Le Fanfare

“There was a live band that played jazz/pop standards from the 50's and my 79 year old mother was so touched, she cried.”

“We had the burrata and the mussels for appetizer I literally licked the whole plate so yummy!!”

“We went to Le Fanfare for Easter Brunch, our third visit to this little gem in Brooklyn, and had the most magnificent time!”

Le Fanfare

Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes

Price range.

$$ Price range $11-30

8 reviews

  1. Loved this restaurant! Dropped in around 8:30 on a Friday night and at first was a bit taken aback because it was frankly empty. We almost reconsidered but seated anyway.

    Everything from the friendly and personable service, the delicious bread, apps and entrees, and the live music was perfect. The bread was delicious and had an amazing white bean dip to complement it. We shared a couple of apps such as the burrata and it was one of the best I've had and a great sized portion. Octopus was also delicious. My favorite app however were the mussels and I'll definitely order this again.

    We each ordered a pasta which was hand made and you could taste it. I had the squid ink. Portions on the pasta were a bit smaller but it was so filling we didn't need more.

    Drinks were reasonably priced with plenty of options. The server was married to the owner from Sardinia and when I told them I was visiting Italy later that summer he dropped by to say hello and give us a free round of limoncello.

    After about 30 minutes the restaurant was packed and the live music began. It made the place so much more fun and heightened the experience.

    Id recommend they add to their dessert menu because we were there for a birthday and options were limited. We had a phenomenal experience here and I can't wait to go back!

  2. I happened upon Le Fanfare during a long walk and decided it was a cute place to check out.  Its received some nice PR from various foodies and was worth the journey North to try on a lovely Friday evening.  

    I live about a 10 minute walk and love the idea of a rustic, yet modern, Italian restaurant with live music in my hood.  I was able to secure a 9pm reservation on short notice, which was a plus.

    The restaurant is well designed and lovely.  The decor alone is worth a stop in for a drink.  The live jazz band was rather great, albeit noisy for a restaurant.  It was a little difficult to hear my husband and friends speaking, which resulted in everyone talking VERY loudly throughout the establishment.

    We were seated immediately and our server came over with menus and water right away.  My main issue with Le Fanfare is the wait time.  It took at least 5 minutes to order drinks and then we waited about 10 minutes for them to arrive.  We didn't order food until 10 to 15 minutes after we received our drinks.  At this point, we were starving and really want to get our order in.  I understand some restaurants do this to space our the meal and let the kitchen catch up with orders, but without even bread on the table I was feeling faint.  We ordered dinner at around 9:35pm, 35 minutes AFTER we were seated.  This is completely unacceptable.

    To start, the burrata appetizer was awesome.  Fresh, gooey and everything you want in a burrata on bitter greens with a nice dressing.  I personally can't eat this but my friends were all about it.  Highly recommended.

    My husband and I ordered the Pappardelle, which I was able to get without cheese as I'm allergic.  Our server was funny about it and teased me, which I appreciated.  For a $15 dish, the serving was not satisfactory.  It was exceptionally small and not filling at all.  I know many Italian restaurants expect you to order the pasta as a starter to the meal, but the server never indicated that the portion size would be kid-sized.  It was delicious, yes, but we had to get tacos later on that night to make up for the tiny portions here.  And that's just sad. ::sigh::  I've been to many fresh-pasta restaurants in NYC and never walked away hungry even after appetizers, dessert and wine.  If they upped their portion size by a quarter, it would have been better.  Also note that there's just a bite or two of duck on this dish.  So if you're expecting lots of succulent duck, don't get this dish.  Mostly mushrooms and bits of carrot.

    My friends, however, were delighted with their meals.  One ordered the hanger steak, which was so large that they couldn't finish it.  (We were jealous). The other friend ordered the fish, which was just lovely.

    The food is very good, top quality with fresh ingredients.  We were just disappointed on how long everything took and how small our pasta dishes were.  But these are all things that can be quickly adjusted to make Le Fanfare an awesome restaurant for Greenpointers and New Yorkers alike.

