I don’t usually talk about bad restaurants. I’m not a food expert, I feel subpar restaurants will die on their own, and it’s more fun to point people to great finds. But Kevin’s restaurant in Red Hook Brooklyn is an exception.
The food, or what little we had of it, was quite good. It was the bizarre service experience that eventually caused my friend to explode, which led to four of us being kicked out.
The centerpiece of the Mediterranean salad that all of us ordered, chicken kebabs, didn’t come with our plates. When asked, the waitress went to the kitchen then returned and stared at us as if through Xanax glasses and said without emotion, “There is no more chicken. We’ve opened another restaurant on Governors Island and all the attention is being focused there. I could take some money off or bring you something else.”
We asked for more of the delicious hummus, which they buy from Sahadi’s shop in Brooklyn. They only gave us a heaping tablespoon each. She came back from the kitchen once more to say that they are out of it. We got the last of the hummus, that’s why there was so little.
So instead of a Mediterranean salad with a decent amount of hummus or any chicken, we each had what looked like a Wendy’s side salad with martini olives and a dollop of hummus with a few pita triangles.
When the bill came, they charged us $10 instead of the full $12. That’s what led to a little back-and-forth with the waitress and her going in and out of the kitchen and finally telling us, “The manager wants to know what you think you should be charged.”
That’s when my friend Ed asked to see the manager. The owner came out and Ed let him know how unacceptable the situation was and we were not here to negotiate our lunch price. The owner, Kevin, pictured above with his partner, quickly said he was not going to charge us for the lunch but Ed was already on a Staten Island roll. That’s when Kevin screamed at us to get out. We did and I felt fine not paying for a Wendy’s side salad. The problem came about an hour later when I realized I left my favorite hat in the restaurant. No shame in my game, I waltzed back in as if I was their favorite customer and quickly retrieved the hat.

Photo: The Brooklyn Paper / Tom Callan