The Wood Pit BBQ - Montclair, NJ

This is a wayyyy overdue post. We actually checked out this restaurant like way back in March but I just never got around to blogging about it. I was contemplating to myself earlier if I should even blog about this now (since it was so long ago) but decided to do so because this place is just simply awesome! For those of you who don't know, Kevin is a huge BBQ fan. Of course, with us living in NJ, there aren't many Southern style BBQ joints, let alone good Southern style BBQ joints! I went online to try and find a decent BBQ place near us and found The Wood Pit in Montclair. There were so many positive reviews about this place, we just had to go check it out for ourselves!
When we first arrived, the exterior of the restaurant didn't really impress us at all. It was just a small hole in the wall kinda place, nothing really fancy. Since it's located along the super busy Bloomfield Ave and only street parking was available, you can imagine the headache we had, when we were trying to get a parking spot. We actually had to drive around for quite a while before finding a spot, a few blocks away.
The moment we walked into The Wood Pit, all the parking headaches that we had earlier immediately disappeared! The lovely smell of smoked wood chips just hits you the moment you open the main door. It was intoxicating! It felt like walking into a real BBQ joint, somewhere in the south. The place wasn't really all that big but boy, were the people there friendly! The owner was making his rounds, talking to everybody, with a big smile plastered on his face. That was definitely southern hospitality, at its best. Another awesome thing about The Wood Pit is that it's a BYOB! Just bring along your favorite beer to wash down all that yummy food. We didn't bring along any booze, so we ordered some iced tea (there was a huge selection of Joe's iced tea in their refrigerator!).
Now, the yummy part. What did we eat? Everything on the menu looked so good (smelled good too!), so we each ordered a BBQ sampler ($13.95 each). This way, we can sample a little bit of everything. Each sampler comes with two huge ribs, two smoked wings, sliced brisket and a choice of two sides. The meat might look a tad bit burnt in the picture, but trust me, they tasted sooooooooo good! Not only were they perfectly marinated, tender and juicy but it was smoked/BBQed just right. The meat was literally dropping off from the bone! Boy, it cannot get any better than this :D
For our sides, we tried the macaroni & cheese, collard greens and a piece of corn bread each. Kevin loved his mac & cheese and said that it was very good. I have never tried collard greens before, so I figured, why not, let's give this a try. I do not know if it's really good or if it was just alrite (since it's my first time trying it) but I can say that I truly enjoyed it! It was really flavorful and it had small pieces of smoked meats in it. Very very yummy.
The cornbread that our server initially brought out for us looked kinda dry and bad. It had a weird color to it too. You can see it in the picture behind the collard greens. When it owner saw our cornbread, he was shocked and immediately took it away! He said it looked bad and he returned with two pieces of freshly made cornbread, just out of the oven! Boy, those two pieces looked so yummy! Guess what? They tasted yummy too! Really moist, with a whole lot of corn inside. So, would we return to The Wood Pit? Of course, without a doubt! We have been living in NJ for about 4 years now and I must say, this is definitely the best Southern style BBQ we had, to date. Two thumbs up!

The Wood Pit BBQ - Montclair, NJ
108 Bloomfield Ave
Montclair, NJ 07042
Tel: (973) 954 4679
Web: http://www.thewoodpit.com

