothing like we eat back home in Spain but still so tender and delicious, lamb shoulder was melt-​in-​your-​mouth soft and the Banh Mi Poutine changed my view of cilantro forever.
I hate cilantro. I am the unfortunate carrier of the gene that makes the smallest piece of cilantro completely ruin my whole meal. The mere mention of it makes me pucker with disgust. Well, the Banh Mi Poutine arrived at our table positively covered in the filthy herb. Not wanting to be a giant jerk, I tried a bite with all components, pulled pork, pickled vegetables, thrice cooked fries, cheese and, yes, a leaf of the unmentionable. I was blown away at how well it worked. I tried a second bite, daring to put more cilantro on my fork. Again, it didn’t make me want to rudely spit my food back into my plate. Not only that, it actually brought a subtle grassy, herby freshness to the dish that was really quite pleasant!
All it takes is one exceptionally cooked dish to open your eyes forever, and that Poutine has done what no one else has been able to do in 30 years.
Outstanding.

We received a gift card here from my cousin who had heard of this restaurant through Ilan and the Knife Fight television show. Not quite sure was «Israeli BBQ» entails, we went into our meal pretty clueless, but overall was very impressed by our experience.
ESH is located above urban outfitters and has a cool industrial/​loft feel to it. The bar is one section and then you go up a few steps to the main dining area, where you can also see the big grill. Drink selection was good — cocktails, beer, and wine for different tastes and reasonable prices — and the wait staff was friendly, professional, and attentive throughout.
For food, we opted to try the avocado-​cucumber-​fried chick pea appetizer (outstanding!!!), the poutine (fantastic!), and the shawarma beef (well done, but paled in comparison to the other two). The flavors and spices of the app and the poutine were incredible — not like anything I’ve tasted before.
Overall we were very happy with our experience and will recommend this restaurant to others. They accept reservations on open table, however we went close to when they opened and didn’t need one. Worth a visit!

You had Aspall’s Cider, so to start — our visit to the bar prior to our reservation was already awesome. And then you had Downeast Cider House, which was a new cider for me — and super even-​keeled. Anybody could drink it. Ciders for the win! We couldn’t visit the rooftop bar, as they were closed that evening, but we survived.
When we went up to the dining room I switched to a Malbec which was pretty nice, and very appropriate for the meal. The Za’atar pork ribs in smoked date syrup and the Chicken Schnitzel with cauliflower were particularly tasty. The menu here changes regularly — my friends who come here a lot and have even been for tapings of Knife Fight guided us through ordering, so I know some of what were ordered isn’t even on their website anymore, which is kind of awesome. It’s a bit pricey, but it was a lovely night out with friends!

The rooftop was kind of meh for me– it looked bigger in the pictures and there really wasn’t that much of a view. Good happy hour prices from 5pm to 7pm tho so if you’re more into that than anything, have a go.
Dinner downstairs was okay– the prices were a bit high for the quantity of food that they give you. Even our server suggested that we order two entrees each because she knew the portions were smaller than usual. We left the place still hungry and searching for a food cart.
I would say go here for happy hour but skip the restaurant.

My friends who were visiting me really wanted to go to this place for dinner since they are such huge fans of the chef. I had no clue who Ilan Hall was nor did I know what to expect. But now, I am sooo happy that my friends insisted on trying this place.
We had a 6:30 dinner reservation but got there early, so we had time to check out the rooftop bar. It was very nice and relaxing with Indies music playing in the background. After our drink, we headed downstairs where we were seated immediately.
Everything was amazing!!! The food was delicious; the host/​waiter were friendly, helpful and attentive.
Ilan Hall stopped by to chat with us for a long time and told us where they ordered the pig’s heads from/​why he chose certain cuts of meats/​his family/​etc; he even gave us the recipe for the creamy oats because my sister couldn’t stop eating/​raving about it.
We ordered the Cucumber Avocado Crispy Garbanzos and Charred Peppers Spicy Eggplants as starters. Both of which were soo tasty. I personally liked the Cucumber one more because of the spiciness.
Then we had both of the shared dishes: Braised Lamb Neck Creamy Oats & Mint and the Whole Roasted Pig Head. Both dishes were sooooo delicious.
The lamb neck was the tender melt-​in-​your-​mouth… warm-​up-​your-​belly type of scrumptious satisfaction that went so well with the creamy oats (the one my sister couldn’t stop eating and we ended up ordering a whole side order of it); and the Whole Roasted Pig Head was, although intimidating looking, had that perfect crunch on the outside with the soft tender pork meat on the inside sitting atop an embellished bed of perfectly seasoned crunchy broccoli. Bear in mind though that it’s a 45 minute wait time for the Whole Roasted Pig Head. And apparently they order their pig’s head come from a farm in British Columbia that only feeds milk to their pigs, which is why the meat is extra tender.
We were so full from dinner that I barely touched the dessert that ended up being complimentary.
Simply put, we all had such a wonderful time. If you and your friends are a bunch of foodies… I definitely recommend coming here to pig out for one awesome meal.

