Slick Willie

Went there to have brunch with a friend. it had a French feel to it. Sitting by the doorway/​window. The food was good. I had the Johnny cakes with egg Benedict.
Downside is that they only take cash and the ATM is actually located on top of the toilet.
Imagine if you drop your card…

Have been back a few times. Let’s be realistic ppl, this is not a venue like ‘top of the rock’ place but it is a really good place. I will say I am in love with the chicken, it is really just down right delicious. The contraband is legit dead on great. They do try hard, that says allot me to. The staff is really cool. no one is perfect and in this city, I appreciate effort. I will be back!

Two things upfront: cash only, and best burger in the borough.
Now here’s some substance: Slick Willie is a spot that was sorely lacking on the East side of McGuinness Blvd. Consistently good service both in-​house and through delivery, and the dudes in the kitchen are always pumping out the good stuff.
My go-to’s are the Willie Billie Burger and Steak ‘Em Up for brunch. I’ve never been let down with either of these (or anything else I’ve tried, for that matter — the entire menu is excellent).
The Willie Billie Burger, a beef patty served on an onion bun with lettuce, tomato, and cheese is easily my favorite burger. They use an onion/​avocado relish instead of letting that shit slide all over the lettuce, which is super clever. The celery seed mayo is served standard with it, which is nice because mayo on a burger still seems like the unsung Hero Condiment. The beef is always perfect, flavorful, holds together and is juicy but doesn’t flood the bun or the plate. My ideal burger, and it comes out perfectly EVERY TIME.
The Steak ‘Em Up is a portion of sliced hangar steak & a side of potatoes (fries or hashed) and an egg option if that’s your thing. Everything is perfect. The eggs are always great. No surprises here, but if you’re getting steak and eggs you know what to expect. Steak is always cooked exactly to requested temp, and is well seasoned.
Service has always been friendly, attentive, and quick for me, but even if the waitstaff flipped me the bird and called me a piece of shit I’d keep going back for the food.

We went for brunch several times and had a great experience. Their Eggs Benedict are my favorite, perfectly poached eggs served on silver dollar pancakes, just the right amount of sauce. The food arrived very quickly, and the staff was attentive to our needs. Not much more to say!

In house dining is okay, delivery on the other hard not a good look, second time I have ordered and both times have been a complete mess. Charging 3 dollars for a plastic cup of «Coke» from a soda gun is unreal. Let alone receiving half of beverage at the bottom of the bag and having to clean off my floor was an awesome ! Thanks guys…
Btw the Coke was Pepsi, trust me I know my Coca-​Cola. Not a great way to start my new year. Get your s*** together guys.

Ordered delivery. Corn pancakes were delicious and light. Bacon is … well, bacon. Fruit was fresh and sweet, even the blackberries! I chose maple syrup but I think I’d go with honey butter, which would go really well with the corn. Packaging was thoughtful, eg my cappuccino was wrapped in plastic and then in a small brown paper bag that was stapled. Delivery guy was sweet. I would love to go and sit next time. Lucky Greenpoint!

I am giving Slick Willie three stars, they have potential for more if they make some changes. I’ll start with the positives. The food is actually good, I especially enjoy the contraband burger. I also really appreciate the service that our waiter provided. He was very attentive, polite and helpful. I live nearby and have gone twice now. The main thing that brought me back, other than being two blocks away, was the food.
Here are the reasons why I can’t give them 4 or 5 stars. The name. The bartender left twice while we were there to smoke, both times he lit his cigarette inside the restaurant with one of the candles from the tables. This meant I had to also inhale his smoke. They don’t have draft beer. They don’t take credit cards and their ATM charges a $ 2.00 (owner imposed) fee. The ATM is also inside of the bathroom, how am I supposed to know this ATM doesn’t have a camera? The staff there also seemed to want to play music they like, French Rap?, instead of music that could be universally appreciated.
If the above were corrected they would definitely be 4 stars.

