Boonsong Thai Cuisine - Bloomfield, NJ

We were driving around last weekend, trying to find a new restaurant to checkout for dinner. We came upon this small stretch of shops along Broad St in Bloomfield and we noticed that it was mainly eateries. In that small section alone, there was a Greek, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Chinese as well as a few American restaurants and bakeries. After driving around for quite some time, trying to find a parking spot (there are only limited street side parking available),we finally parked a couple of streets away, in a residential area. We walked down the street a little and decided to check out the cozy looking Thai restaurant (the Greek restaurant looked good too though!).

The restaurant looked pretty empty for a Saturday night but we noticed that most of the servers were Thai. That's a good sign that the food might be authentic, right? *fingers crossed* Our server was really polite and pleasant, and for a moment, we felt as though we were in a restaurant in Phuket or Bangkok :P After being seated, Kevin ordered the Thai Iced Milk Tea (which by the way was really good) before we checked out their menu. The menu was rather basic, with all the 'usual' Thai dishes. However, I was pretty impressed that they had a rather large vegetarian section in their menu. So, vegetarians out there, please take note. You have to go check this place out!

After looking through the menu, we decided to order our food 'family style'. This means everything is served at once and is placed in the middle of the table, so that it we could share them. How can we go to a Thai restaurant and not order Tom Yum, right? So, we tried a small serving of Shrimp Tom Yum Soup ($4.00). When they asked us how spicy we would like it to be, we said very mild. I think that was a mistake, cos the soup wasn't spicy at all. In fact, it was rather tasteless. As you can see from the photo, there also wasn't many shrimps in the soup. Rather disappointing.

We also tried the Tod Mum Pla ($6.95). That's the traditional fried Thai fishcakes that has been spiced with Thai curry, string beans and kaffir lime leaves. The fishcakes were served with a side of sweet peanut sauce. Now, this was really really good! It tasted like the ones we tried when we were visiting Bangkok a couple of years ago, so yeah, very very authentic! I will definitely order this again.

There were also a whole bunch of different Thai curries to choose from. We finally decided to order the Gang Ped Yang ($14.95). Generous amounts of boneless roasted duck, cooked in red curry and coconut milk with large chunks of pineapple, tomato and chilies. Another home run! The curry wasn't too spicy, very creamy and had just the right amount of heat. I must say that this was my favorite dish of the night!

As a filler, we ordered the Pineapple Fried Rice ($9.95). I must admit that I was initially rather disappointed that the pineapple fried rice wasn't being served in a pineapple boat but I think the taste made up for it! Fluffy jasmine rice stir fried with jumbo shrimp, pineapple chunks, onions, scallions, green peas and cashew nuts. Mmmm mmmm mmmm, very very yummy too! Overall, I think that we had a pretty good dinner. Parking was a problem and it was a little bit pricier than other Thai restaurants in the area but I feel that the awesome service and authentic tasting food made up for it. Boonsong Thai Cuisine is definitely a hidden neighborhood gem!

Boonsong Thai Cuisine - Bloomfield, NJ
1040 Broad St.
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tel: (973)338 0507
Web: http://boonsongthaicuisine.com

