Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack: Another victory over mediocre food

Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack has the best corn tortillas outside of Mexico. What other Mexican restaurant in North Jersey hand forms and grills its own tortillas? The thin, soft tortillas are made in the dining room and are still warm when they are brought to your table.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Nearly seven years after a branch of New York-based Rosa Mexicano opened in Hackensack, the restaurant continues to impress by making nearly everything from scratch.

And don't forget that gorgeous dining room, one of the nicest in North Jersey, filled with Mexican textiles, pottery, wall sconces and even a waterfall in the wall.

I became a big fan of free cooking demonstrations, along with a complimentary light breakfast, the restaurant offered after the August 2008 opening.

Although they have ended, the restaurant still delivers the bold flavors and complex sauces of authentic Mexican food, with its native, Spanish and French influences.

Special fiesta menu

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday, we made a reservation for dinner at 5 and were shown past revelers in the bar to a booth overlooking the dining room.

The special 3-course Fiesta Menu includes a shared appetizer, an entree priced from $16 to $25, and a shared dessert for a total of $30 a person.

The fixed-price meal must be ordered by everyone at the table, although I saw the parents of two small children in the next booth negotiating some sort of compromise with their server.

Spicier guac?

We started with Guacamole en Molcajete, which is made on a cart that is rolled up to your table, and asked for it spicy, but the woman mashing the single avocado with jalapeno, tomato and onion held something back.

I like eating this delicious guacamole, normally $14, mixed with the made-from-scratch salsa nortena you get with chips or wrapped in one of the restaurant's handmade corn tortillas.

Salmon Poblano was available as part of a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Menu, which offers a three-course meal for $30 a person.

Alambra de Camarones, made with wild shrimp, was among 10 entrees on the fiesta menu.

Another entree on the fixed-price menu, Tampiquena de Carne Asada, a grilled skirt steak, came with a Chihuahua cheese enchilada.

 Salmon, shrimp, steak

Of our three entrees (normally $23, $24 and $25), I liked my wife's Salmon Poblano best, because it was moist and packed with flavor, even though she asked for it cooked through.

The salmon is described as a "natural" fillet served over Tuscan kale, chorizo and grilled corn in a poblano cream sauce.

(Poblano means in the style of Peubla, where the Mexican Army defeated the French on May 5, 1862, the unexpected victory that is celebrated to this day on May 5 or cinco de Mayo.)

Our son raved about the tenderness of his Tampiquena de Carne Asada, a grilled skirt steak marinated in guajillo chili and tequila, and topped with a roasted tomato sauce.

The wild shrimp in my Alambra de Camarones were terrific.

Grilled on a skewer, they were served over cilantro-mint brown rice and a roasted tomato-jalapeno caper sauce.

The only off note was the brown rice, whose kernels were hard.

A bottle of Negro Modelo, a dark Mexican beer, was $6, and a bottle of Boing Mango juice was $4.

Although Tuesday was the last day for the special fiesta menu, Rosa Mexicano's regular dinner menu offers a fixed-price meal for $25 that includes a choice of entrees up to $20.

If you really like your guacamole spicy, make sure the message gets through to the server who prepares it at your table.

Our entrees came with rice and refried black beans for the table, above and below.

A treat is to spread the refried beans on one of the warm tortillas. Add a little salsa for a humble taco.

We left the shared dessert, Churros en Bolsa, to our son. The fried dough was coated in sugar and served with chocolate and fruit dipping sauces. This dessert is normally $8.50.

Details

Rosa Mexicano Restaurant, 380 Hackensack Ave., (at Route 4) in The Shops at Riverside; 201-489-9100. 

Open 7 days for lunch and dinner. Happy Hour promotions suspended during fiestas. We eat early, because a parking space in the surface lot is often hard to find.

Valet parking available Thursdays through Saturdays.

Web site: A victory over mediocre Mexican food

(201) Restaurant Week: Oceanaire Seafood lunch isn't for dieters

Once you ask The Oceanaire Seafood Room's kitchen to hold the brioche bun and matchstick fries, this is what your lunch of fish and undressed garnish looks like, above, during a Restaurant Week promotion sponsored by (201) magazine.

The complete Blackened Barramundi Sandwich with Creole Remoulade, Bibb Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion, Brioche Bun and Matchstick Fries is one of three main courses available for lunch during the promotion. A three-course lunch at the Hackensack restaurant is $16.95 and a three-course dinner is $39.95.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you're watching your weight or cholesterol, a three-course lunch during (201) Restaurant Week may leave you hungry.

