Bloomfield’s Pandan joins the list of Baristanet-approved, New York Times-reviewed restaurants.
Says David Corcoran from the New York Times…
The menu is long, and the prices are so gentle you’ll want to come with a group and execute a full-gainer dive into the menu section headed “Pandan’s Specials.” You’ll note that two words figure prominently: grilled and pork. There’s pork steak, grilled pork belly, grilled pork chop, grilled spareribs and pork barbecue.
I loved them all.
Us too, David — back when we wrote about Pandan here. Pandan is in good company, joining Culinariane, Passionne and Table 8 as restaurants discovered here. Check out our latest hot find on Food.
Hello, Liz!
Interesting section of Broad Street: you can get very good Thai (also at low prices) one block down at Brookside Thai; great bar pizza (assuming they keep the menu after the remodel) at the Town Pub next door to Brookside; Polish specialities at Savory across the street from the Pub; Peruvian (and other Latin) fine dining a block north at Bohemia (not inexpensive); typical Italian-American and Japanese grub in between, and a $9 rack of ribs (on certain nights) — along with a chance of running into Cathar — at Obal’s Inn. And I left out a half-dozen other decent places. Tell me again why I need to grab a small suitcase full of money to go to Montclair (and fight for parking) to dine well.
I second Conan’s restaurant recommendations. Didn’t know Savory (which is the coffee shop, right?) offered Polish food, however – there’s a place in Clifton that does the same and (of course!) two or three in Wallington. And I didn’t know at all about Bohemia, now I’ll have to check that one out. Obal’s ribs are pretty good, by the way.
But what was that pitiful chirp from the marsupial doing in the first post? Was it because he’s feeling spring-like and getting ready, in his fashion, to rut?
Hello Walleroooooo….
Look for a Bohemia post on Food soon. And if you like Savory — send them some love on the food page — they asked us to list them there.
The $9 ribs sounds good!
LOVE Pandan’s grilled ribs! The Viet Namese Spring rolls are fabulously fresh and the shrimp appetizer another pleasure. Got to get back there soon!
Savory (next to the jewelry store and occupying the old space of Garside Stuffed Breads Shoppe) is not to be confused with the Chalet Coffee Shop (next to the dry cleaners).
Pandan is really good. We’ve eaten there several times and enjoyed it. Very pleasant atmosphere too. And they have great ice cream for dessert – mango or purple sweet potato ice cream(yes, it’s good!).
Savory’s main Polish item is pierogies — sorry, I blanked on that when I was writing the original comment. I will check them out further and report in the food section.
Savory has really good pierogies and wonderful goulash.
Okay, pierogies, basically the Polish version of ravioli, I can get into. There’s a place on Main Ave. in Clifton that makes about 20 varieties, including dessert versions.
But “goulash,” really spelt gulyas, is Hungarian in its origins, although I suppose the Poles also make similar-tasting stews. So is Savory simply a generic Eastern European kind of place?
“So is Savory simply a generic Eastern European kind of place?”
Go in, find out, and tell us 🙂
Savory is far from generic. The owners are nice, the food is homemade and the interior is bright and friendly. BTW- pierogies are like many other dumpling-style foods around the globe. Dumplings are the esperanto of the food world.
I prefer to believe that ravioli is the “esperanto” of the food world, that dumplings but follow behind, usually lethally. (I once had 5 “different” kinds of dumplings at a well-reviewed place in Prague, each was just more chewily leaden than the other, suitable only for a fishing weight.) The bliss of ricotta and added flavorings pillowed between pasta squares is matched by no other cuisine’s stabs in the same direction, let us be serious here.
I may go to Savory, Conan. But my prior experience is that all “mittel”-eastern European cuisines are aided greatly by either beer or wine. So my solution wuld likely be to get some takeout and to smuggle it into Obal’s, there to wash it down with a handy litre of Pilsner Urquell (maybe even while wearing the Pilsner Urquell t-shirt I got one night last summer during a promotion there).