Parm is the Barclays Center’s best pre-event dining option

There aren’t too many options for a sit-down meal inside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. In fact, there’s only one: Parm, which was carved out of the sprawling 40/40 Club last month and is open to all ticketholders. We had the opportunity to check out the restaurant, which is located on Suite Level A right upstairs from the arena’s main entrance, before a recent Islanders game, and this place should definitely be on the radar of anyone who’s attending an event there.

In case you’re not familiar with the brand, Parm is the brainchild of Major Food Group, one of New York City’s hottest restaurant groups. The three-person team also owns restaurants including Carbone, Dirty French, Sadelle’s, and the two restaurants that were formerly home to the legendary Four Seasons, The Grill and The Pool. Parm is their most casual outing, with four locations in the city and a stand at Yankee Stadium.

The menu is small and straightforward, and is focused on Italian-American classics. Appetizers include mozzarella sticks, meatballs, Buffalo wings, fried calamari, and garlic bread; a few salads are available, as well as three pastas: rigatoni fra diavola (with pink sauce and Calabrian chile), rotini bolognese, and spaghetti and meatballs. As the name might imply, parmigiana is the centerpiece; chicken parm, eggplant parm, and meatball parm are available in platter (with spicy rotini) or sandwich form. Other heros include chicken Caprese, Italian combo, and a very good turkey sandwich. Two varieties of ice cream cake - classic or s’mores - are available for dessert.

The menu may seem simple, but the simpler a dish is the easier it is to mess up, and the kitchen crew (which had to learn to cook the entire menu in a relatively short period of time) performed admirably. Mozzarella sticks were nice and crisp, and filled with milky high-quality mozzarella. Crispy zucchini was tasty, and the small meatballs were juicy and full of flavor, topped with a chunky and flavorful tomato sauce. Calamari was crispy and tender, and served with spicy aioli and a smoother marinara. Rotini bolognese was generously portioned, tossed with an addictively good meat sauce, and topped with a big spoonful of fresh ricotta that perfectly complemented the pasta.

The chicken parm platter had three crispy chicken cutlets, doused in marinara and topped with melted and lightly browned fresh mozzarella, and served alongside rotini tossed in an onion-heavy spicy tomato sauce. Both entrees were stellar. And for dessert, the s’mores ice cream cake was literally impossible to stop eating.

The space itself is large, and a wall is completely open to the arena floor below; if you snag a table on that side of the room you can easily watch the game while you’re eating (hint hint, people with nosebleed seats). And half of the space is still the 40/40 Club, so there’s a fully-stocked bar and plenty of seating on that side of the room as well. The Parm and 40/40 Club is still one of the Barclays Center’s hidden secrets, but hopefully it won’t be that way for long. Fans can reserve their table in advance on Reserve, and if you download the Barclays Center app you can actually order your meal to-go and bring it to your seats.

And if you’re a regular at the arena, you might also want to consider a membership at the Billboard Lounge (below), which is located downstairs from the main entrance on the Event Level. It’s a pretty swanky spot, with a full bar, a small food menu, plenty of lounge-style seating, and occasional post-event live music performances.