Satish Palace - Montclair, NJ

It was really cold out a couple of weekends back and we didn't really feel like going out for dinner. So, we just decided to order in. Now, the million dollar question. What to eat? What to eat? What to eat? :P We were kinda sick of the usual Chinese, BBQ, pizza or wings that we would usually order and felt like trying something new. I went online to see if there are any other type of restaurants (apart from the ones that I have just mentioned) nearby and was pleasantly surprised when I found an Indian restaurant that would deliver to us. Not only would they deliver, but they also offered free delivery for orders above $25! Yay!
Everything on the menu looked good, so we figured we should just order one of the combination dinners. That way, we can try a little of everything. There are three types of different combination dinners (House Special, Mixed Grill & Vegetarian) available on their menu and we went with the House Special ($16.95). All combinations come with a huge serving of rice, papadums and raita. The mint and onion chutney in the foreground is part of the appetizer that we also ordered. When I say that the rice serving is huge, I am not kidding. You might not be able to see the amount, since it's all compacted into the container. Once you fluff it out, there is enough rice in there to feed at least 4 people!
Apart from rice, raita and papadums, the House Special also comes with two pieces of tandoori chicken, lamb rogan josh and vegetable korma. I must say that the tandoori chicken was really really good. Moist and tender, it's definitely one of the better tandoori chickens that I have tried around here. The lamb rogan josh was awesome too! Mild and creamy, with a tiny hint of spiciness...exactly how I like it. Again, the portions are rather generous. I cannot believe that this combination dinner is meant for ONE!
Oh, I forgot to mention that the House Special also comes with one free naan. We added on another piece of naan for $2.95. When our food was delivered to us, the naan was still nice and warm. Mmmm mmm yuummmmy.
We didn't really know how large the portions were when we first ordered (now we know!), so we added on a portion of Assorted Tandoori Appetizers ($7.95). Two piece of sheek kebab, 4 pieces of tandoori shrimp and a whole lot of chicken tikka. Like I mentioned earlier, this appetizer comes with a small tub of onion and mint chutney. The chicken tikka was really tender and oh so flavorful. In fact, all of the tandoori items that we ordered tasted awesome!
Kevin wanted to try their Indian Chai Tea ($1.75), so we ordered one serving of that. I must say that it definitely didn't taste like the nonsense Chai Latte that we would usually order from Starbucks. This tasted really authentic. It came with milk (but without sugar, you have to add that in yourself) and you can really taste the cinnamon, cloves and cardamon in the tea. Really wonderful, especially on a cold winters night.
Look at the amount of leftover food! This was after the both of us ate as much as we could and we still had enough leftover for lunch the following day. I must say that I'm really glad we found this place, the food is just so goooood! Not only that, the service is amazing too. It only took them about half an hour to deliver the food to our door, from the time we placed the order online. We know that Montclair is at least 15 minutes or so away, so yeah, very impressive. Delicious food, huge portions and fast delivery - what more could a person ask for? :D

Satish Palace - Montclair, NJ
397 Bloomfield Ave
Montclair, NJ 07042
Tel: (973) 746 4477
Fax: (973) 746 4488
Web: www.jyotirestaurant.com

Mesob Ethiopian Restaurant - Montclair, NJ

Remember me blogging about how Groupon credited $15 back into our account because we had a bad experience with Farm 2 Bistro? Yeah, so we had $15 worth of Groupon credits, waiting to be used. When we saw the deal on Groupon for Mesob a couple of weeks back, we knew that we just had to get it. The deal was $15 for $35 worth of food and drinks. So, that was just perfect for our $15 credit! :D I've only tried Ethiopian food once before, a very very long time ago in D.C and it's been more than 10 years since Kevin had Ethiopian food. Also, we have heard a lot of good things about Mesob, so we were really excited to go check it out.

