King Bee

We ate dinner here on a whim after seeing that it was a new place in the neighborhood. The menu sounded tasty but was lacking in flavor. The only tasty thing were the pork grinds. I think I ordered the fish and my husband ordered the steak. Wanted to like it but there was nothing memorable about the food.

This is a cute Southern spot but would not recommend the culinary work here.
The pork cracklings were hard and heavily seasoned — if they were a little less fried, I would have enjoyed their crunch more. I had imagined more of a chicharron type of crispy, but maybe in the south that’s the way it’s done? Regardless, it was not to my taste.
The bread pudding with foie gras was very rich but did not carry its weight in taste. I found that the bread pudding diffused the foie gras’ fulfilling, buttery feel. Afterwards I felt like I ate a whole slab of foie gras but hadn’t tasted it properly, to my displeasure.
The pumpkin and squash salad was nicely seasonal but nothing particularly astounding — I prefer Sweetgreen for the same price and much more in quantity!

How does this spot not have more reviews!
Cute, date-​ready décor
Sweet, attentive staff
Delicious pork chop dish
Verdict: will be back to try the other dishes

This is a pleasant simple restaurant serving a variety of Cajun type dishes. I can’t say that any of the dishes were memorable or that I would expect to return.

The service was really good — very friendly and very attentive. Really really good!
The food was a little disappointing. It’s good but not that special, and a little too heavy.
But the overall experience is killed by the non stop grease smell that pours from the open kitchen. All of our clothes had to go to dry cleaning after we had dinner — this is definitely a major killer. Won’t go back.

You want to go to this Oyster Happy Hour.
Amazingly well selected oysters are half off at $ 1.50 which is fifty cents more than a regular oyster hour but you will never go back to bland puddles of oyster after you have what they have here. You also want to have a glass of whatever wine they suggest to pair with the oysters because it will be cunning. I think you might ALSO want to have the crawfish dip, which is luscious and which you spoon out with home made potato chips. I could actually take or leave the pork cracklings although my friend kind of fiends on them.
Other oyster hour menu offerings are likely good but I’m always occupied with those.
I have had dinner here a few times and I believe it was all tasty and the place is cozy but it’s the oyster hour I keep coming back to as a really artful and satisfying after-​work mini-​splurge.

Wine-​loving friends asked us at the last minute on a Sunday if we wanted to do dinner, and I remembered that I had seen on the Chambers St Wines FB page that King Bee was doing BYOB on Sundays.
We got to the restaurant at 6:30 and had our choice of tables. I had called earlier to confirm on the BYOB so the staff remembered me, and were great about grabbing our bottles to chill them down. We started with a few shared appetizers – the bread pudding, pork cracklings, and crawfish on fried bread. All were tasty, with the crawfish my favorite. For mains, we had the chicken, the lobster, the duck, and the risotto-​style buckwheat. I was glad to have chosen the risotto after the rich appetizers, and felt personally that the lobster was a little too rich, but I loved my tastes of the duck and the chicken as well.
The staff were all very pleasant and great at answering questions. (We had none of the issues with service or timing that others have mentioned, but we were the only table in the restaurant until 8 or so.) In addition to our waitress, whose name I’ve forgotten (sorry!), we spoke with Eben, one of the partners, in some length about the wine list and their goals for the restaurant. I really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, and felt the pricing was quite reasonable given the quality of the food. Would love to come back some time to try the brunch menu, and to buy off their list as well.

Our group (table of 8, Monday evening, restaurant uncrowded) gathered primarily for conversation, so the truly terrible service did not overwhelm us, as thankfully we were not pressed for time (almost 3 hours, without dessert). Our server arrived at our table quite belatedly to ask about drinks; when I asked about iced tea, she said they sometimes had it and she would check, then she disappeared without taking other drink orders. She reappeared much, much later: no iced tea, also no soft drinks (and no liquor license yet, wine/​beer/​cider only). We were given a wine list, but we had seen a drink menu on the website and asked about it, our waitress said she would bring it but never did. After appetizers, a VERY long wait before mains arrived, and several of the mains were not hot, clearly they had been sitting unserved. Inexplicable. Not good.
Food was spotty too. Brouleed bread pudding (supposedly with foie gras, though not detectable in what we were served) made a very odd appetizer, though we agreed it would be a decent dessert. I didn’t like the gumbo z’herbes (no roux involved as far as I could tell). I loved the wheat berries that came with the duck, but nothing else. Several other dishes were fine, nothing spectacular; for sure nothing would bring us back considering the awful service.

Really enjoyed dinner at King Bee last night. The waiter recommended an excellent white wine and the crawfish brioche appetizer was phenomenal.
The one thing I would not recommend is the bread pudding foie. It was really sweet and heavy and totally overpriced for what it was.
For our mains we got the trout and the chicken. The trout was fantastic, as was the chicken — though again the deep fried croutons on the side of the chicken were too heavy.

I love King Bee! Service is always great and the food always consitently delicious! I try a different dish every time I come here and I have never been disappointed. Their cocktails are the best! The staff are knowledgeable so don’t hesitate to ask for their recommendation, one time we were there she told us to try the grilled oyster and boy it was the best grilled oysters I’ve had! I always recommend this place to my friends! Must check out!