On Tuesday, I invited my wife and brother-in-law to join me for a fix-priced, three-course lunch at The Oceanaire Seafood Room, an expensive fine-dining restaurant in The Shops at Riverside, an upscale mall in Hackensack.

During the magazine-sponsored Restaurant Week, from Oct. 5-9 and 12-16, lunches at participating restaurants are $9.95, $12.95 and $16.95, and dinners are $19.95, $29.95 and $39.95.

Compare that to the semi-annual Restaurant Week promotion in Manhattan, where hundreds of the city's best places offer three-course lunches for $25 and three-course dinners for $38, and the discounts are offered for a month or longer.

The (201) Restaurant Week menu at The Oceanaire Seafood Room doesn't allow any substitutions and no sorbet or fruit is offered for dessert.

Judging from my experience, the promotional price for lunch is too low, especially at a place like The Oceanaire Seafood Room, where grilled fish of the day, with mashed potatoes and asparagus, is $25 at lunch.

The lunch menu also lists yellowfin ahi tuna -- grilled, broiled or seared, and brushed with white wine-lemon butter, but with no side dishes -- for $38.

A new fish

I wanted the Blackened Barramundi Sandwich, mainly because I have never eaten the flaky white fish from Australia, but didn't want the bun or matchstick fries.

Our waiter, Josh, described the fillet as being three-quarters of an inch to an inch thick, but my naked piece of fish wasn't that thick, nor was the piece of barramundi in my brother-in-law's sandwich.

I asked the waiter to hold the bun and fries, and wondered if I could get an undressed baked or sweet potato instead. 

He said the restaurant didn't have a baked potato, and a sweet potato would cost extra.

The plate held a small fillet of fish, but I had to ask for a wedge of lemon, as well as dressing for the side of tomato and onion slices, and lettuce that are used in the sandwich.

Lots of crab

My wife chose the Crab Cake Sliders, and loved the generous amount of crab meat in them. 

We started with a small plate of excellent Caesar Salad or a cup of Mushroom Bisque, the soup of the day.

Dessert was Cheese Cake or Key Lime Pie. My request for fruit turned out to be fruitless.

I probably should have ordered a main course of Prince Edward Island Mussels with Dijon Cream, Spanish Chorizo and Truffled Matchstick Fries, but I don't eat meat and didn't want "cream."

Delicious, crab-filled Crab Cake Sliders are available for lunch during the (201) Restaurant Week promotion.

A small Caesar Salad. My wife poached my croutons.

Thick carpet, dark wood, comfortable chairs, tablecloths and cloth napkins at lunch. The staff is large, but lunch service was casual on Tuesday, even though the dining room was far from full. We asked for our desserts to go.

A table setting.

An oyster bar and, beyond, an open kitchen.

Despite all of the employees I saw at the restaurant on Tuesday, none of them seemed to be monitoring the men's room, which was disgusting. The spout on the soap dispenser, left, was broken, and at least one paper napkin was on the floor, next to a basket.

You'll find some of Bergen County's narrowest mall parking spaces in the lot of the upscale Hackensack shopping center, even though many shoppers drive big luxury sedans and even bigger SUVs. The Oceanaire Seafood Room, above, replaced MCormick & Schmick's. Both chain restaurants are owned by Landry's Inc.

See: 6th Annual (201) Restaurant Week


The Oceanaire Seafood Room, 175 Riverside Square (The Shops at Riverside), Hackensack Avenue and Route 4, Hackensack; 1-201-343-8862. 

Open 7 days, but doesn't serve lunch on Mondays.

More problems at P.F. Chang's China Bistro

Spinach Stir-Fried with Garlic at P.F. Chang's China Bistro in Hackensack.

I also asked for green beans stir-fried with garlic, but the server delivered the vegetables made with spicy chili sauce and Sichuan preserves.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Here is how to survive the sloppy lunch service and food preparation at P.F. Chang's China Bistro in Hackensack:

Order in a clear, loud voice, and make sure the waiter understands you want the small size, not the large.

If the kitchen screws up the order or the food is cold, send it back -- and keep on sending it back until the cooks get it right.

Look over your itemized receipt, and if you are charged for the large size, when you wanted the small, ask for an adjustment.

Last resort: Don't go there again; go to Lotus Cafe just down the street, at 450 Hackensack Ave., in the Home Depot Shopping Center.

I asked for asparagus stir-fried with garlic, but got Sichuan-style Asparagus instead.

"Sichuan preserves" taste like pickles.

Why go back?

I learned my lesson on Jan. 20, the first time I met friends at P.F. Chang's in The Shops at Riverside, an upscale mall in Hackensack, where the silverware was spotted with water, the soy sauce container was filthy and the server screwed up my order of three vegetables stir-fried with garlic.