Pandan Asian Cuisine - Bloomfield, NJ

Boy, this is another long overdue post. I really gotta stop slacking so much and update this blog more regularly. I'll try my best, okay? :P Anyways, since Valentine's Day fell on a Monday this year, we decided to go out for an early Valentine's Day dinner the day before. Truthfully, both Kevin and I are not really big on celebrating Valentine's Day but it's kinda nice to go out for a nice dinner once in a while. We decided to go check out this little South East Asian restaurant located at the corner of Broad and Baldwin Street in Bloomfield. Even though it's name says "Pandan Asian Cuisine", most of their specialties are mainly Filipino dishes. However, they do have some Thai and Vietnamese dishes in their menu too.
From the moment we walked in, we could tell that it would be a very pleasant night. With warm orange walls and fairy lights all over, it was a very cozy and nice restaurant. The servers were really helpful and friendly too. To start off, Kevin ordered a glass of Thai Iced Tea ($2.50) and I just went with iced water. I had a sip of his tea and I must say, it tasted really good. Very fragrant and creamy.
Since it was a rather cold night, we wanted some soup to warm up. Now, Kevin is a big fan of Tom Yum, so we tried their Spicy Shrimp Tom Yum Soup ($5). The soup wasn't really all that spicy but it was so flavorful. Really good! They were also quite generous with their large shrimp and mushrooms. It was a big portion and it was definitely enough to share. The bowl in the picture is my share and that's like only 1/4 of the amount served.
Apart from the soup, we also wanted to try another dish from the appetizer menu. There were really quite a lot of yummy sounding appetizers to choose from and we finally decided on the Lumpiang Shanghai ($5.50). Very good choice, I must say. It's basically Filipino style deep fried spring rolls, stuffed with pork. It tasted somewhat like a merge between the Vietnamese Cha Gio and our Malaysian Popiah. The best about it is that it was really crispy and not oily at all. Yummy yummy stuff.
For our mains, we decided to share a noodle dish and a meat dish. Since it was predominantly a Filipino restaurant, we thought that we should try one of the Filipino noodle dishes. So, we went with the Pancit Bihon ($9). Stir fried rice vermicelli with slices of chicken and mixed vegetables, topped with scallions and roasted garlic. Even though Pancit Bihon is pretty much a staple in Filipino cooking, I've never tried it before. Guess what? I liked what I tried. It reminded me of the fried rice vermicelli that my grandmother would fry up during birthday parties and other special occasions while I was growing up, back home in Malaysia. Really authentic and good (not to mention that the portion was huge too!).
Ahhhh now for the main event. I knew we just had to order this when we saw it on the menu. Crispy Pata ($16)!!! It's deep fried pork leg, served with sawsawan (some type of soy vinegar sauce) and a side of som tom salad (shredded green papaya, carrots and mango with lime juice, and ground peanuts). I cannot even begin to describe how good this is! The skin was just oh so crispy and yummy. Granted, its not the healthiest dish in the world but it sure tasted great!! Oh, if only I could eat this everyday....droooooools :P
By the time we were done with our meal, we were just too stuffed to even look at the dessert menu. Our server told us to just take a look at it anyways and boy, were we glad that we did. They were all kinds of delicious sounding Filipino desserts, we just couldn't help it but order one to share :P We ordered a portion of Turon with Ube Ice Cream ($6). For those of you who don't know, Turon is a Filipino deep fried snack that is made of thinly sliced bananas and jackfruit, wrapped in spring roll paper. It came with some yam/taro ice cream by the side. I've never really tried Filipino food before but I am fast becoming a fan! I love this too! Also, look at what the kitchen did with the food presentation. Since it was the eve of Valentine's Day, they even took the trouble to draw out those hearts on the plate. Nice ya? :D
Overall, it was a great dinner. Not only was the food really good, but the prices were rather affordable. Not only that, the portions are huge too (we had enough food left over for lunch the next day!). That, coupled with some really friendly staff, made our dining experience in Pandan Asian Cuisine a really wonderful one. Two thumbs up, we will definitely return soon!

Pandan Asian Cuisine - Bloomfield, NJ
406 Broad Street
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tel: (973)748 9997
Web: http://www.pandanasiancuisine.com

