Is The Brookdale the Best of Bloomfield?
Having checked out the menu for The Brookdale online prior to going, I still had no idea exactly what I wanted to try out. It’s a nice size menu and everything looks so good! Luckily we got a bit of help from the owners with our selections so we just sat back and enjoyed.
We visited the Brookdale on one of the first nicer days of weather for the year. It was so tempting to sit at one of the nice outdoor tables but the dining room is also a very comfortable setting so we chose to dine indoors for this trip. I would absolutely sit outside next time though.
BrookDAMN!
For appetizer selections we began with the Thick Cut Bacon, Premio Egg Roll, Maryland Crab Dip, and The Big Cheese! The bacon was insane. This meat that is somewhere between the thickness of bacon and of a slab of pork belly, had such interesting flavor. One second it was like chewing bacon and the next it was almost like kielbasa. This is smoked in house and you can tell they give delicate attention to it. The Premio egg rolls use Premio Sweet Italian Sausage and blend in broccoli rabe, long hots, and provolone before being wrapped and fried. These alone were quite good but adding a shot of their red pepper aioli really rounded the whole dish out. It felt like what an Italian Sausage cheesesteak might taste like if that were ever created.
The Maryland Crab Dip also had nice flavor. You could tell they were using real top of the line crab and the creaminess and flavor of the dip was nice on the warm toasted pita. I normally don’t really love seafood and cheese together but this was an exception to the rule. The Big Cheese was seriously something else. This was a full one pound mozzarella stick! Normally I’d assume this was a stunt food and just gets by based solely on it’s size, but this had a really good flavor as well. Good quality cheese, toasted perfectly, and the breading had a bit of sweetness that was not expected but was nice. The sauce was also a bit sweet but was seasoned well.
For entrees we had the burger (literally just called the burger on the menu) and the steak sammy. The burger was very good, best burger I’ve had in quite a while. Pressed between this heavily seeded roll was high quality beef, cola braised onions, cheddar cheese, and their house burger sauce. The onions were cooked perfectly and melted as you chewed. The flavor of them blended very well with the cheddar and Brookdale sauce. Nothing Earth shattering here, just a burger done really well. It was also cooked to a perfect medium rare which is an bonus in itself these days.
**For a unique burger also in the North Jersey area, check out The Murder Burger from The Shannon Rose
The Steak Sammy was out of this world. This is not a cheesesteak, and I’m so happy it wasn’t. This sandwich boasts filet mignon with a provolone and mozzarella mix, kale, sautéed mushroom and onion, and finished with a house made a1 style sauce. The steak was incredibly tender and the onions and mushrooms just belonged here…there’s no other way to say it. I can always take or leave kale but it worked on this application, and that a1 sauce they made really rounded this out.
Is The Brookdale the place to be?
If you find yourself literally anywhere near Bloomfield at all, firstly make sure you have your wallet (this is high quality food, but the prices reflect that), but then run yourself in and hope to get a table. Run, don’t walk. It’s worth every penny. The Brookdale in Bloomfield, NJ – Didn’t Suck!