Broad Street in Bloomfield

[njduchess]

There are lot of good choices for dining in the area between Bay Avenue and Belleville Avenue on Broad Street.

Formia has always had reliable Italian Food (not red gravy). Then last summer, Brookside Thai opened and although not the best in the area, it is good and certainly well-priced, too. This winter, Michi opened. It is a lovely spot - definitely a cut above the usual neighborhood sushi place. We're not that adventurous in our sushi choices, but they offer a very large array of very interesting rolls and very beautifully presented. Cosimo opened several months ago. We haven't tried it yet, so we can't comment. Even Vinnie's pizza is moving into the same stretch of Broad Street.

When I was driving down Broad Street last week, I spotted a new restaurant opening soon called Pandan, and their sign said "fine Asian cuisine." The gossip at my nail salon is that the owners are Vietnamese. The decor looked elegant and we're looking forward to trying it soon.

I guess that restaurants like to cluster. The parking situation is certainly better than Montclair. We're pretty happy about what's happening in our neighborhood.

Marie

[Rosie]

Info on Cosimo's here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=0entry473510

[njduchess]

Within the past week and a half we tried Pandan. It is definitely a Phillipine restaurant. Had I done a little research about the word Pandan, I would have known. The owner is a young Phillipine man who has lived many places and had added items borrowed from other cuisines to his mostly Phillipine menu.

For some reason, my husband ordered Shumai for an appetizer. They were unremarkable, but we were provided with an oil based chili sauce made by the chef that was wonderful. My husband ordered the Grilled Spare Ribs which he enjoyed, but he would have liked a larger portion. It came with rice and a green papaya and mango salad. I ordered jumbo shrimp with asparagus and mushrooms. It was in a wonderful brown sauce that had a very subtle and nice heat. My entree was very generous so my husband did not leave hungry. It's a BYOB, but we didn't have wine that night. We tried their drinks. I had a Thai iced tea, but my husband had a green concoction with slivers of coconut in it and he enjoyed it. Their desserts included Asian-style desserts and pastries, but we skipped them that night.

They have quite a few grilled items (pork, beef, and chicken in assorted seasonings and spices), whole fried fish, and several seafood and fish entrees in sauces. The next time I want to try a specialty, Chicken in Pandanus Leaves, which was highly recommended.

The owner said that they had an hour-long wait for a table on the weekend. It was only half full when we were there (Wednesday or Thursday). Although we only get out to dinner once a week, we hope to get back there soon.

Rosie, we finally tried Cosimo's. We are addicted to their brick oven pizzas - so far only for Friday night take-out during Lent. Hopefully, we will get back for dinner. The menu looked very interesting. They have been really busy when I've been there.

[Cornellrob]

This is my first posting to egullet, although I've been reading it for a while.

Went to Pandan last night. Thought it was very good. The restaurant has a nice ambience. Nothing spectacular, but you can tell the owners put some thought into it in terms of the colors and materials used. This seems to be a more or less "mom and pop" run operation. Two kids (probably 9th or 10th grade) doing the serving. They were courteous and seemed eager to please.

The food. I am not all that familiar with Phillipino food, although it seemed in line with thai or malasian styles. Based on this forum, ordered the shrimp with asparagus and mushroom. Shrimp were medium/large size. Perfectly cooked. Asparagus also perfectly cooked. Sauce was a very tasty brown sauce - not a bit of heat to it though. Also ordered the chicken in pandanus leaves -- which i thought was also very tasty, moist (dark meat). Primary flavor is in the sauce that accompanies the chicken.. I would say that portion for that is pretty small - only 3 pieces of rolled up chicken (half the size of a small fist). All in all, i would say that it was a pleasant experience. The staff tried hard to please, the food was tasty, portions reasonable, and prices good ($9-13) for most dishes.

Also - on broad street..... Brookside Thai. I am not sure if it's just me and a few of my friends, but we think this place is fantastic. Almost everything is dirt cheap -- i.e. $6-10, for substantial portions of some very tasty thai food. Perhaps not as good Thai Chef/Tuptim for some of the old standards (Pad Thai), but certainly excellent for the money. However, some of the specials on Brookside's menu, such as the Deep Fried Snapper with tamarind glaze, i've found to be extremely flavorful, perfectly cooked, and quite simply, much better than anything i've ever had from thai chef or tuptim.

Formia -- i'm not sure if the menu is uniformly excellent, but some of their veal dishes and pasta dishes i think are well worth the money. There is a rigatoni dish there that comes to mind with garlic (lots of it), onions, and proscuito -- yum!! Formia is a place that likes coupons - and it's usually not hard to find them.