I am rarely disappointed with a Restaurant Week visit, but this place is an exception.
I don’t usually go to places that don’t post their Restaurant Week menus online, but this place has bacon wrapped matzoh balls. There was no way I could say no to that. So I dove in head first excited to try anything this restaurant had to offer– especially the matzoh balls.
I arrived half an hour before my reservation. Yellow flags went up because the place was pretty rather empty aside from the two parties that arrived ahead of me. The hostess-​turned-​bartender model they have is so inefficient. It took several minutes for her to even begin seating anyone, and several minutes after that for the actual seating process to begin. My friend and I left halfway through the process to visit the rooftop bar.
The rooftop is a beautiful space, with several picnic style tables and cute, modern cabanas. That’s pretty much the only nice thing I have to say about that. I tried to order one drink, substituting sprite for the coconut water it came with. That was a no-​go because the drinks are pre-​mixed (1. wtf?! 2. ironic because the bartender was still slower than molasses). I then ordered my second choice, which they were out of. How the heck is a bar «out of» one of the 5 – 6 signature cocktails?! I also noticed that the slushy machine was broken. After taking two minutes to decide on another drink and a lifetime for the bartender to come back, take my order, and actually make the drink, I finally sat at one of the picnic tables. The drink was bleh. But whatever– it was alcohol.
We went downstairs to be seated. Huge disappointment, but no surprise: the matzoh balls were not part of the RW menu. We ordered some for the table anyway. They were ok, but I would never describe them as good. How can something with bacon AND horseradish sauce be so mediocre? The one thing I can say is that they had more flavor, though as separate components rather than as a cohesive dish, than anything else I had.
The cucumber avocado dish tasted like… well, cucumber and avocados. Nothing special. It was like something I would make myself when I’m too tired and hot to make real food.
The chicken was the saddest dish I have ever experienced. It’s called «butter-​poached chicken», but it looks and tastes like and has the texture of boiled chicken. Boiled chicken! And I don’t mean boiled in a rich mixture of flavors. Boiled in straight up water. Not even with salt added. It was served with cherry tomatoes that looked good, but tasted like stewed tomatoes out of a can. I couldn’t even finish the dish.
The dessert was the only tolerable part of the meal. Black pepper ice cream (good) and toffee pudding (also good). However, I had lost my appetite by that time and only managed to take a few bites.
The service was slow, in spite of us being one of only two or three tables at a time. The waiter was nice enough.
This place is not worth a visit. Trust me. If it’s between The Gorbals and a Lean Cuisine, the latter should win every time.

Third time coming here, but I come mostly for the drinks, since I heard negative reviews about the food and service here taking forever to make the food and not meeting expectations. Let’s start with the pros:
PROS:
–Amazing rooftop view of Williamsburg and the Manhattan skyline
–Mixed with all kinds of people, from the hippies to the bros and socialites
But the cons far outweighs the pros.
CONS:
–Nasty and bitchy bartenders, who fail to acknowledge you exist
–Forever to get a cocktail, and it’s either watered down or too strong, and when you take it back, the bartenders are once again blind to your existence
–Wait staff are terrible and the food takes FOREVER!
For a restaurant by a chef who have won food shows, this restaurant does NOT live up to that. Poor staff, poor service, and poor responsibility. I will NOT be coming back here.

Nice roof top atmosphere. However, the bar needs to revamp its inventory. No apple martini or piña colada ingredients! 2 of my favorite and I’m guessing an average drink that I’d expect a bar to have. Don’t get the happy hour wine (white), it didn’t taste good and I’ve had a variety of white wine in the past to compare it to. The bartender, however, was nice and accommodating. She gave me a pineapple daiquiri of some sort that tasted well but it took 4 servings for me to actually feel the effects of the liquor (I only need 2 good apple martinis to give me a buzz).
I might come back again just for the atmosphere and maybe try another type of drink.

