Halsey's Guilty Pleasure

knows how to make your mouth water.

As soon as you walk in, you are greeted by a huge window that looks directly into the kitchen, with chicken, meatloaf, fish, stew, collards, mac-and-cheese, candied yams, turkey wings, and what seems like a hundred other options, all parceled out into steaming trays to choose from.

It instantly reminds you of a family feast, and it’s hard not to try it all.

Since moving to Bed-Stuy, I have become a huge fan of this restaurant, and every time I pass by its yellow frame on Halsey and Tompkins, I am tempted to go in and make an order.

At lunch, they offer meals for five dollars that will fill you up for the rest of the day and satisfy all of your comfort food cravings.

But the thing about Halsey Street Grill is that you have to know what to order. While you can count on getting a bang for your buck no matter what you buy, there are some options that are absolutely delicious, while others are simply average.

For instance, I don’t recommend the collard greens, because they are too salty for my taste, but the cabbage is the perfect balance of tender and crunchy, with a tasty butter ysauce.

The steak, which has a great smoky flavor, is a little too tough, but the grilled chicken is a full of tender meat with a crispy coat that is smothered in an incredibly good spicy sauce.

I haven’t tried everything at Halsey Grill, although maybe I have come close (once I discovered that they have free delivery, the menu is always close at hand). So I’d like to share with you a few of my all-time favorites:

The potato salad is a rich, creamy and sweet side dish. The mustard flavor is what makes this potato salad better than others. And while it isn’t the healthiest item on the menu, I would recommend this side with any dish.

Unlike the thick breading that coats most fried shrimp to mask the tiny tasteless shrimp in the center, the fried shrimp at Halsey Street Grill is only lightly breaded to add a crispiness  to the firm, hearty and crunchy jumbo shrimp.

The fried fish has a soft center that is moist and salty with a thinly breaded outside that adds a crunch. Halsey Street Grill offers several different kinds of fish, not all of which I’ve tried, but I recommend the tilapia, which is ever so slightly sweet.

The chicken here is always tender and flavorful, and the sauces for them are very good. I can’t decide which chicken dish I like best, but the sweet sauce on the barbecue chicken is unbeatable.

For dessert, you have to try their red velvet cake. The cake is moist with a sweet cocoa flavor, and the frosting is somewhere between sugar and cream cheese frosting, offering a creaminess that is absolutely delicious. A perfect end to your guilty pleasure meal.

Halsey Street Grill is located at 260 Halsey St (between Tompkins Ave & Throop Ave).