[Rosie]

Welcome to eGullet Cornellrob. More info on Brookside Thai is here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=Brookside+Thai

[waves2ya]

Have eaten at...

Pandan

406 Broad Street

Bloomfield, NJ 07003

(973) 748-9997

... twice now, enjoying each time.

App's included Lumpiang Shanghai - a spring rolls (6) type concoction and Siomi, dumplings (5) with a special side sauce. Both good and different from the Thai type rolls one often finds. The Tom Yam Soup (variation on Tom Yum?), better left to the Thai's...

Main dishes in this Filipino restaurant are the star. Last night's Crispy Pata (deep fried pork leg) was a very different treat. Well fried leg is served crispy w/ a vinegar shallot dipping sauce. Sizzling Pusit (squid) was an entire squid, grilled, and served on a skillet sizzling with onions in a kind of hosin like brown sauce. Marinated Chicken in Pandanus Leaves - wonderfully light and lemony, extremely moist treat. Grilled Spare Ribs were tasty but, ah... spare. Have also had a Jumbo Shrimp & okra/tomato dish that was sublime. I, for one, am thankful for the tastefully nuanced orange decor, bamboo chairs, exotic plants with Harry Connick Jr. played cloyingly in the distance...

If only more restaurants would brave Broad Street in Bloomfield and successfully dislodge the stronghold of nail salons, we might be on to something.

[nizza]

Well, let me add my two cents. We LOVE Brookside Thai, excellent food and definitely great prices. I do like Panang (on Rt 10 East Hanover) for their Chicken Satay, but, Brookside is much closer and thoroughly enjoy their food.

Formia was just eh! We expected better after all we heard and it wasn't just us. The table next to us asked us how we like the food and we said "It was just Ok" and they agreed.

Broad Street is really becoming a restaurant row.

Has anyone tried that Mexican place over near Holstein's Ice Cream? It's always busy every time we pass it.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[waves2ya]

Has anyone tried that Mexican place over near Holstein's Ice Cream?  It's always busy every time we pass it.

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Yes and it was frighteningly horrendous.

So much so think I didn't write about it anywhere (er, till now) because I wanted to give 'em a second chance. But everything - service, food, prices - really... I guess the place itself is kind of cute...

But that second chance is looking far off.

[lano]

Has anyone tried that Mexican place over near Holstein's Ice Cream?  It's always busy every time we pass it.

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Yes and it was frighteningly horrendous.

So much so think I didn't write about it anywhere (er, till now) because I wanted to give 'em a second chance. But everything - service, food, prices - really... I guess the place itself is kind of cute...

But that second chance is looking far off.

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yes, have eaten at the mexican place twice and each time vowed never to go back. maybe i'll actually never go back this time.

[nizza]

Wow - thanks for the info and saving me a trip for lousy mexican food. There's a new place on Main Street in Clifton that's supposed to be authentic Mexican. Maybe one day I'll take a ride there and check it out. After eating the past few years at Don Jose's on Rt 10 in East Hanover it's hard to find comparable Mexican -but the search goes on!

[pnapoli]

There's a new place on Main Street in Clifton that's supposed to be authentic Mexican.  Maybe one day I'll take a ride there and check it out.

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if you're referring to El Mexicano, it's not bad. i had pretty good arroz con pollo there not too long ago. haven't been back yet.

[DonnaMarieNJ]

There is a new restaurant opening a few doors away from Cosimos called "The Pitt" (Portuguese BBQ). Anyone know anything about it?

[Cornellrob]

went to cosimo's tonight for dinner. i have no idea why i keep giving this place a chance. pizza is really, really good IMO. however, non-pizza items there suck.

Chicken Parm:

i had my monthly chicken parm craving and thought it would be good at cosimos. I foolishly thought this because I know that i like the cheese and sauce used on the pizza, and figured that if they used something similar, that even with a poor cutlet, it would still turn out good. boy, was I wrong. not in the cheese and sauce, but the cutlet, which was one of the worst preparations i've ever had. perhaps it's my own deranged notions of what makes good chicken parm, but i usually think the chicken should have fairly crisp breading, maybe spiced or maybe not spiced. this, on the other hand, was a mushy egg batter (like a francaise). so in the end, it was basically a pile of slop with no consistency other than boiled chicken covered in schmeg.

Pasta Puttanesca (my girfriend got this one)

Perhaps one of the worst tasting dishes i've ever had. It actually made the chicken parm taste good. In all the times i've ever had this dish, never has it tasted so putrid. It tasted more akin to kim-chee chigae - kind of tasted like noodles bathed in a foul fishy, smokey, spicey pickel-like sauce. my girlfriend, who is not only Korean, but can handle her own around the dinner table, only had about two forkfuls before declaring it "nasty." I concurred after only 1 bite.