Family Buffet King - Bloomfield, NJ

We were in the mood for some Chinese food a couple of weeks ago and decided that we should go for a buffet. Instead of going to our usual Chinese buffet place in Clifton, we decided to try some place new. Who knows, we might find one even better than the one in Clifton. So, I went online to read up reviews about some of the buffet places near our apartment. There were quite a few, but one particular place kind of stood out. According to the reviews, it's really good and affordable. Sounds good to me!
So, we headed out to Bloomfield (just one neighborhood away from us) to check out Family Buffet King. When we initially saw it's address, we were pretty worried about parking. It's on Bloomfield Avenue and since that's the main street of Bloomfield, parking can be a problem sometimes. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find a parking lot (with free parking!) situated just next to it. Yay! When we walked in, we noticed that it was almost full but there wasn't a single Chinese in that Chinese buffet (not counting the owner and servers :P). To me, that's a big oh oh! An authentic Chinese buffet would be filled with Chinese families on a Saturday night.
The servers as well as the owners were really friendly though. They really made we feel very welcomed. While walking in, I noticed that the grill section was out of order. That kinda sucks, cos we were really looking forward to some grilled steaks. I don't know if it was just for that night or if it has been out since forever. Ahhh well, maybe the rest of the food would make up for it. I made the appetizer section my first stop in the buffet line. I was rather disappointed. The selection wasn't really that great. A few different salads, some mussels and rather tiny shrimp. There are a few small trays of sushi rolls, nothing really impressive at all. There were also three different types of soups to choose from and I tried the Hot & Sour soup. A little too starchy but not too bad I guess. Kevin wanted to try the Wonton soup but he soon realized that there were no wontons left in it! So, he didn't take any :(
Disappointing appetizers...what about the main dishes? Well, if you are looking for authentic Chinese food, then you are in the wrong place. However, they have a rather good selection of American Chinese food as well as some American food. You can pretty much find the entire menu of a typical Chinese take out restaurant there. Not too bad if you like American Chinese food. Of course, I was hoping for more authentic stuff, so I wasn't really impressed.
Time for dessert! Now, here is the funny thing. The layout of the dessert section was really weird. The desserts are not grouped together in a special section. You have to walk the entire buffet line to pick out your desserts from various sections. Also, we couldn't find any ice cream in that buffet. That's rather surprising, since ice cream is pretty much a staple in Chinese buffets. The dessert choices were not really huge but I did enjoy the apple strudel though. I guess that was the highlight of my whole evening.
Our total bill came to $26.94. Not too bad at all. Their weekend dinner buffet is $11.59 per person and their regular lunch buffet is even cheaper. I believe it's only $8 or so. That's really affordable for a buffet. However, the food selection was rather disappointing for me. So, if you are looking for a cheap American Chinese style buffet to go to, then this is the place for you. However, if you want to go for a buffet that serves more authentic and higher quality Asian food, then I would give this place a miss.

Family Buffet King - Bloomfield, NJ
619 Bloomfield Avenue,
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tel: (973)743 2666/6268

