Unrated: This is a restaurant we want to re-visit before rating, or it’s a coffee shop, bar, or dessert shop. We only rate spots where you can eat a full meal.

Clinton Hill’s premier destination for eating sardines with a date, Place des Fêtes specializes in natural wine and inventive, seafood-heavy small plates. Book a table in the spacious room lined with earth-toned banquettes, and enjoy an elaborate take on fluke tartare or some fried maitake mushrooms with a side of black garlic fudge. If you don’t have a reservation, it’s not too hard to grab a seat at the bar, where you can drink a Negroni and eat some pasta while you watch mussels and mortadella being plated in the open kitchen.

On a Wednesday night, the music flowing out of this tiny Nigerian restaurant on Greene Ave. might entice you to grab a bottle of red from the wine shop next door and waltz on in. Do it. From the people behind Dept. of Culture, a Nigerian restaurant with a tasting menu, Radio Kwara is a little more accessible and affordable—and maybe even more delicious. Here, servers pour spicy broth onto tender chunks of goat tableside, and friends share the butter-soaked bread ati obe with marinated mushrooms, and charred octopus suya.

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Smør’s second location in Clinton Hill is a larger, full-service sibling to the original Danish bakery in the East Village. This versatile neighborhood spot shifts moods throughout the day—from breakfasts of soft-boiled eggs and cardamom lattes under the sunny skylight, to candlelit date-night dinners of schnitzel and tuna tartare from a loosely Scandinavian menu. Dishes like “Beans in Broth” and “Leafy Greens” sound deceptively simple, but every one of the relatively few ingredients really shines. The white-walled space is minimalist, but never uninviting; expect consistently great food and service, no matter when you visit.

If Place des Fêtes checks every third-date box, Entre Nous—from the Fradei team—does the same for first dates. A long bar and plenty of tables are perfect for a casual yet sexy evening, with an interesting list of low intervention French wines, and big glass windows that get very foggy when it’s cold out. Plus, there’s an impressive seafood plateau, with pickled mussels that we yearn for, plump shrimp, and excellently shucked oysters. They have a handful of larger plates—we quite like their tartiflette croquettes and leeks in vinaigrette—but this spot is best used for snacks, like fatty and glorious pork rillettes.

Rosticceria Evelina is the younger sister to Evelina, an Italian restaurant in Fort Greene, but the specialty here is chicken instead of pasta. Specifically, a beautiful bird that's spun around on a rotisserie spit before landing on a plate of crispy yukon gold potatoes and carrots. You should also get one pizza and the slaw-like brussels sprouts and kale salad. Big groups can spread out in the covered garden out back, but there's a bar up front and a handful of tables in the main dining room, too. It’s bright, and less cozy and romantic-feeling than Evelina, so bring someone you don’t mind seeing in HD.

The $31 burger at Emily comes with french fries, but it also comes with cornichons, for when you get to your second bite and realize you desperately need something to cut through all the (very impressive) richness. It’s a legendary burger, with a thick patty, special sauce, cheddar, and a mountain of caramelized onions, all on a glossy pretzel bun. Every couple at this classic Clinton Hill weeknight date spot shares one of these burgers, a pizza, and (maybe) a salad. It’s from the same people behind Emmy Squared, so you can count on all the pizzas being great, too—try The Classic (a plain pie), or the Big Ang, with vodka sauce, ricotta, peppadew peppers, and meatballs.

B’klyn Burro was founded by two San Francisco expats who wanted to bring the absurdly huge, perfectly rolled, filled-to-the-brim burrito style of the Mission to NYC. Each burrito comes with a massive pile of rice, beans, pico, sour cream and fresh avocado rolled up in a tortilla, and your favorite protein, or a specialty filling like chili relleno, or picadillo with potato. Your burrito then gets some time on the grill, resulting in a tasty crust on the whole thing. There’s some seating inside, but if the grill gets things too smoky, grab a seat at one of the picnic tables on the covered patio out back.

Someone who lives on Greene Avenue feels very lucky to live next to Aita. It's the best type of neighborhood spot, where you’ll usually get a table, but the dining room will always be pretty full. This is good, because even if you come alone for a glass of wine and a bowl of pasta at the bar, there’s more to listen to than the sound of your own chewing. But this Italian restaurant is also somewhere where you could bring your parents, or catch up with a friend over a few Negronis. Try the octopus with tonnato, and oxtail ravioli. They also have brunch, and it’s not all eggs—there’s a lasagna, and a porchetta sandwich too.

If Aita is where you bring your parents, Locanda Vini e Olii is where you bring the person you’ve been dating for a while, when you want something a bit more wine-drenched and candlelit than an evening on your couch. The Northern Italian restaurant on Greene Ave. is in an old converted pharmacy, and the “Lewis Drug Store” sign that’s still printed on the facade of the building is inexplicably charming. Come here for a bowl of pici with sausage ragu and a cappelletti spritz, and if it’s summertime, stop by their gelato cart out front, Biddrina, and get a scoop of the cantaloupe if they have it. How romantic.

Otway has brunch every single day, and even on a Tuesday, you might see a table of friends catching up in the plant-filled dining room, or a couple in pajamas, feeding each other melon. During the week, you can use your laptop at this cafe, and it’s a nice change of scenery (one that could involve a juicy fried chicken sandwich). On the weekend, it’s the kind of place you might run into somebody you know eating the deluxe breakfast with eggs, crispy potatoes, toast, and a lamb merguez patty. Otway is also open for dinner, and they have a bakery right down the block, if you need an excellent croissant.

This coffee shop on Myrtle is a local breakfast sandwich destination. Besides the classic bacon or sausage, egg, and cheese, there’s one with cream cheese, one with house-smoked pastrami, and our favorite, The Golden One, which has fried eggs, cheddar, green chiles, and a latke, all on a Portuguese bun. Peck doesn’t have any indoor seating, but there’s a heated backyard if the weather’s nice, or you can take your sandwich to go. They also do lunch sandwiches, and have a coffee shop called Peckish nearby with some tables.

If you live in Clinton Hill, you probably go to Chef Katsu once a week. Everything on the menu at this counter-service Japanese spot on Greene Ave. is a good choice, but we’d recommend the curry rice bowl, or the salmon dashi chazuke to start. We like to get takeout and head to Fort Greene Park if it’s nice out, but there are a few tables inside, and Prima is down the block for a post-curry drink.

This place should really be called Mike’s Diner, but this “coffee shop” is from a pre-Starbucks time, when coffee shops also served things like grits and hamburgers. Step into this tiny spot with chrome stools and a tin ceiling on a quiet corner, and travel back a half-century. Mike's is where you should be eating pancakes and bacon on a Sunday morning when you want to reassure yourself that New York is not getting worse every year.

Speedy Romeo bills itself as a St. Louis-style pizza spot, but if you come here expecting a textbook-perfect Midwestern pie, you’ll probably leave a little bit disappointed. The dough, which should be cracker-thin, is very doughy, and in most of the pies, the Provel gets buried under a heap of other ingredients. But it’s still a solid spot for a group, and there’s plenty of space to spread out in the back of the large dining room. Don’t bring a St. Louis-style pizza purist, but do bring your kids.