Laser Wolf

Who Should Book Laser Wolf — and When

If you want a rooftop dinner in Brooklyn that doubles as a genuine occasion, Laser Wolf is the right call. Perched atop The Hoxton Williamsburg at 97 Wythe Ave, the restaurant is designed for the kind of evening where the setting does half the work: strings of lights overhead, an open kitchen buzzing below, Manhattan's skyline catching the last of the sun across the water. Book it for a birthday, an anniversary, or any night where atmosphere and food both need to deliver. Solo diners and quiet weeknight tables should look elsewhere — this is a room built for groups who want to feel like they're somewhere.

Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook, the team behind Philadelphia's Zahav, opened Laser Wolf as a skewer house rooted in Israeli and Middle Eastern cooking. The format is festive and structured: the meal moves through salatim (small salads and spreads, including babaganoush, pickles, gigante beans with harissa, and mushrooms with Swiss chard and sour cherry), then to the meat and vegetable skewers that are the core of the menu, and closes with brown sugar soft-serve ice cream. It is a format that rewards groups, the salatim section in particular is better shared across four or more people than picked at by two.

The Bar and the Rooftop View

The cocktail program at Laser Wolf is worth factoring into your decision, not just as a warm-up before food, but as a reason to arrive early. The rooftop setting, part of The Hoxton's hotel infrastructure, means the bar benefits from a full hotel bar operation, and the view of the Manhattan skyline at golden hour is the kind of thing that makes a well-timed drink feel like the whole point of the evening. If you are in New York and want a cocktail with a view, this is one of the more accessible options in Brooklyn: no jacket requirement, no multi-hundred-dollar minimum, just a good perch and a drinks list that fits the Israeli-inflected menu. Arrive 30 to 45 minutes before your reservation to take advantage of the bar rather than heading straight to the table.

The food-and-drink pairing logic here is direct: the salatim and skewers format suits cocktails and wine equally well. The open kitchen and the music keep the energy high throughout the evening, so this is not a room for a quiet conversation-first dinner. If that is what you need, Laser Wolf on a Friday or Saturday night will fight you on it.

Credentials and Track Record

Laser Wolf earned a Michelin Plate in 2024, recognition that the food is worth eating, without the formal-dining weight of a star. It has appeared on Opinionated About Dining's Casual North America list in every tracked year from 2023 through 2025, reaching as high as #208 in 2025 on one ranking and #567 on another. A Google rating of 4.3 across 930 reviews is a reliable signal at that volume: broadly liked, occasionally polarising on noise and booking logistics, but consistently delivering on what it promises. For a rooftop in Williamsburg, that consistency over multiple OAD cycles is worth noting.

Solomonov's broader reputation, anchored at Zahav in Philadelphia, one of the most decorated Israeli restaurants in the United States, lends the kitchen real authority. Laser Wolf is not a side project running on name recognition; the cooking reflects the same sourcing and technique logic as the flagship.

Booking and Practical Logistics

Booking difficulty is moderate. The venue is popular enough to require planning, particularly for weekends and any evening with good weather, when the rooftop view becomes the dominant draw. Reserve at least two to three weeks ahead for a Saturday. Weeknight slots in the earlier window (5 to 6:30 pm) are more available. The restaurant runs a single daily service from 5 to 10 pm, seven days a week, so there is no lunch option to fall back on.

How It Compares

Laser Wolf sits in a different category from New York's $$$$-tier dining circuit. If you are choosing between Laser Wolf and something like Le Bernardin, Atomix, Eleven Madison Park, Masa, or Per Se, you are not really comparing like for like, those rooms are structured tasting-menu experiences at significantly higher price points, with different ambitions. Laser Wolf at $$$ gives you a festive, skewer-driven format with a strong rooftop setting; the five venues above give you formal progression and service depth that Laser Wolf does not attempt to replicate.

The more direct comparison is within Brooklyn's mid-tier dining scene and the Israeli-Middle Eastern category more broadly. For Israeli food in London, Honey & Co and Palomar operate in the same culinary tradition at a similar price tier, though without the rooftop dimension. Within New York City, Laser Wolf's combination of Michelin recognition, a rooftop setting, and a structured group-friendly menu is hard to replicate at the same price. The format is the value: for a special-occasion group dinner in Brooklyn that does not require clearing $200+ per head before wine, there are few comparable options with this level of consistency and track record.

If you are weighing this against other acclaimed US restaurants in the mid-to-upper tier, venues like Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Alinea in Chicago, or Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg offer more elaborate tasting formats at higher price points. Emeril's in New Orleans and Providence in Los Angeles are also in a different register. Laser Wolf is the right pick when you want occasion-worthy food in a lively setting without the formality or the price of a full tasting-menu experience. For the full picture of where to eat and drink in New York, see our New York City restaurants guide, bars guide, hotels guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide.