Countdown To Restaurant Week: PANDAN Asian Cuisine and Delicacies

Bloomfield’s Restaurant Week will take place March 4-10, with  twenty-four participating restaurants offering special prix-fixe menus so patrons from all over Essex County can sample their very best cuisine.

Previewing the event, Bloomfield Patch will be publishing profiles of participating restaurants.  Rose Camino, co-owner of Pandan Asian Cuisine and Delicacies, sat down recently and spoke with Patch about her plans for Restaurant Week.

PANDAN Asian Cuisine and Delicacies:  406 Broad Street

About the Owners: Rose Camino's mother, Linda Reyes, was the original owner of Pandan.  Now Camino and her cousin, Virginia Sipin of West Orange are co-owners of the cheerful neighborhood eatery.  Pandan celebrates its 8-year anniversary on March 13th.

"My mother had a bakery in the Phillipines," says Camino. "She liked cooking so much we said, 'Why don't you open a restaurant?'  She did and later on she gave it to us.  My mother wanted to help us."

What will be on the menu for Restaurant Week: "It will be a prix fixe 3-course dinner for $24.99.  We'll also serve a prix fixe lunch for $7.95."

All Restaurant Week selections will include some of Pandan's most popular dishes.  For lunch: Beef Tapa and vegetable spring roll with sweet Phillipino-Korean seasonings; sauteed vegetable chicken wrapped in a crepe; sauteed noodles with chicken and vegetables; pork chops with vegetable spring roll and chicken teriyaki. All are served with rice, chicken broth and Som Tom Salad made with green papaya, mango and carrots in spicy lime dressing.

The 3-course dinners include: shrimp fritters, crispy Thai beef, savory mussles and fried calamari appetizers, and grilled spareribs, Fish Escabeche, chicken with walnuts and steamed fish with bok choy for entrees.  Dessert is Pandan Roll, Mocha roll, Creme de fruta and Leche Flan.

Best thing about Pandan:  "Our cooking is Phillipino and Thai.  We're Asian Fusion.  We have many long time customers.  Some come from as far away as Connecticut, Long Island, Maryland, Tom's River and Parsippany!  It's because of them that we're still here."

What you may not know about Pandan:  Pandan earned rave reviews by the New York Times, The Star Ledger and Zagat.

Something else to know:  "We have a back room for parties and kareoke.  It seats about 20 people and can be rented out."

People come back for:  Chicken teriyaki, crispy duck salad, tilapia fingers with sweet and sour sauce and "milk fish." 

Why go to Pandan for Restaurant Week?  Reasonable prices, a cheerful atmosphere and a unique menu that's generous and delicious.

PANDAN ASIAN CUISINE AND DELICACIES

 406 Broad Street‎ (in the North Center business district) 

973-748-9997

Check out the Bloomfield Restaurant Week Website!