Be careful and call before you show up. We went at 9:30am today and it was closed. Oh well.

Love their Contraband burger, coconut mussels and starry night!!! I have been here more than 5 times already. The short hair waitress is so nice. I always go back because of her. Awesome customer service.

Benedict Willie is delicious. Actually, I love it for the hash browns — a warm smokey flavor (not necessarily spicy). The eggs were good too ;)
Service on a weekend afternoon was great.
I’ve had their veggie burger before which is decent but not as worth raving about as the brunch.

I only write this review in hopes that some things can improve. My boyfriend and I have been here twice and both ended up getting really weird stomach aches from our food– twice. His stomach of steel getting upset is not a good sign for either one of us. I was bummed about the warm rose and beer they served us, too.
The ATM machine is… in the restroom…
It’s cash only so be prepared to bring some or you have to make a special trip to the restroom.

Two stars — one is for the room and the other is for the food.
The room is pretty cool and looks inviting from the outside however once we got inside and seated at a table I became confused as to what sort of environment they were trying to create. For some reason there was a TV tuned to the Food Network and Guy Fieri’s show, thankfully the sound was off. There was also bad 90’s music playing which morphed into bad rap music and then moved on to The Beastie Boys.
The food was acceptable, nothing special. We had the beet salad to start with and then burgers for our main course. The beet salad was fine and the burgers were fine.
Where the place desperately needs improvement is service. They were offering a drink special on the night we went, a Bourbon Ice Tea. That’s all well and good but when it takes 15 minutes to create your «drink special» of the night you have a problem. Was the place packed? Nope. There were no more than a dozen people there and half of them were getting ready to leave. During that interminable wait my wife and I decided to check out Unilocal reviews of the place. Yikes! I guess we should have done that first.
Be forewarned that it’s cash only and yes, the ATM is above the toilet in the bathroom, and the restaurant doesn’t have much of a float for making change. Our bill was $ 54 and so we laid out 4 x $ 20. Our server brought back 6 singles and our $ 20. WTF? Come on honey! When we asked if we could get two $ 10 for the $ 20 she returned with one $ 10 and ten $ 1. Not sure what she, or the bartender who keeps the cash, were thinking but they need to do better than that. Of course this is the same bartender that took 15 minutes to make a cocktail. (Oh ya, I forgot to mention that our server brought my beer at least 10 minutes before the cocktail.)
I think the best thing that could happen to the neighborhood around this restaurant is for Slick Willie to close and people with real restaurant experience could take over the place.

This bar restaurant is around the corner from my house but I would rather walk to go to a basic bodega to get a bacon egg and cheese.
My roommate went with two friends and got the fried chicken sandwich when the restaurant first opened, and it was greasy and not crispy. Her two friends were meh about what they got. I decided to give it another shot 3 – 4 months later after they had time to work out the kinks. I was interested in their sandwich which was basically a BLT with Kielbasa … Called it in to pick up. When I got it the toast was burnt, there was no sort of condiments on the sandwich (generally BLT is mayo) and it was greasy. The side salad was the best part of my meal … It was like a kale and mixed greens salad. Only thing that elevated or redeemed it at all.
Sooo yeah it’s basically always like empty or two tables with people and I get why. If your going to be a restaurant you need to do basic things like not give a customer a burnt toast sandwich…

When I went: 10am on a Thursday
What I had: Contraband burger
What I thought: The burger is like their version of a Juicy Lucy, with cheese stuffed into the middle of the patty. I typically prefer my burgers medium rare, but the minimum order is medium to allow for the cheese to melt. The burger comes with the usual toppings – lettuce, tomato and pickles, along with a below average bun that is both too large for the patty and an impediment to you putting the whole thing in your mouth. I chose the zucchini strings as a side (you have a few other choices including regular or sweet potato fries) and I would definitely get those again should I ever return. Service was friendly and prompt and I do see the potential in this being a cool little neighborhood spot.
In Summary: Decent food with a chance to get better if they make a few tweaks. Nice little hangout if you’re in the Greenpoint area.