We headed out to Montclair last Saturday evening for dinner. Mesob is located smack right in the middle of Bloomfield Avenue, the part of Montclair where you can find all sorts of ethnic restaurants, pubs, bars, coffee shops, bakeries as well as some fine dining places. I just love walking along Bloomfield Avenue, it somehow has this New York feel to it. Definitely doesn't feel like Jersey! :P Parking along Bloomfield Ave can be a pain sometimes, especially on a Saturday night. We had to go around the block a few times before getting a spot at the metered parking lot a few blocks away. I would say that it isn't as bad as trying to get a spot in Hoboken on a Saturday night, but it's still pretty bad. All you need is a little patience, you will find a spot soon enough :D
We were really glad that we made reservations earlier cos Mesob was packed to the brim! I could tell right from the start that it was a good restaurant. You should definitely make reservations if you want a table during the weekends. The waitresses were really friendly and they brought us to our cosy little table by the wall. I really loved the decor and ambiance of Mesob. With earth tones walls and dim lighting, it was a perfect 'date restaurant'. There were also all kinds of beautiful Ethiopian tapestry, baskets and leatherwork on display all over the restaurant.
Our waitress took our drinks order and left us to take a look at the menu. Kevin ordered the Ethiopian Iced Tea ($1.50) and I was just happy with the big jar of ice cold water that they brought out earlier when we were first seated. I knew that our meal would be a little bit spicy, so water would work just fine. When I asked Kevin if he liked his Iced Tea, he couldn't really give me an answer and told me to just try it. Let's just say it's an acquired taste :P It tasted like regular unsweetened iced tea but there were lots of spices (maybe cinnamon and a host of other stuff?) in it. Maybe something like chai tea but without the milk and sugar? Hmmm, I don't know but I didn't really like it. Kevin on the other had thought that it was alright. Too bad we are not coffee drinkers though. Many people ordered their famous Ethiopian coffee and it smelled great! Oh and talking about drinks, Mesob is a BYOB. So, you can bring along your favorite bottle of wine to go with dinner, without any corkage. We should have stopped at the bottle shop before dinner to pick up a bottle of wine. Oh well, next time!

Since we were not really familiar with Ethiopian food, we decided to get the Meat Sampler ($44 for 2 people). This way, we get to try a little bit of everything. To start off, they brought out this hugggeeee platter lined with an equally huge piece of injera bread. It was so big, it almost took up the whole table. That was to hold the individual dishes that will be served later. They also brought out a separate plate of injera that was cut into smaller pieces. That's to be used to scoop up our food later on. Injera is a yeast risen flat bread that is a staple in Ethiopia. It is made from teff flour and has a spongy texture with a mild sourish taste (somewhat like the Indian dosai, but more spongy). The teff flour is mixed with water and left to ferment for several days. Then, it is baked on a clay plate that is placed over a fire. Because of that, one side of the injera is smooth and the other side has a porous texture. That works really well when you use it to scoop up sauces and stuff. I like the injera bread. Not only is it yummy, it's really healthy too!
Soon, our dishes started arriving. Since the way of eating Ethiopian food is mainly communal, everybody in your dinner party is encouraged to share from a common platter. What they would do is place the dishes onto the huge injera in the middle and we would use our hands to dig in with the smaller injera pieces. Our Meat Sampler consisted of 5 meat dishes and 3 vegetable dishes (you get to choose 3 vegetable dishes out of a list of 9 different vege dishes). We didn't really know what to pick, so our friendly waitress helped us out by asking us what we liked and recommending the ones that she thought that we might like. They were also really generous with the injera too. Once they notice that you are running low, they would bring out fresh injera to top up the stock! :D Here's the list of dishes that we had in our sampler.

Tibs Wat

(Cubed prime beef sautéed and simmered in hot sauce, seasoned with spices & fresh herbs)

Minche Abish Key Wat

(Finely chopped prime beef sautéed in butter, and simmered in hot sauce seasoned with spices and fresh herbs)

Minche Abish Aletcha Wat

(Finely chopped prime beef sautéed in butter, and simmered in mild sauce seasoned with spices and fresh herbs)

Ye'beg Aletcha Wat

(Tender pieces of lamb simmered in mild sauce seasoned with spices and fresh herbs)

Doro Tibs

(Scalloped chicken breast marinated & sautéed with red onions, garlic, jalapeno pepper, fresh tomato & spices)

Ingudai Tibs

(Portobello mushroom marinated & sautéed with red onions, garlic, jalapeno pepper, fresh tomato & spices)

Kik Aletcha

(Yellow split peas simmered in a mild and flavorful onion and herb sauce)