The best meal I have had in a long time! Very relaxed place. I started with the decidedly unhealthy pork cracklings (so tasty!). For the main course I order the best prepared (and healthy) fish dish I have had in ages. So well cook, so delicious.
The wine list was different (in a good way). I had to ask for help and they really know the wines well. I ended up with a reasonably bottle of red that was close to perfect and I had never even hear it.
Go here the next time you want something a little different and really good.

I was *really* looking forward to the brunch bread pudding with foie gras and maple syrup, but was told after ordering that the bread pudding was not available. If I had known it wasn’t going to be on the menu, I’d probably have walked right out.
But no matter. King Bee still seems to have its brunch footing wobbly. It seemed like alcohol wasn’t expected to be served since a) it wasn’t brought out, b) the beer was not chilled c) King Bee does not have a full liquor license just yet.
I enjoyed the grilled oysters ($ 12 for three) and the burger was pretty delicious and had nice fixin’s, but I’m not impressed enough to recommend this slightly pricey brunch spot.

King Bee’s menu seems a little quirky on first visit — and there is definitely unusual fare to be had — but there are a number of comfort-​food favorites that I love, too. I think I’ve been three or four times now, and my list of go-​tos includes:
–The Upstate Raw Salad paired with the Fish and Chips (both on the appetizer section) together make a fantastic meal! The raw salad has paper-​thin shaved radishes and beautiful lettuce, and the fish and chips come with a spicy remoulade, which is amazing. I always ask for extra.
–The Poutine Rapee, which isn’t super well explained on the menu, is two lamb dumplings (don’t be put off by the description, which says ‘lamb neck’ — it’s extremely tender, flavorful meat) along with pureed turnip (sort of like a creamier, more flavorful side of mashed potatoes) and a cranberry relish. It is the most rib-​sticking, delicious winter dish. Five stars.
–Duck Fricot is incredible. Perfectly done meat, amazing broth and dumplings.
–People seem to love the Pork Cracklings, though they’re not totally my thing; I recommend the Grilled Oysters, which now come three to an order.
–The Doberge cake for dessert is insanely good, and I’m not even a cake person. At all. It may be the best cake I’ve ever eaten.
Other pluses: a truly fantastic wine list, which more than makes up for the lack of full license. There are also some cocktails made with wine and other low-​alcohol liquors — I recommend the «I Murdered Louis Kahn.» The servers are all very kind and very attentive. Space is elegantly designed, and noise level, even on a busy night, is quite reasonable.

The food was great, but we waited 45 minutes for our APPETIZERS to come out. When they finally did, the server said «Sorry guys, the POS system [the computer program by which waiters send orders to the kitchen] is down across the entire U.S.» We were like, okay, but can’t you just walk into the kitchen and tell the chef what to make? It frankly sounded like a BS excuse.
Anyway, I’m still giving 4 stars because the food was great and the waitstaff was very pleasant. (They comp’d us a glass of wine to make up for our wait). The restaurant itself is a nice place to eat. It’s very peaceful and spacious relative to other East Village restaurants. The pork cracklings were delicious. The risotto-​style buckwheat entrée was also very yummy. I’d go back, despite the little snafu we had.

Very good food, great service.
I stopped by as a group of 6 on a Sunday evening with a reservation, and the place wasn’t too busy, possibly because of the weather. We split a bunch of dishes between us – for starters, we split the pork cracklings, the venison tartare, and the rabbit rilettes. They were all tasty, particularly the pork cracklings, which were juicy on the inside and nice and crispy on the outside. For entrees, we split the poutine, risotto, duck, cod, and chicken. They were all very well prepared, especially the chicken. It was very tender and not dry at all. The poutine also was unique and tasty, while the other dishes were also very good. We split a slice of doberge cake for dessert, which was rather large and tasty yet not too sweet.
The service throughout the meal was very helpful, and it has a nice, cozy ambiance. Definitely would recommend the place for small groups.

This restaurant is as good as it gets. Every morsel of food was perfect. Every plate that came to the table was well thought out, delicious, interesting, and beautiful. I had the poutine, which was wonderful.
King Bee not only brings something unique to the New York restaurant season, it does it exquisitely well. Every New Yorker should get here at least once… and then should come back often. Tourists should come here if they want good food in one of the few neighborhoods in NYC that still feels neighborhoody… and King Bee is fitting right in.
The wine selection is AMAZING. A creative, thoughtful collection of wines — none of them will disappoint and the owners really help you make sure you get something you’ll like.

