No Name Bar

I used to enjoy coming here for the Thai food which, by Brooklyn standards, was pretty good. The Thai food has now been replaced by Korean fare and is still cooked and prepared in the basement.
The first thing that hits you upon entering this establishment are fumes of disinfectant. It's the quintessential brooklyn bar smell. Nothing else takes me back so succinctly to the summers spent fretfully feeling sick in a bar waiting for a date to turn up, unsure of whether it was nerves or the bleachy vapours making me queazy. Now I get a a strange kind of nostalgic comfort from the aroma. And then moments later a sense of disappointment and abandonment...

Wading past the drinkers at the bar and the DJ thumb-scrolling through his iPod you head downstairs to where the smells are altogether more inviting.
We ordered the PaJeon, vegetable Mandoo Guk and the Bibimbap whilst sitting at the pokey bar downstairs, facing the kitchen.

The PaJeon was perhaps my favourite dish, a crispy, thick pancake that's dairy free (good for you vegans!). The dipping sauce was a pinch sour and vinegary and helped flavour the pancake slices. It was comforting and moreish, and a little bland, but good in the way that some 'plain' flavoured things sometimes are.

The vegetable Mandoo Guk was a clear, light broth bathing a selection of vegetables and three large dumplings. The dumplings were notable for their freshness and thin delicate skin, allowing for a greater emphasis on the taste of the vegetables within as opposed to the stodgy taste of dough.

The Bibimbap was not of the hot stone variety, which in the summer months is probably a very good thing. The rice was well cooked and tasted good when mixed with the egg and vegetables. Its accompanying sauce added a subtle edge to the dish, neither being too spicy or too salty. The kimchee was crunchy in places and went well with everything.

The prices were very reasonable and the staff were all very nice, especially the kitchen staff, who looked a little out of place amongst the throngs of tattooed, black dressed, bearded (the guys), bra strap showing (the gals) young scene-sters. Not that I care about the hot talent on parade in bars these days, it's the hot dishes I'm looking for to satiate my appetite, and after visiting No Name, satiated I was.

Love it here.  Love the decor on the inside and the garden outside.  It's such a great place to go with friends and meet new people; the whole atmosphere is chill and friendly.

I'm knocking off a star for the bad A/C mentioned in other reviews, but in the Winter, it will be a non-issue.  Unless I gain 300 pounds.  Then I'll probably want an air conditioner during Winter.

Very hip and that's fine, we are in Greenpoint after all.

The only minus to this joint is that the canned beer should be a dollar less. I expected to receive a Naragansett tall boy for $5 and was instead given a regular can of Rhode Island's finest beer. Disappointed on that end.

Their draft list, while small, is effective and the prices are not too high compared to other Brooklyn establishments.

The backyard is awesome. I would come back only for that purpose. To come all the way from my Carroll Gardens apartment up to Greenpoint on a regular basis would be silly but for taking out of towners or meeting up with folks on the northern part of the borough, I will definitely consider No Name Bar.

Heads up: For a weeknight, it was rather crowded so keep that in mind if you go on the weekend.