Cousins Pizzeria - Bloomfield, NJ

Our fridge was totally empty last Thursday and we were too lazy to go out grocery shopping. By dinnertime, our tummies were rumbling but again, we were just too lazy to go out for dinner. You know, it's just one of those days when you don't feel like doing anything but sit in front of the TV and stare at it :P We agreed that we should just order some food in but the question was...WHAT? Should we get Chinese? BBQ? Pizza? Japanese? Wings? Sooooo many choices!
I remembered picking up a menu for Cousins Pizzeria from the lobby of our apartment complex a while ago. So, we decided to give this place a try. According to the menu, we could order our food from it's website online. However, when we tried to do so, that particular page wouldn't load. So, we ended up calling and placed our order thru the phone.
Usually, whenever we order food in, it would take only between 20mins to 4omins (and that's really rare) to get here. We had to wait for almost 1 and a half for Cousins Pizzeria to get our food to us!! ONE AND A HALF HOURS! That's crazy. If it was a weekend, I would understand. Maybe they are really busy. However, it was a Thursday night. Why would they need one and a half hours just to bring us our food? To make matters worse, the delivery guy forgot our soda. Lucky thing Kevin noticed and asked him where the soda was. He then said it must be in the car. Geeezz, is it really that difficult to bring us our food within an acceptable time frame and also to get the order right?
We ordered 10 pieces of mild buffalo wings ($6.95) to share. It comes with blue cheese and celery. As expected, the wings were already cold when it got here. In all fairness, the wings were rather huge though. So, that's a good thing. However, the sauce was just alright. Nothing to really shout about. It might have been better if it arrived hot. Oh well...
Kevin tried the Large Meatball Sub ($7.75). The only good thing about that sub was that it was huge! It was almost the size of one whole french loaf. Apart from that, everything else wasn't all that good. The meatballs were not even full meatballs. They were cut into half. Kevin said that they tasted pretty bad, just like those cheap instant frozen meatball that you could pick in your grocery store's frozen food section. I don't think he will ever order that again.
I ordered the Sausage Calzone ($6). It was really nothing to shout about (apart from the fact that it was pretty huge!). The pizza dough was alright, but I wouldn't say that it is as good as some of the pizzerias in this area. What about the stuffing? Well, there were lots of ricotta and mozzarella cheese but the sausage was horrible. Totally tasteless. Also, by the time the calzone got to us, it was already really cold and soggy. The marinara sauce? Hah! Don't get me started on that. It was just some watery red colored sauce. I didn't even bother to try it. Horrible.
When we looked at the bill, we noticed that they slapped on a $2.85 delivery charge. No where on the menu does it say that there is a delivery charge. It only says that they will charge us an extra of $2 if we used a credit card to pay. The only thing we saw regarding delivery was a $10 minimum. Most of the places in our area do not charge for delivery, let alone $2.85! If they want to be competitive, they better think twice about this stupid fee that they have added on. Really slow service, mediocre food (well, it was actually worse than mediocre) and to top it all off, a delivery fee...hmmm, I think this is the last time we will be ordering from Cousins. There are just too many delivery places near us that serves awesome food, with no delivery charges and would only take about 20 mins from the time we order to the food arriving piping hot at our door.

Cousins Pizzeria - Bloomfield, NJ
543 Bloomfield Avenue,
Bloomfield, NJ 070003
Tel: (973) 680 8200
Fax: (973) 680 9292
Web: www.cousinzpizza.com

Binh Duong Traditional Vietnamese Restaurant

I have been meaning to blog about this restaurant for the longest time but never really got around to doing it. We were out grocery shopping in the Bloomfield area a few weeks back and we were looking for a place to grab something quick for dinner. We remembered seeing this small Vietnamese restaurant next to East West Asian Market the last time we were there, so we thought we would give it a try.

Since we had groceries in the car, we decided not to eat in but to take out our dinner. The exterior of the restaurant is nothing to shout about and I can say the same for the interior. Just your regular hole in the wall joint, with a few tables and chairs. It was still early for dinner but there were already quite a lot of diners there. We were the only non Vietnamese there, so I would take that as a good sign :P The owner took our orders and within 15 minutes or so, they brought out our piping hot food in two huge bags. Here's what we ordered.

Whenever we have Vietnamese food, we HAVE to order the Goi Cuon ($3.95 for 2 rolls). That's like my all time favorite Vietnamese food. The Goi Cuon aka Summer Roll had really large and fresh shrimp, very very yummy. Also, the peanut sauce was aweeessoomme! Seriously, it's been a while since I had a summer roll this good. Two thumbs up!

Apart from the Goi Cuon, we also ordered the Cha Gio ($4.95 for 5 rolls). That's the Vietnamese spring roll. Mini fried spring rolls filled with shrimp and pork. It also came with mint, lettuce and fish sauce. Again, it was super yummy! Crunchy on the outside and the filling was really tasty =) Yummy yummy yummy!

