Tasty Portugese at Tero's

Tero's Restaurant
222-224 Ridge Road
Lyndhurst, NJ 07071
(201) 935-8818

Brother D gave us a heads up about this place.  I was not too keen to try it at first because of the dearth of relatively good Portugese/Spanish food in these parts... I dunno, their seafood tends to taste really bland most of the time.  And Brother D is just irrationally particular about his food (e.g., hates vinegar, or anything containing vinegar, likes his steak tough and well-done, etc).  So Tero's was a very nice surprise.

Location-wise, it sits on I guess what is downtown Lyndhurst, across from a big cemetery.  It was not exactly a happenin' spot for a Saturday night dinner with him and the new sister-in-law.  Inside, the furnishings look rather dated and bring to mind a sleepy restarurant within a small-town hotel.

But the food was a delight!  The seafood was fresh and expertly prepared, prices were very fair and the portions were huge!!!

Soup of the day.  I did not catch the name, but it looked like pasta e fagioli to me.

Clams in garlic and olive oil.  Bracingly briny and it was a delight sopping up all the tasty juices with pieces of bread.  I was quite full by this point already.

This was a bisque-type soup that Brother D got.  Maybe crab?  He really liked it. 

Brother D's steak (well-done, of course).  With chips and garden veggies.

DJKung and his poppa shared the rack of lamb entree.  Also with chips and veggies.  DJKung found it tender, juicy and tasty. Cooked just right, too.   The thin-cut potato chips were freshly made and was just awesome. 

 I wish more places had 'em.

The sis-in-law and I (the whole table, really) shared this humongous platter of seafood.  Very nice assortment of jumbo shrimp, mussels, squid, scallops, clams and lobster.  What a treat!  Was not bland at all. . . it tasted like something you'd get in a restaurant closer to the ocean and everything was grilled just right.

Accompaniments: chips, veggies  and yellow rice.

Postprandial drinks.  It was funny seeing DJKung's pop's face when he took his first sip of the Mexican coffee. "Whew!  That's strong!" said he. FIne end to a meal.

Maxwell's Hoboken

Maxwell's

Hoboken, NJ

Maxwell's is one of the few places in North Jersey that is a great place to catch a show.  The crowd is quite young and it  has a downtown, big-city vibe.  We caught a bite and a couple of beers before seeing Phantagram and this is what we had:

Nachos.  They were rather disappointing (skimpy on cheese and flavor).

Cheeseburger with fries.  DJKung did not have much to say about it.

On a positive note, we do like the beer selection here.

And so we next met up with Ozzie Wan and The Faschiester to catch Phantogram.  The performance space at Maxwell's is intimate, maybe fits less than a hundred people.  The sound system is pretty good.  Here's a short clip of Phantagram: 

We greatly enjoyed the show... it was quite well produced despite being a two-member band (guitar, keyboards).  Nice graphics too.  Their big sound and mesmerizing rhythms were well-received. 

Round and round they go.... East Kaiten Zushi

East Restaurant

1405 Teaneck Road

Teaneck, NJ

(201) 837-1260

So we've been to East in the city and tried its NJ outpost.  East is one of the few conveyor belt sushi joints around, and the first time is always the best. I would say, oh, five years ago, we weren't too impressed.  It was a good thing that we've decided to give it another go and we were pleasantly surprised. The menu has been completely revamped, with a much larger selection, and tons of pictures so you know what you're getting.

If it's your first time, by all means try to grab a spot by the conveyor belt.  It's a very quirky and charming Japanese adaptation of the large luggage carousels in the airports.  You see the pretty pieces of sushi go by, all covered in plastic domed lids.  You pretty much just help yourself.  The plates are color-coded, which indicates the price of the item you've picked. 
 

What we've come to realize is that a la carte is the way to go with most kaiten zushi places.  There are just too many variables involved with bits of sushi going around and around, e.g., you could be positioned the farthest away from the kitchen and so the plates are already picked over when they come to you; the kitchen may not be too aggressive when it comes to replacing the sad pieces that nobody wants; or, if the place is not too busy, there is a poor turnover/selection.

Surprisingly, we've never gone beyond the conveyor belt selection before, which is a big shame because the fish here is quite fresh and the portions are hefty.

Unagi hand roll.

 House salad with a tangy-sweet carrot and ginger dressing.

Salmon sashimi.  Definitely a must-have.  It was nice and melt-in-your mouth fatty.  Barely seen in the foreground are pieces of tempura veggies.

Clam soup.  I especially liked this one; the broth is briny and bracing, with a lot of umami.

Tuna sashimi. 

Grilled salmon head. Yummm.

Here's another item we picked from the conveyor belt: spicy tuna.

We've been back a couple more times since then, and tried a few more things.  What's really nice is that East has a large selection of non-sushi/sashimi items, such as noodles, tempura and soup.  They even have some bento box specials which seem to be a great deal.  And of course, they also have a few Japanese beers (get the large draft beer to see what it looks like), sake and mixed drinks, which makes East a fun place to celebrate. 

Here are two items we grabbed: egg and fried shrimp sushi. 

Awesome Filipino catering: Barangay Union

Barangay Union Grill and Food mArt

1045-A Stuyvesant Avenue

Union, NJ

(908) 964- 3500

We always look forward to certain Filipino gatherings where we get to sample specialty dishes that are too esoteric, too complicated, or too messy/smelly to cook.  Our friend, A., recently had a christening party for his little bebe and the food was way beyond what we usually encounter.  I'm talking some real scrumptious chop suey, fried squid, laing... I (and everyone in the party, I suspect) was really impressed by the sheer variety and quantity of the food.

Barangay Union is apparently well-recommended among those in the know in central Jersey.  Here's the sign from the catering truck:

One of these days, we'll make a special foray to check this place out. 

Maharajah

Maharajah Palace Restaurant
Upper East Side, NY

Coworker V., and  I were very sad to see Sachi go... this spring, the location reopened up as an indian restaurant with $ 10 lunch buffet specials.  So when an excuse/occasion came up to eat out, we were game to try this place out. 

It seemed that many in the neighborhood were also excited about this new place (I think it's the only indian joint in the immediate area).  Maharajah was bustling at lunch.  It was quite awkward maneuvering through the selections; the space itself was L-shaped and the tables were too close to the buffet. 

The portions were laid out in attactive copper dishes and labelled.  Selections included a salad, a chicken tandoor, veggie curry, goat korma, chickpeas, rice and I couple of other dishes. Dessert was included (sweet rice balls in syrup).

This is a picture of the chicken tandoor.  V. mentioned that it was dry.

Here's my initial foray.  From top, clockwise: rice with a bit of sauce, veggie curry, chickpeas, potato curry.  Everything was agreeable and the spice level was definitely toned down.

The best part was the fresh naan that they brought out a few times.  Nice and piping hot, they were great for sopping up the sauces. 

Here's a coworker's plate, with the chicken tandoor at one-two o'clock.

Overall, the food was ok, nothing outstanding.  For its price and selection, it's a good addition to the lunch scene here by us.  Still a few bugs to be worked out, being new and all, and we are looking forward to trying it again.