Service

What makes the experience worse is that no one even cared that the dishes were as bad as they were. I would never complain about the chicken parm. I thought that perhaps the way it was prepared was a matter of preference - although i have never seen it prepared this way.... But the pasta dish was really horrible. Not a matter of preference. The waitress made herself scarce while we were eating and never once stopped by our table other than to bring out the salads and the food - where did she go? The busboy obviously couldn't care less that we didn't enjoy it. Needless to say - i will never eat any of there food again - other than pizza (which i still love).

sorry for the harshness in this commentary. had to get that off my chest after the worst meal i've had in probably over a year.

Edited September 27, 2005 by Cornellrob (log)

[dbrociner]

Cornellrob, that had better be some great pizza to consider going back after the shabby treatment you were given. I'd have complained and I probably wouldn't go back at all. You have to vote with your feet in a restaurant.

[nizza]

Cornellrob - If you want good Chicken Parm or other good Italian dishes and not too expensive at all go to Angelo's Pizza and Restaurant- it a pizza place at 303 Broad St, Bloomfield, NJ 973-429-8505. It's a pizza place in the front and park in the back because that is where the entrance to the restaurant is. Very good food, good sized portions and the prices are good, too.

[Cornellrob]

Cornellrob, that had better be some great pizza to consider going back after the shabby treatment you were given. I'd have complained and I probably wouldn't go back at all. You have to vote with your feet in a restaurant.

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I kind of agree with you, but i think that this kind of treatment has become so commonplace, i basically ignore it now. and in reality, at these kind of inexpensive local restaurants, there's only so much you can expect out of the service. in this particular instance, the service was compounded by the flavor/preparation of the dishes - and so that may be why it irritated me so much.

[viejomajadero]

Cornell

Why don't you go to Vinnies? I have been eating that food starting when Vinnie actually owned the place.

The food under the current regime has always at worst -- been good. Pizza there is better than any in my area.

Pat the owner is likeable and surely would listen to your complaints.

I live in Kinnelon and there is nothing near Vinnies quality, taste, and service. I always make special requests and always get it with a smile.

Viejo

[pete ganz]

Chicken Parm:

i had my monthly chicken parm craving and thought it would be good at cosimos.  I foolishly thought this because I know that i like the cheese and sauce used on the pizza, and figured that if they used something similar, that even with a poor cutlet, it would still turn out good.  boy, was I wrong.  not in the cheese and sauce, but the cutlet, which was one of the worst preparations i've ever had.  perhaps it's my own deranged notions of what makes good chicken parm, but i usually  think the chicken should have fairly crisp breading, maybe spiced or maybe not spiced.  this, on the other hand, was a mushy egg batter (like a francaise).  so in the end, it was basically a pile of slop with no consistency other than boiled chicken covered in schmeg.

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Some chicken parm can be pretty tasty made this way. Jo-Jo's on Ridge Rd. in Lyndhurst makes their chicken parm with an egg batter rather than breading and it's very good. It doesn't have the consistency of shmeg!

[Peter Conway]

Cornell

Why don't you go to Vinnies?  I have been eating that food starting when Vinnie actually owned the place.

The food under the current regime has always at worst -- been good.  Pizza there is better than any in my area. 

Pat the owner is likeable and surely would listen to your complaints.

I live in Kinnelon and there is nothing near Vinnies quality, taste, and service.  I always make special requests and always get it with a smile.

Viejo

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We used to go to Vinnie's every few months back when it was on Bay Street.

Always enjoyed our dinners there.

Tried the new digs for the first time on Broad Street. Majorly disappointed.

Had Clams Oreganato and my sin had Shrimp Cocktail.

The chef is trying to emulate a fine restaurant by sprinkling parsley. The clams were pretty good after you pushed away the excessive bred crumbs. The shrimp were really flavorless, just worked as a spoon for the OK cocktail sauce.

My son ordered his favorite Cavetelli and Brocoli, but to make it complete he ordered a side of sausage. In his words "nothing special but good." The pasta was nice but the Sausage was second rate. Too much fennel if you ask me.

I had Savoy Chicken, I know I should just go to Belmont and get the real deal. It was not bad, ate the chicken down to the bone. But I wanted a vegetable, so had ordere Spinach. At least it was not over cooked.

In the end our tab was $60.00.

For ten or fifeeen more, we could have had an incredible meal at Giotto.

So where do you get good moderately priced Italian. I'd love to know.

Thanks

[DonnaMarieNJ]

Whatever happened to Formia's on Broad St, in Bloomfield? I know they've been closed for a while. Have they relocated? Anyone know?

Thanks!