I ordered the Pho Dac Biet ($6.50), which is the House Combo Pho. Rice noodles with rare beef, well done beef, brisket, tendon and tripe served in an authentic Vietnamese beef broth. I added some Bo Vien (beef balls) for an additional $1. The noodles also came with bean sprouts, basil,lime and a sauce mixture of hoisin and hot sauce. I have had quite a lot of pho in my lifetime but I dare say that the beef broth here is superb! Really really good. I will definitely have to order this again.
Kevin ordered the Suon Nuong ($9.95), which is Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chops served with a salad and steamed Jasmine white rice. Just like all the other stuff that we ordered, this too was super yummy. The pork chops were nicely marinated and grilled to perfection. The best part of the pork chops is the slightly charred edges, mmm mmm gooood. Overall, this is an awesome restaurant. Quick service, friendly staff, affordable prices and most importantly, really good food! Boy, we are really happy that we found this place. It's only about 10 minutes away from our apartment. This means, we do not need to go to the city or Jersey City to get affordable and authentic tasting Vietnamese food anymore. Yay!

Binh Duong Traditional Vietnamese Restaurant
61 1/2 Belleville Avenue
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tel: (973) 680 8440
Fax: (973) 680 8441

Hours: Mon - Sat (11am - 10pm), Sun (11am - 9pm), Closed on Tuesdays

Empire Chinese Restaurant - Bloomfield, NJ

We received another Chinese take out menu under our door a few weekends ago (we get tons of take out menus under our door) but this particular menu caught our attention. It's for Empire Chinese Restaurant, which is located in Bloomfield, the neighborhood next to us.

What caught our attention was the coupons on the menu. Usually, it would be for a free can of soda or free wonton soup and eggrolls. This restaurant was a little bit different. We could get either a pint of Chicken with Broccoli or Honey Spare Ribs Tips for purchases over $25! That's not too bad at all....there are even more yummy free stuff for purchases over $35 and $55. Also, they have free delivery for orders over $10! Most places in our area would charge $1 -$2 for delivery. So, we decided to give this place a try.

We called to order our food ( unlike some other places, they could speak English well enough to understand our order the first time :P) and it arrived in about 25 minutes. Not too bad at all. Here is all the stuff that we ordered (ok, for those of you wondering, no, all that food is not for ONE meal...we ordered enough for three meals).

We ordered the fried scallops (8 pieces for $2.95) as our appetizer. The two eggrolls in the picture is part of the special combination plates that we ordered.

We ordered two different special combination plates. A combination plate comes with your choice of main dish, roast pork or chicken fried rice and an egg roll. This is our oder of Sweet Sour Chicken with Roast Pork Fried Rice ($6.65). The deep fried chicken in batter wasn't oily, in fact, it was light and fluffy. Very nice.

We also ordered the General Tso's Shrimp with Chicken Fried Rice ($6.65). I was pretty amazed that this dish was part of the combination plate choices. Usually, General Tso's Shrimp would be found under the 'House Specialities' section (meaning that it will be more expensive) in most other restaurants.

I've always heard about this dish called Moo Shu but I have never really gotten around to trying it. So, we decided to order one portion of that, just for education :P I ordered the Moo Shu Beef ($7.95) and it comes with 5 pancakes (really thin rice flour pancakes, something like the Malaysian popiah skin) and a tub of Peking duck sauce. You are supposed to spread the sauce on the pancake, place some of the stir fried beef and vege on it and roll it up. After taking a bite of the roll, I am hooked! The Moo Shu has now become one of my favorite Chinese take out dishes :P It's good!

This is the Honey Spare Rib Tips (with white rice enough for at least 2 people) that we got free because our order was above $25. It's not some sad small portion of rib tips but it was a large full portion! It tasted great, sticky and sweet, just now I like it!

Look, they even threw in 4 fortune cookies for free. These days, most Chinese delivery places would not give you free fortune cookies anymore. They would charge 25 cents a piece. So, that was a nice thing to receive. Our total bill to $25.90 (thanks to my kiasu calculations before I ordered, wanted to make sure we hit $25 but not too much over :P). $25.90 for so much food, I think it's really really worth it. We would definitely order from this place again!

Empire Chinese Restaurant
12 Arlington Avenue,
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tel: (973) 566-9996
Fax: (973) 566-6658