    Overall, it was a fun date night out.  I would come back again to listen to the music, and enjoy the nice atmosphere.  Just be prepared for small portions and a long wait.

  3. Food was excellent if somewhat pricey.  I had the pork chop with Brussels sprouts and polenta and it was amazing.  The portion was also huge…I feel like I ate a lot of food and still left at least half of the chop on my plate.  My friends ordered two pastas which they really enjoyed, and we also had a kale salad and roasted cauliflower thing on the side to accompany.  All good, the salad was a little fishy for my taste but definitely edible.  Drinks-wise they have some cool cocktails with somewhat unusual, savory additions–ginger, sage, rosemary etc.  Also a decent wine list.  You should know that they will likely have musicians playing, who will solicit the tables for tips between songs.  I thought they made great background music (not too loud) and had no problem with this but just something to be aware of.

  4. I really wanted to like Le Fanfare, and honestly, I will probably come back here, but it feels like its missing something… On paper the food looks really good – we had the Burrata, Veal meatballs and the Cavatelli to start, and the hanger steak and Berkshire pork for mains – everything lacked flavor, though it wasn't that bad… Just mediocre and on the expensive side ($190 with tip and 4 drinks, for two people).

  5. Had dinner with a group of 9 for my daughter's college graduation celebration tonight. The owners – husband and wife — were very accommodating and gave us a nice table and excellent service. All the food was quite good and they even treated us to a round of sparking wine for the occasion. There was a live band that played jazz/pop standards from the 50's and my 79 year old mother was so touched, she cried. Overall a wonderful and memorable dining experience for my family, and I recommend this for anyone visiting Brooklyn. Also, although the wine selection was somewhat limited, the prices were quite reasonable, and the quality good. One wine we ordered was a Chilean cabernet sauvignon that was $45/ bottle, and it was excellent.

  6. Very cute atmosphere, but the food was just not on par. There were a couple hits but I would say mostly misses.  

    We walked in here very enamored with the setup. It is right across the street from Milk and Roses and seemed like a good food choice for our little party of four.

    We ordered family style, starting with some appetizers.  We ordered the kale salad and the grilled octopus.  The kale salad was straight up just kale, croutons, and shredded cheese with a light dressing.  I wouldn't be terribly opposed to just the simplicity of the dish, but the croutons were pretty much the most disgusting croutons ever.  They were very hardened stale pieces of bread drenched in cheap olive oil.  Even the olive oil did not soften the bread. There was no flavor, just olive oil.  It was greasy, but sandy.  It was so difficult to keep in my mouth, that I decided not to swallow.  

    The grilled octopus was six chunks of octopus on some mixed greens but for a simple dish, this one was done much better than the kale salad.  I felt the best part of this dish was their choice of sliced fresh fennel that lent the salad a freshness and crunch that would not have been there otherwise.  

    We also ordered three pastas to share with a side of cauliflower.  The cauliflower was a little bland but edible.  The pastas we ordered were the squash ravioli, the squidink pasta and the cavatelli.  

    Out of the three, the squidink pasta was the best in flavor and consistency.  We really enjoyed it and the clams, albeit unseasoned, were fine that way.  They were nice and fresh tasting alongside the thin squidink noodles.  

    The ravioli had a nice sauce, but the overall dish was bland and under seasoned.  The pasta was cooked perfectly, but the flavor wasn't there.  The reason I note that the pasta was cooked well, was because the cavatelli wasn't.

    The cavatelli had a beautiful flavor, but the noodles they brought to us were very under done.  Having had amazing cavatelli, I knew that this was beyond al dente.  They were hard nuggets and almost unchewable in the center.  I had it sent back and when they brought it back, the noodles were finally able to be forked through.  I felt it was still a little underdone, but if that is how they prefer their pastas, I was willing to give it a shot.  The sauce was very well seasoned and I loved the richness the sauce lent the dish, however I would still call this a miss.

    We also ordered a pork loin to share.  It came with Brussel sprouts in a sweet glaze.  I felt they executed this dish the best out of all the dishes besides the squidink pasta.  The pork was cooked perfectly and the meat was tender.  