For some reason I hoped the outside seating is part of the restaurant but it’s just a bar so if you want to sit outside maybe grab a drink first because they don’t serve food up there.
Although we were hoping to sit in one of those cool wooden huts/​tables, the restaurant is also really nice inside so we had no complaints. It is located above the urban outfitters store. Some of the reviews made me think that you have to go through the store but it is just the same staircase.
The dishes are really small here. I would suggest ordering at least 2 – 3 per person. I would give this place three dollar signs instead of two because while the price per dish seems cheap, our dinner came out to close to $ 80 and we were two people.
The first dish we got was sent to us accidentally and honestly I was really happy because it was my favorite dish. It was the chewy carrots with the brown butter. It was surprisingly small. And by small I mean it was tiny and we finished it in two bites. We didn’t pay for it because it was the kitchens/waitress’s accident but I would be pretty pissed if I paid $ 8 for that. I mean there was like one carrot in the whole dish.
The second dish we got was the grilled octopus ($ 13). It was good but I didn’t really like the olives in it… I felt like they took away from the dish because they were too assertive. The portion is also small, it is one tentacle with a few olives but definitely a bigger size than the carrots.
The third dish we got was the Shishito peppers with charred eggplant ($ 8). It is kind of a misleading dish because there are no actual pieces of eggplant in it, it is just the sauce under the peppers. The peppers were good and it was a decent portion for the price.
The last dish we got was he biggest of the four and it was the cucumber and avocado salad with chickpeas ($ 7). It is a really refreshing dish and the dressing is very good and has some kind of pepper in it (cayenne or chili powder). There is very little avocado in it but I still really liked this dish.
I would definitely come back and highly recommend the chewy carrots but I just wish it was a bigger portion because I don’t know if it’s worth $ 8

Interesting menu, but the flavors were off putting. The name of the restaurant is interesting too, but sounds a bit unappetizing to me. I don’t know if Gorbal is a thing, but I can’t help to think gerbil.
The restaurant is on the 3^rd floor, then the rooftop on the 4^th. The restaurant is pretty big and open, dimly lit. The rooftop was nice but the view wasn’t of anything spectacular, just a nice breezy spot to enjoy a drink.
Food.
Banh Mi Poutine. Ick. The fries were really soggy. It just didn’t look appealing either. There were some Banh Mi flavors, but it just seemed like they missed the mark on this one.
Chicken Schnitzel — Brown and crispy. This was good, but not really memorable.
Risotto — Tasted almost like it was drenched in soy sauce. I don’t think there was any in it, but it was super salty and had that fermented taste to it.
Bacon wrapped Matzah balls with horseradish cream. F’ing gross. The balls itself were not even edible to me. My balls ended up on my friends plate, so did her boyfriends. I don’t think she likes to waste food, but she even said they were not good.
Burger — Too sweet. The onions were sour and sweet, I couldn’t taste the meat at all.
The service was great, too bad the food didn’t match.

I was having such a miserable time at another bar that by the time we came here (talk about a serendipitous find, we were frantically searching for an escape getaway and literally stumbled up here), I was pretty jaded and was game for just sitting down for a beer.
You know that saying how sometimes when you’re rejected from something you want, you’re actually being redirected onto a better path? Neither do I, but hey, you’ve turned me into a believer.
Let me break down the aspects of awesomeness this place entails:
–the beautiful, simple décor of the rooftop that I fell in love with immediately. I felt like I was in someone’s backyard. So homey and cozy
–HEAT LAMPS. Huge heat lamps that warm you up when the summer nights get a little chilly. Turn up and down to your heart’s content
–the bar made entirely of wood panels and strung with little lights all over it
–our sweetheart bartender Mark who came over and turned on the heat lamps for us as well as letting us sample the Kelvin slushies spiked with bourbon before we each bought one
–the most interesting indie rock music ever… with band names I’ve never even heard of such as Archers of Loaf, Broken Social Scene, and The New Pornographers. WHOA
–getting the hell away from the obnoxious hipster environment and reveling in the beauty of the city
I mean, the night wasn’t perfect. I wanted their Pineapple Darby drink but they ran out of pineapple juice so I had to settle for a mezcal cocktail which I didn’t like. Our drinks were thrown off of the top deck (literally) and another one was dropped too. All I heard was ice cubes cluttering on the floor, man.
But all of that stuff that would normally taint this review doesn’t matter at all, because I am so in love with this bar. I almost didn’t want to write a review for it because I wanted this place all to myself. Anyone who knows me knows well enough that I love rooftop bars during the summer.
This is my home away from home.

The Gorbals.
located on a busy Williamsburg street near Sea and that famous Chai Thai. I have been to both and when i saw where Gorbals was i cringed at the parking scene. it honestly wasn’t terrible i got a spot quickly. we went upstairs to the third floor to our reservation for two. we were seated promptly and the waitress came right over. very pleasant staff and not at all overbearing. we ordered quite a few dishes and i have to give my input on all of them.
the cucumber/​avocado/​fried chic pea salad was incredible. topped with some fragrant sumac it was probably the most under appreciated dish i saw. My wife wanted to order this and i was hesitant, what could be so special? I was dead wrong. TONS of flavor, delicious textures. the whole dish worked.
The Bacon Matzoh Balls. an anti-​jew oxymoron. I honestly wasn’t too fond of these. I know! you ask, anything wrapped in bacon has to be delicious. It was, but the matzoh balls were just matzoh balls, they tasted smokey and were served piping hot in a creamy ranch sauce, but i would say out of the five dishes we had, this was probably at the bottom of the list.
Beef Tongue was INCREDIBLE. simply put. it was full of flavor, served with a red pepper purée underneath and some crispy thin bread crisps. I will say that this dish was very heavy even though it was just a few slices. I could feel my cholesterol going up. but hey! you only live once
The Grilled Octopus was very good, the fried kalamata olives was intriguing. honestly i felt that the price was expensive for a single tentacle but I’m just nit picking. flavors were good, it was served with a very fragrant Za’Tar. i have all these spices at home (I dabble in cuisine/​cooking) and the level of freshness and pop factor of all these spices far surpassed anything i had.
Bahn Mi Poutine: i had researched this dish on Unilocal before, staring at the various pictures of poutine. i had to admit, i wasn’t a fan of the way it looked and those disks of carrots staring back at me… i hate carrots, unless they are cooked a certain way. But to be honest, this dish ROCKED. the triple fried fries were great, and everything meshed well together. I’m not really sure what makes this dish «bahn mi» which is basically a take on a vietnamese sandwich, this dish included mayo, sriracha, duck confit, cilantro, carrots, and was served just like that. it was tasty and honestly i could probably eat it every day.
the last dish we got was the desert, a sticky toffee something with black pepper ice cream, lots of flavor, salty, sweet, peppery, its a food-​gasm in your mouth of flavor. worth trying even if you don’t like pepper.
the coffee is nothing to write home about, severely under powered, i think they needed to throw a few more scoops of coffee grounds into my Bodum French Press. I have a strong suspicion that its actually toby’s estate coffee. but until i can confirm i’ll leave it at that.
all in all, i was impressed. The menu was short and it seems that they don’t really vary it up by much, (steak wasn’t available but burgers were) I don’t know if i could say id come back again and again but it was an enjoyable experience with good food.
our meal, with no alcoholic beverages 5 plates shared, a dessert, a tea and a coffee with tip came in at $ 95.00 i have to say its pricey but well worth a try.

There were so many wonderful moments about dinner at The Gorbals. The space itself is lovely and relaxed, even though strangely located inside an Urban Outfitters (?). The cocktails were excellent — we tried both options with mezcal and they were so delicious. The service was laid back and cool, which we appreciated. We weren’t rushed and ordered our meal in two sets — a few appetizers, then a long break, then some other dishes to try-​and they seemed totally cool with that.
We loved everything we ordered and we ordered a lot so that is impressive. First, the beets with hazelnuts and bone marrow (oh my god, yes), then the celeriac dish (roasted, puréed and fried!), followed by the chicken schnitzel, which was so tasty and crispy and perfect.
We then digested and ordered a bottle of wine and chilled a bit before digging into the lamb ribs (fell right off the bone), the bacon wrapped matzah balls (surprisingly fun with horseradish sauce), and the delicious bahn mi poutine. Yes. Just yes.
Best part was we still had room for their delicious and bizarre dessert options: sticky toffee pudding with pepper ice cream (SO GOOD!!!) and the brownie with crispy onions and scallion ice cream (weird as hell but I couldn’t stop nibbling at it…).
On top of it all, Gail Simmons sat down at the table next to us, so I really was in foodie heaven. Definitely try out The Gorbals. Somehow, we ordered a lot of food and alcohol and the bill was extremely reasonable (came to $ 65 per person with tip!). It was a lovely evening. Id love to come back in the summer to check out the roof.