Hackensack's biggest restaurant closes

The doors and windows of Green Grill in Hackensack have been papered over.

The sign on the front doors.

Editor's note: Today's buffet is a round-up of restaurant, food-shopping and takeout news.

Green Grill, the Brazilian-style rodizio restaurant in Hackensack, has served its last all-you-can-eat meal. 

With 440 seats, Green Grill likely was the city's largest restaurant and it served the biggest portions, too. 

In 2005, the restaurant was taken over by new Korean owners.

In 2010, Green Grill cut the price for an all-you-can-eat lunch of sushi, barbecued meat and salad to $9.95.

Green Grill was a tenant in the Home Depot Shopping Center at 450 Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack.

The Pathmark Supermarket in the rear of the shopping center closed in April 2011, and the space remains vacant.

Red Parrot Bistro's Pan Roasted Chicken.

A delicious black za'atar thyme mixture came with flat bread and olive oil.

Red Parrot is silenced

Red Parrot Bistro, a new Englewood spot that served free-range poultry and grass-fed meat, also has closed.

The Palisade Avenue restaurant opened in July.

When we had dinner there in mid-September, only two or three other tables were occupied.

Red Parrot is the latest unsuccessful venture in the storefront at 51 E. Palisade Ave. 

Filet of Sole with Scallion and Ginger at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack.

Hot & Sour Soup.

Lotus Cafe

I had lunch today with two friends at Lotus Cafe, the wonderful Chinese restaurant across the parking lot from the shuttered Green Grill. 

Good food and service, and reasonable prices, give Lotus Cafe the staying power that eludes so many other restaurants.

The Hackensack restaurant has more than 40 lunch specials for $7.50 to $9.50, including rice and soup or eggroll.

On a busy Sunday, the Hackensack ShopRite had only one of two express lines open.

Free-range beef on sale

Free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia is on sale at ShopRite Supermarkets through Saturday.

The Whole Beef Tenderloin for Filet Mignon is $5.99 a pound with a store card, a discount of $3 per pound.

On Sunday, I bought a 5.30-pound tenderloin at the Hackensack ShopRite for the meat-eaters in the family.

Usually the package carries the Nature's Reserve label, but the ones I saw at the Hackensack store said "Product of Australia" and had an Australian inspection stamp.

My wife trims the beef and slices it thinly, then combines it with Korean bulgogi marinade. She prepares one portion and puts the rest of the marinated meat in the freezer.

She cooks the meat on a stove-top grill and serves it with red-leaf lettuce for wrapping, kimchi, rice and a Korean red-pepper paste.

The tenderloin I bought on Saturday is enough for three meals.

A lunch box is 50% off after 4 p.m. at H Mart in Englewood.

Jerry's in Englewood cuts the price of its takeout dinners to $5.99 after 4 p.m.

Takeout-food bargains

The H Mart in Englewood has started cutting the price for prepared items from Jinga, the Korean food maker based in Queens.

After 4 p.m., Jinga kimbap rolls and lunch boxes are 50% off.

On Saturday, I bought a lunch box with baby octopus, brown rice, kimchi and other items for $3.14, normally $6.29.

Then, I drove to Jerry's Gourmet and More and picked up the last three Meals To Go for $5.99 each, normally $7.99 each.

Two were roast chicken and the other was a tilapia fillet with pesto, and all came with pasta, stuffed mushroom or artichoke, and vegetables.

H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood; 201-871-8822. 

Jerry's Gourmet and More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108.


Related articles

• Where $22 buys a tasty six-course meal
• One town's hit-and-miss food scene

Red Parrot Bistro is no imitator

Pan Roasted Chicken at Red Parrot Bistro in Englewood.

"We use organic, antibiotic-free chicken and turkey. All our meats are grass-fed. We source our produce locally."

When is the last time you saw that pledge or anything close to it on the menu of a fine-dining restaurant in North Jersey?

Red Parrot Bistro on Englewood's Palisade Avenue is the closest thing you'll find to the Green Door Cafe, which served organic and naturally raised or grown food in Tenafly before it was closed by a fire in July 2010.

We had a fine dinner at Red Parrot on Saturday night in a dining room where only two or three other tables were occupied.

From our perch in the window, we saw a half-dozen couples or family groups wander by, stop to stare at the awning and look over the menu posted outside, and move on.

Red Parrot opened in July among a bunch of pricy restaurants on the east side of the tracks that divide Englewood, whose business district has a surprising number of vacant or shuttered storefronts.

In contrast, the cheaper, ethnic restaurants on West Palisade Avenue were bustling.

Flat bread, extra-virgin olive oil and a black za'atar thyme mixture.

When we walked in to keep our 6 p.m. reservation, we were greeted by Gary, the burly, good-natured chef-owner, who took my bottle of red wine and asked a waiter to seat us.

After we placed our order, the meal began with a bang.

Red Parrot has reinvented bread-and-butter service with a terrific trio: flat bread, extra-virgin olive oil and a pungent za'atar thyme mixture, some of the best I've ever had.

My mother-in-law started with a Mixed Greens Salad and Champagne Vinagrette ($8), and I ordered Caesar Salad ($10), which was large enough to share with my wife.

For entrees, we had Pan Roasted Chicken with mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes and Ratatouille ($23), Cilantro Shrimp Salad ($19) and grilled Ahi Tuna over Vegetable Lo Mein ($28).

Organic baby greens are used in the Mixed Greens Salad.

The large Caesar Salad was tasty, but could have used more dressing.

Rough-cut Ahi Tuna floats on sweet Vegetable Lo Mein broth.

A house-made Cilantro Lime Dressing accents the Cilantro Shrimp Salad.

We were pleased with our food, but I wanted more dressing in my Caesar Salad and a less soupy preparation of the Vegetable Lo Mein under my grilled Ahi Tuna.

Service from the two waiters was well-meaning, though the one who took our order didn't know the soup of the day (white bean and sausage) or ask me how I wanted my Ahi Tuna cooked (rare).

The menu offers good variety, including French Onion Soup, a grass-fed burger with truffled ground brisket, short rib and foie gras on a toasted brioche; and lamb shank.

But the choice of fish is limited to the endangered Chilean Sea Bass and bigeye or Ahi Tuna, both of which are high in mercury. 

I was hoping for a great piece of fish, such as hake, or even a whole grilled sea bass.

We were told one or two other seafood dishes weren't available Saturday night. Nor does the restaurant serve gluten-free or whole-wheat pasta.

The open kitchen at Red Parrot Bistro.

Three of us spent about $108, including tax and tip. 



Red Parrot Bistro, 51 E. Palisade Ave., Englewood; 201-568-2110. Open for lunch and dinner Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

BYO. Metered street parking until 6 p.m., except Sundays, when the restaurant is open for private events.