    My friends had wine and cocktails.  I think they enjoyed the ginger smash cocktail more than the wine.  

    The bill was a little over $150.00.

    For a nice place to sit and enjoy the ambience…I would give it a shot, but for someone who loves their food…In the words of yelp, "meh.  I've experienced better."

  7. I love a good happy hour, and my friend Katie M. and I took advantage of the one at Le Fanfare for a Tuesday night dinner when I was in New York. We had a lovely meal and ended up staying way past happy hour–we had a lot to catch up on, and this was a pleasant place to do it.

    We showed up just before 7, which is I think when happy hour ended. The place was almost completely empty–both the spacious interior and the nice little patio. We sat at what might have been a communal table, but we never had to share it with anyone. Things picked up a bit as the night went on, but it was almost strangely calm the whole time we were there. I still liked the ambiance, though–the place was cute, and the energy was relaxing, particularly with a couple glasses of wine. Service was good. One waitress took care of everything, and she handled us professionally.

    She also made sure we knew happy hour was about to end when we walked in, and we ordered a good chunk of our meal off of that menu. We got three appetizers and two glasses of wine in some kind of package deal that ended up being under $30, so that worked out pretty nicely. I tried both the house white and the house red, and both were good, though I forget what they were. The appetizers came on one big platter, and they were reasonably portioned and easy to share. The best one (with the best value, too, as all the appetizers were priced the same) was a bowl of mussels with guanciale in tomato broth. The mussels were tasty, and I liked the flavorful broth. They came with this crackery bread that I didn't really understand, but we had some complimentary focaccia (served with a good but unidentified spread) that made more sense. The meatballs were also good, savory and juicy, made with a white wine glaze, lemon, and parsley. The only throwaway in the group was the ricotta toast with honey, which was sort of dry and bland.

    We shared two pastas off the regular menu for the rest of our meal, and these were excellent. The sweet pea agnolotti was the highlight of the meal, tender packets of pasta plump with a bright sweet pea purée, served with chiodini mushrooms, zucchini, bianca cheese, mint, and pisstachio. A perfect summer pasta, bursting with delicate flavors and textures. The pappardelle with crab and salmon roe was another great one, topped with dill, nori, and corn. The pasta was supple and satisfying, and surprisingly good with the salty roe and seaweed.

    I'm almost certain we had something for dessert, but I can't for the life of me remember. I think it was good, but clearly not that good. I was really happy with the meal overall, though I don't know that it's worth going to Greenpoint for if you're not already in the area (we were). The food was good and affordable, and I kind of enjoyed having the whole place to ourselves.

  8. My boyfriend and I came here for brunch on Halloween and had a great experience! It was close to 2 pm when we walked in, so there were only 3 other tables taken in the whole restaurant. The hostess/waitress was super friendly and sweet. She let us pick our table and provided excellent service throughout our meal. We ordered two coffees which turned out to be two espressos (maybe she should have told us that they didn't have regular coffee but it was totally fine). I got the pancakes and a side of pancakes, and my boyfriend got the two eggs any style, which came with sausage, potatoes, and toast. Everything was really yummy!! The sausage and potatoes were especially good. We asked for ketchup, hot sauce, and maple syrup, and everything came to us very quickly. The food was all in perfect portion sizes-we didn't leave hungry or overly stuffed.

    I really liked the decor too! There are 3 large booths on the left, two or three long tables in the middle (great for groups), and cute stools and little bar-like stands coming out from the other wall (hard to explain but cute!). There is a small stage in the back where they have bands perform. The music was bossanova and the whole atmosphere of the place was just really friendly and laidback. The bathroom was cute too, and all of the tables had pretty flowers on them. It was nice to just sit and linger for a while because the place was so relaxing.

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Tuesday, 5:30 pm - 12:00 am
Wednesday, 5:30 pm - 12:00 am
Thursday, 5:30 pm - 12:00 am
Friday, 5:30 pm - 1:00 am
Saturday, 11:30 am - 1:00 am
Sunday, 11:30 am - 10:00 pm