Review: Brooklyn Paul's Kitchen in Living on DiscoverSayville.com

At a time when it seems that we always pay more and get less, along comes an eatery run by a proprietor who believes in quality, quantity and most of all, service to his customers. Paul, and yes he is from Brooklyn, taps into his years of experience in the food industry, beginning with his first catering job at the age of 11, to create food that is delicious, filling, fresh and truly home made.

This is not a Zagat rated fancy restaurant. This is what every hometown should have: an inexpensive, comfortable, eat in, take out, breakfast, lunch, dinner, meet your friends, make new friends, sit and read the paper kind of place. Brooklyn Paul's is all that and more.

Paul will create any 12" hero sandwich for $6.99. There is no extra charge for tomato, cheese, bacon or anything else you can think of to put on your sandwich. When you walk in you will see that he has 42 specialty heroes to pick from. Don't see what you like-then create your own. If Paul likes your creation he will name it after you, put it up on the board and even give you a framed certificate proclaiming your place in history. That's better than a mere 15 minutes of fame! His goal is to have 100 sandwiches on his board by years end, and to have many of the local business owners and community members immortalized in a hero. He has 58 spaces left, but I would hurry based on the amount of business I saw on my two recent visits.

I would have loved to sample everything (not even close to possible) but I did get a taste of his special slow roasted pork, meatloaf on garlic bread (#36 on the board) and chicken caesar salad. The roasted pork marinated for 48 hours before it was slow roasted revealing a wonderful flavor. The meatloaf was the best I've ever had, made better by the garlic bread it sat on, and the caesar salad was even special with large pieces of bacon and home made croutons. The portions are not large, they are huge! During my visit at lunch time I noticed he was adding a small container of salad of your choice with your hero. When was the last time you got something for free?

Do not pass up the chance to taste some gelato or ice cream. Paul promised me a taste of one his special gelatos would take me directly back to Italy and it did. Do not pass up the chance to taste the toasted coconut gelato. The pistachio ice cream is delicious as well.

For those of you a little older and with connections to Brooklyn or the Bronx, you will remember those great egg creams that could not be recreated elsewhere. Well, you don't have to go to Brooklyn to get an egg cream any more. Brooklyn has come to Sayville. Though I didn't get to try it, Paul vouches for its authenticity. A real egg cream must be made with Fox's Ubet chocolate syrup and that's what goes into Paul's creation.

I can't begin to tell you everything about this establishment but I'll tell you this: everything is homemade; he marinates his own vegetables; he has three kinds of roasted peppers, and as many, or more, types of olives and pickles; he has homemade cannolis; he offers oatmeal for breakfast (along with anything else you might want); he remembers those watching their weight by offering wraps, salads and diet selections; he has every type of burger you can imagine and even carries Boylan soda.

Though there are standards that you can get any day of the week, Paul's dinner specials are determined by what he feels like cooking that day. He will also prepare a dish if a customer makes a request. That reminds me, when I was a kid…