The server was wonderful. 5 Stars on service!
We were warned that there was trouble in the kitchen and that our meals would take an extended amount of time to come out, but an hour was a little excessive.
They ran out of key ingredients for 3 different plates. The owner was in the restaurant and I watched the Chef have a discussion with him outside, clearly upset about something.
He should have gone to key food (1 block away) to get the ingredients missing from the menu.
I never saw the owner go around and ask the guests what they thought of their food or experience.
These things tell me that they are not concerned with becoming better or doing everything they can to make sure their customers who are spending their hard earned money are happy.
The food was really delicious once it was served, the experience just wasn’t there for me.

So I’ve basically watched this place become a Restaurant. My friends live on the same block as Slick Willie! The anticipation for their opening was intense and finally biting into their Contraband burger was worth the wait! They’ve been open for some time but at last I was able to grab some grub!
If you are in Greenpoint you definitely need to give this place a try, the Arnold Palmer is perfectly blended and the Kale Slaw and Brussel Sprouts are to die for! Go ahead give it a try!

The food here is amazing. The service really good, I went to have brunch on Saturday and had this really lovely experience! The cozy, charming small place, the songs, everything! They now have the liquor license so I got to drink a delicious Bloody Mary. I got to meet one of the owners, Benjamin, who was really nice, funny and charming, with his really cute French accent, he offered me and my friends a very good coffee at the end. It’s certainly a place to go if you looking for having an amazing experience in Green Point!

I am baffled at the ratings people are giving this place. We went there expecting good things, I mean, 4.5 stars should say a lot about a place.
Turns out, our experience here did not reflect a 4.5 star brunch spot.
We ordered the Self Titled brunch meal, which was incredibly underwhelming. It was a blob of eggs, a semi-​firm ball of grits, and a darn sausage. That was it. 3 separate pieces of blah scattered about on a plate and presented as the house brunch.
Oh yeah, we asked for wheat toast, which was basically white bread. It came like 5minutes after the meal, and was not even toasted…
The coffee costs $ 3.50 and is not special. We paid $ 7 for 2 cups of blah coffee. Wtf.
Service was slow. Super weak showing.
I can get the same food with better service at the Manhattan Ave diner for like $ 5.

I look forward to this nice space being taken over by another restaurant in a few short months.
Went today for the first time for brunch. It wasn’t busy — maybe one 4-​top and another 2-​top in the whole place. Chefs in the back took 25 minutes to make the food after ordering, then it was not only cold, but burnt.
I can live with bad brunch, mind you. The worst part was watching this guy, who I can only presume was the owner — dressed nicely and not lifting a finger to help the only server on the floor — change the channels on the huge TV in this small restaurant for nearly an hour. He finally settled on a soccer game that he’d rather be at home watching than at work watching, I suppose. His entitlement really ruined my meal and my whole experience there and I won’t let any of my friends ever eat here.
You know, some restaurant owners in Greenpoint like their customers. They’ll even walk up to their tables, thank them for their business, ask how the food is. The owners of this place must have an alternate source of income, because they sure as hell don’t want my money.
Also, their toilet has one of those blue tablets for auto-​cleaning in it: lazy. This is a restaurant, and you have to keep the bathroom clean every day. Especially because theirs has an ATM in it where I guess guys can drain their lizard with one hand and punch their PIN number with the other.
Seriously, this place makes Greenpoint worse.

Delicious!
I had the poached eggs over mini cornbread patties and a delicious side of home fries and mixed greens. My friend had the cornmeal pancakes with fruit. We shared a side of bacon and the cheddar grits. Everything was spot on.
I thought it was a bit on the expensive side, the meal came up to $ 45 plus tip — no alcohol– but the quality, atmosphere, and customer service was well worth it.
Looking forward to coming back (with a flask full of champagne)!