Izzy's Brooklyn Smokehouse — Restaurant in New York

Let's talk about last night.

The following is what we ordered and I'll go through each of them.

Smoked Chicken Soup -- Wow! Hearty hearty chicken soup. A world of scrumptious and almost homemade flavors combined in this generous serving of chicken soup. Filled with lots of veggies and delicious chicken he really pulls out the stops with this soup. I am a fan.

Pulled Beef Tacos - A total contrast to the previous time I tried these. The tacos were firm, neat and did not fall apart the moment I picked them up. I'm feeling the tantalizing tastes of the pulled beef now as I write this. The perfect amount of pico de galo on top of the softest most divine pulled beef you will ever ever get to taste.

Candied Bacon -- Ok, as I wrote on my Instagram post. I wish I was able to fill a bathtub with these and just make love. Really. I've never tried real bacon and I don't think I ever want to. I don't even know why this is not a regular on the menu (Probably because it's not the most simple dish) Crazy! Who knew meat could taste this good? I have definitely found a favorite. Flavors, texture and serving amount was just right. It had this beautiful combination of sticky candy and then smokey/spiced flavors. The sweet and savory combination worked so perfectly. It's a heavenly creation.

Beef Empanadas -- Although these are absolutely phenomenal my thoughts are that the meat to dough ratio could use some tweaking. Like less empanadas per order and more meat inside. The meat was very tasty but there was a lot of dough left over half way through.

Smoked Hot Wings -- Last time I said I was a fan of these and that hasn't changed. I ordered a serving for the table but fortunately for me I managed to eat them all before anyone else got their hands on it. Yes, I am a monster like that. Ain't nobody gonna mess with a white girls wings. Again, the spicy smoked flavor is what pulls me to this. I dream about eating these in my sleep. They are also not stingy with the chicken these wings come with. You don't immediately bite into bone. You can actually get a decent amount of chicken before kicking the bone to the curb.

1lb Brisket -- This is one of the points my husband absolutely agrees with me. The brisket we received last time was nothing, nothing like this. I don't even know what that was. This order was chunks of mouthwatering, moist, juicy and richly smoked beautiful pieces of brisket. We even attempted to order another half pound. Good thing they forgot about it because we had no room in any of our stomachs by the time we were done here.

Half a Chicken -- I went back to the pictures I took last time and see the difference openly. What we got this time was worlds away from the chicken we had the previous time. This chicken was succulent, beautifully smoked and very very appealing to our taste buds. This is a dish I'd order and re-order many more times. Especially as someone who is not a big chicken eater, this actually makes me think chicken ain't that bad.

Smoked Fried Chicken Sandwich -- First time ordering this. I wanted a sandwich and asked Izzy what he recommends. He said this one, so we went with it. And I say THANK YOU! This is also not a regular on the menu and I agree with that. The specialty and uniqueness of the sandwich makes you want to beg for more. I ordered it with pickles on the side per someones recommendation and I agree with the pickles and sauce having a bit of a clashing taste. (Although my husband says it screamed I need pickles). Perfect perfect sandwich all around. Oh, I want more. Now.

So, in conclusion, Izzy has a gift. A gift I did not get to see the last time I was there, but last night I saw heaven and God in my dishes and I have yet to see that at another local smokehouse. So Thank you for allowing us to second chance at this amazing establishment so we can see what the real rave and...

The Brisket King of NYC awarded Izzy's the "Best Brisket in NYC" for year 2017. While I don't completely agree with that sentence, I do think Izzy's is in the top 3 I've ever eaten. Naturally, there's no pork here (they have pulled beef instead) and to be honest, I didn't miss the pork. Weird, huh?

It's certainly an odd experience, eating BBQ in a room full of Chasids and the ultra Orthodox. As I finished my meal, I half expected the entire restaurant to break out into a Birkat Hamazon (I still remember it from Yeshiva!).

The brisket and ribs here are DAMNED good. Seriously. This is a no-holds barred, true-blue BBQ grill. How can I describe this to you, oh kind reader? Perhaps by relating it to something you may already know: Hill Country.

Hill Country's dry rub is more savory. Izzy's dry rub is more peppery. Hill Country has you walking around for half the day with savory dry rub in you sinuses. Izzy's has you walking around for a couple of hours with peppery flavor in your nostrils.

The meat is mostly comparable. Izzy's is probably slightly more lean (but don't get me wrong -- there is PLENTY of marbling and out-and-out fatty McFat-Fat on the meat). Hill Country would be slightly more juicy. More savory. Both are equally as tender.

Unlike Hill Country, Izzy's puts a little BBQ sauce on the side (you can see it on the butcher paper), but it doesn't touch the meat (I'm a Memphis kind of guy, so this was appreciated). I tried the sauce, and it wasn't the sickly sweet goopy stuff you get with St. Louis ribs. It was smokey of course, but not overly sweet.

I didn't get any good pictures of the brisket. We will have to come back and get more brisket so I can snap them!!!! :-)

Brisket: A+ Fatty with tons of marbling. Very soft, very juicy. As mentioned above, the dry rub used here is more peppery than savory. The sauce is kept off the meat and is a non-sweet, smokey BBQ sauce. See above for a more detailed commentary of the grilled meats.

The brisket is slightly inconsistent. There are pieces which are A+: fatty, juicy, great marbling. There are also pieces that are A- or even B+because they suffer from dryness issues.

Dino Ribs: A+ Fatty, juicy, soft, and delicious. One dino rib can easily feed 3 people. Probably 4. See above for a more detailed commentary of the grilled meats.

Sausage: B Nice flavor, but it is couched as a hotdog sausage. I'd prefer plain sausage links without the beans, pickles, and bun. Somewhat spicey, nicely...

Having heard some stellar reviews of this place, I was looking forward to checking out a kosher BBQ festival that I have been told rivals non-kosher smokehouses! My impression is as follows:

On entering the place, I quickly noticed this is not a particularly large establishment, though evidently popular. There are a few tables, but not a great deal of room, which contributes to the place filling up quickly, but even half full you will have to squeeze around other patrons and their gear. There simply wasn't much room to sit or have food. It was pretty clear you were expected to eat quickly and pack up (towards the end of our meal we tried to clear space for another patron to sit). If you're not up for this, take your food to go.

Foodwise, we ordered a few items: Baby back ribs (which they quickly run out of, used to not even be on the menu and are infrequently availible), Smoked Brisket, the hot wings and baked beans. In order, the Ribs were soft and dressed in the BBQ sauce which tasted fairly sweet and smoky. There was no intense charring as they are slowly smoked, but they were well cooked. The brisket was very soft, but was more clearly covered in a dry rub of spices which were peppery. The wings were described as hot, but not noticeably so, and were sprinkled with scallions and doused in a tangy sauce. The baked beans did not particularly stand out. For sides we had red cabbage slaw and pickles, which were far better than I expected (they definitely weren't Vlasics!). I only regret not trying the pulled beef sandwhich or perhaps the smoked fried chicken.

Overall, the food was very good and I would try it again. I can't help but feel there was something lacking, I wasn't hit by any particular wow feeling possibly because the place had been so hyped or the lack of anything truly spicy, but I think the food itself was very satisfying. The prices are generally mid-range, but quickly become exorbitant if you plan on getting ribs or brisket.

If you're dying to get some quality kosher smokehouse, Crown Heights won't...