See: 

P.F. Chang's: Greasy fingerprints, water spots and more

But Zinburger in Paramus, where we planned to eat today, was closed due to a water-main break, and my friend Gene loved the P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef he had last time and insisted on going back.

The lunch menu lists sides, including Spinach Stir-Fried with Garlic (small, $2.95; large, $4.95).

I ordered that and asked for small sizes of Sichuan-style Asparagus and Spicy Green Beans to be made the same way -- with just oil and garlic.

Serg, the server, said he understood, but brought me large servings of the asparagus and green beans made with spicy chili paste or sauce and Sichuan preserves, which taste like pickles.

I didn't look over my itemized receipt until I got home, where I discovered I had been charged $4.95 each.

But there were other problems:

Serg brought the vegetables, but forgot my bowl of brown rice and had to go back to get it.

My friend Stanley said his order of Mongolian Beef wasn't even warm, but he didn't want to send it back and wait for a replacement -- he was too hungry.

Gene found the lunch portion of Mongolian Beef ($10.95) suggested by the server too small and ordered a second.

When we were leaving, an employee handed us cards for $10 off a $40 purchase from Feb. 17 to March 31.

A pot of full-leaf green tea was $3.50.

This beautiful example of cloisonne is in a wall niche.

Eating ceviche to the sounds of doo-wop

A martini glass of seafood ceviche, above, and a salad with diced fruit, below, were two of the items available on Sunday during a fund-raiser at The Shops at Riverside -- "The Taste in Hackensack" -- for the Hackensack Blue & Gold Scholarship Fund.

Smaller servings of the ceviche and salad, from Dos Cubanos Restaurant in Paramus, were enjoyed by donors who paid $75 each to support a scholarship fund at Hackensack High School.

Most of the samples available contained meat, such as this pork loin with mashed sweet potatoes. One restaurant served a sinful mac and cheese with lobster.

A delicious corn soup was offered by Biddy O'Malley's, an Irish pub in Northvale.

Hackensack's Chit Chat Diner served guacamole with crab meat on an edible spoon.

Dane Marble's Wide Variety, a doo-wop group.

A hair-raising seafood lunch

The Lobster Cobb Salad at McCormick & Schmick's in Hackensack.

The Ahi Niciose Salad includes fingerling potatoes.

I sat back in our booth on Thursday, proud of cleaning my plate and completely satisfied by a beautiful salad with seared ahi tuna at McCormick & Schmick's in Hackensack.

Then, my wife broke the silence, "There's a hair on your plate."

I looked down at the dark-colored, curved hair, and gulped. Had I eaten other hair?

When our server, Stephanie, came over to clear our lunch plates, I pointed out the hair. She returned shortly and said the manager would take care of the problem.

'Hair in food'

When she brought the check, I saw the words "Did Not Like" and "Name: HAIR IN FOOD" next to a deduction of $15.95 for the Ahi Nicoise Salad I had enjoyed so much.

But she had forgotten to apply a coupon I had for a free chef's appetizer of the day with the purchase of two lunch or dinner entrees, so she had to get us another check.

Bring lots of money

I had eaten at McCormick & Schmick's only once before in the 10 years it has been open, part of the "Restaurant Row" in the mall now called The Shops at Riverside.

I remembered the chain restaurant served premium seafood and that it was expensive, but not much else.

Looking over the lunch menu on Thursday, that impression was fortified by such prices as $32.95 for halibut with risotto and $27.95 for mahi-mahi served over succotash.

Only a handful of tables were occupied during our lunch in the 150-seat restaurant, which has an open kitchen. 

Farmed salmon only

We also got a summer lunch menu, but it didn't list wild salmon from Alaska -- this at the height of the season.

We started with Calamari Frito Misto ($12.95), the free appetizer, and got beautifully fried artichoke, carrot slices, banana pepper and jalapeno along with the squid and small cups of mild tomato sauce and tartar sauce.

Canadian Atlantic Salmon is a farmed fish.

Great seafood salads

My wife's Lobster Cobb Salad had plenty of delicious, tender lobster meat as well as sliced avocado and crumbled blue cheese and bacon ($19.95). She took about half of it home.

I loved the Ahi Nicoise Salad, especially the luscious, sushi-grade tuna that was served closed to raw, just how I like it.

But I certainly could have done without the hair. 

McCormick & Schmick's, 390 Hackensack Ave., in The Shops at Riverside, Hackensack; 201-968-9410.

Our free appetizer was beautifully fried and grease-free.

Dark wood and subdued lighting lend a clubby air to the place.

Part of the lunch menu at the chain restaurant.