Nice spot in the east village. Service was very friendly, but while the food was good, I wasn’t all that satisfied. I ended up eating too much dessert in order to feel like I was no longer hungry, which isn’t such a bad thing b/​c the dessert was the best part of the meal. More on that in a bit.
People seem to rave about the pork cracklings, but we just did not get the hype over them. Left half of them over. The grilled oysters were delicious, but since they were being shared, I definitely would have liked to have more than just one. The crawfish app was also tasty, but was difficult to share. Portions for the main weren’t very big, but again, tasty. I had the cod and enjoyed the cocklings and broth it was served with. Wine and dessert were my favorites. Had a really nice cab which was way more affordable than I was expecting it to be. The doberge cake was amazing. While I can live off chocolate, I seem to like lemon in my sweets and this was a combo of vanilla cake with layers of chocolate and lemon in-​between. YUM! The vanilla ice cream over the chocolate cake, which was more like a brownie, was also great.
I feel sort of bad giving this place ‘only’ 3 stars as it’s a lovely and very good restaurant. I think it’s more of a 3.5−4 star place, but I left feeling unsatisfied in the hunger department, so b/​c of that, I’m rounding down to 3 stars.

There are plenty of other reviews for this business on Unilocal that outline what apps and entrees to get so I decided to skip all of that. Let’s just say I sampled a couple of salads, the roasted chicken dish, and ordered the fish, and all of the ingredients were fresh and tasty if not the most original that I’ve ever tried.
But the real reason I write this review is that on a whim I ordered a dessert that I wasn’t expecting much out of but turned out to be the best part of the meal. It’s called a Doberge cake, which I had never heard of, but it turns out it’s a multilayered vanilla cake with lemon. Apparently it originated in New Orleans… and I think it’s 10000x better than a King cake.
Make sure to leave some room after those pork cracklings and poutine for this heavenly cake!

The staff and owner were very nice and attentive. My friends and I shared the pork cracklings, grilled oysters, gulf shrimp bbq, and Louisiana crawfish and brioche. The pork cracklings were good but a little salty. The gulf shrimp dish’s texture was not on par for me. The grilled oysters and crawfish brioche were fine.
For entrees, we got the Poutine Rapee (which is not what you think when you think of poutine like the fries/​gravy/​cheese curds combo), Salt Pork Confit Lobster, and Duck Confit. Everything was good and I think reasonably priced for an entrée. Portions were very good sized if I wasn’t already full from the apps. The poutine dish is more of a dumpling filled with lamb neck meat, which was delicious. The salt pork confit lobster had very good flavor with good sized chunks of lobster. The duck was very good as well.
Vibe and ambiance were great, and people were nice, but I think it’s a bit overpriced for the portion sizes of the appetizers. The entrees were great though. I’d go back if a friend wanted to go, but there are a lot of other great places to try in NYC. It’s definitely worth trying though. By the way — Acadian food = combination of French, Canadian, and Cajun!

This is a nice place with nice staff, but underwhelming and under-​seasoned food.
Interested in checking it out since I keep reading about how rare an Acadian style southern restaurant is in NY, we arrived to a mostly empty restaurant at 6:30 on a Wednesday, but it got pretty full as we waited for our food. And waited. And waited.
That wait was just one of the disappointing things here. With a large number of items on their «Chalkboard» and Appetizers menu sections, they should probably bring the little dishes out as they are ready. Instead, they course out everything, so we waited a solid 20 minutes or so for our first few little bites to all come out at once, and then several more minutes for a few appetizers:
— Pork Cracklings ($ 6)
This is definitely the best thing here, but even this has an element of disappointment, as they arrive on a plate seemingly overflowing out of a paper cone. A few seconds later though you realize the entire cone is empty, and there is just a small handful of crunchy cracklings.
— Rabbit Rillettes ($ 11)
This looked better than it tasted, as the rabbit was fine, but the bread underneath was way too soft. Combined with the rabbit pâté, it just made for a big, mushy bite.
— Caraway Ployes ($ 8 for 3)
Another item here that looked a lot better than it tasted, this probably would work a lot better on something other than a ploye, which was again very soft and too floppy to even hold the trout roe and dollop of smoked maple cream on top of it. It was another soggy bite with not much discernible taste.
— Farro Salad ($ 12)
This was actually pretty tasty, so when the salad is high on my list of standout dishes from the meal, it’s a little troubling.
— Fish & Chips ($ 12)
This thing contributed a lot to the poor rating here. It looked cool at first, like a different take on fish & chips, with a nice scattershot arrangement of beige pieces, consisting of 3 chips and 3 little pieces of fish. The chips part was very good, which was surprising as they were potato wedges, which I don’t normally like, but they were somehow very crispy for this type of fry, and had plenty of seasoning finally. However, the fish component, was shockingly bad. Expecting a nice, flaky interior, what I got instead was the most rubbery bite of fish I’ve ever tasted. Seriously, it was practically inedible, I don’t know what happened here.
— Poutine Rapee ($ 22)
The one entrée we got, this is a traditional Acadian dish, in this case consisting of boiled dumplings filled with lamb neck. It was pretty good, but a little lacking in flavor. The dumplings didn’t really have any flavor, nor did the big pieces of turnip on the plate, but the partridgeberries and sauce helped a bit.
— Doberge Cake ($ 8)
Another item popular in New Orleans, this was a pretty delicious piece of cake. It’s a yellow cake with layers of lemon pudding and chocolate ganache. It was a nice, sizable piece, unlike most of the smaller portioned dishes we had earlier. It was very soft but also dense enough to be satisfying.
The food here was quite a letdown. The service, when able to come by it, was very friendly and welcoming, but I don’t feel the need to return.