Tikile Gomen

(Cabbage and potatoes simmered in mild sauce)

I was expecting the dishes to taste like Indian curry but I was mistaken. They were surprisingly really flavorful and the spiciness was totally different too. Itwas the nice kind of spicy. I really enjoyed the Tibs Wat and Ye'beg Aletcha Wat. Actually, come to think of it, I really enjoyed all of the dishes. Really really good and flavourful. It was a delightful mix of different flavours and textures, and somewhow everything just comes together when you scoop it up with the injera bread. We also had loads of fun eating with our hands..lol! Overall, I would say that we had a great dining experience in Mesob and we will most definitely return again.

Mesob Ethiopian Restaurant - Montclair, NJ
515 Bloomfield Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042
Tel: (973)655 9000
Web: http://www.mesobrestaurant.com/
Hours: Tues-Sun (11:30am - 10:00pm)
Twitter: @mesobnj

The Office - Beer Bar & Grill

We have heard a lot about how there are all kinds of nice restaurants and cafes in Montclair, NJ but we have never really ventured out that way before. It's just about 15-20 minutes away from us (still in Essex County), so we decided to go check Montclair out two weekends ago. We drove down Bloomfield Avenue and boy, the whole street is lined with restaurants. Fancy upscale restaurants, ethnic restaurants, casual dining restaurants...you name it, it's there. It reminds me somewhat of a quieter Hoboken.

After driving around for ages to look for a parking spot (another thing similar to Hoboken, parking is hard to come by!!), we found a spot near The Office - Beer Bar & Grill. It's pretty much a casual dining sports bar, and since the Jets game was on and they had like LCD TVs everywhere, we decided to go check it out.

There was a huge bar area at the front, where you can just eat finger food, have a drink or two and watch the game. Since we were there for dinner, we were lead to the dining area at the back, where there were booths and dining tables (of course there was a huge LCD TV back there too). Their menu was just your regular pub food menu but their beer menu was pretty impressive. Check it out here. We'll have to return another time to try out their Beer Sampler :P

After taking our drinks and appetizer order, our server returned with a complimentary vegetable bowl. That's a nice refreshing change. Usually, most pubs/restaurants would bring out unhealthy fried stuff for you to munch on while waiting for your food. A fresh bowl of vegetables on ice with Ranch dressing is indeed a pleasant change.

For our appetizer, we shared their "New" Office Wings ($8.99). One dozen jumbo wings with celery and their yummy signature dipping sauce. You can choose to have it served in their popular Office Buffalo, Fireball, Southwest Sweet Heat, Ginger Teriyaki or Spicy Blue Cheese sauce. We chose their most popular sauce, the Office Buffalo. Boy, they were yummy! A little spicy, but yummy! The wings were also really huge, it's quite hard to find such huge wings in this parts. Two thumbs up! :D

Kevin ordered one of their chef's recommendation, the Arrogant Bastard Ale BBQ Ribs ($15.99 for a full rack, $11.49 for half a rack). It comes with a side of fries, coleslaw and some special sauce. I tried one rib and mm mmm mmmm...it's really good. Cooked to perfection, with the meat was so tender, it was just falling off the bone. The portion was pretty big too. Kevin ordered half a rack and he couldn't even finish it.

I also tried another one of their chef's recommendation - Fish & Chips ($11.99) . After all, this is a pub and what better pub food to try than Fish & Chips. It comes with fries (I changed it to sweet potato fries...yummy!), coleslaw and some special tartar sauce. I am quite particular when it comes to seafood and I must say, this Fish & Chips totally rocks! It had just the correct amount of batter and it wasn't oily or soggy. It was crunchy on the outside and moist in the inside. Very very nice :D Overall, we had a great dinner. The food was good and the servers were nice too. Will definitely return to try their beer sampler in the near future!

The Office - Beer Bar & Grill
619 Bloomfield Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042
Tel: (973) 783 2929
Web: http://www.office-beerbar.com/