Montclair Restaurant Week - CulinAriane

Second place for Montclair's Restaurant Week was CulinAriane. Been wanting to go to this restaurant ever since last winter...but it was too late and it was fully booked! Why did I want to go? Coz Ariane was a contestant on TopChef a few seasons ago!


Menu cover


Restaurant Week menu...not too too great, so we ordered a la carte, and one 1 prix-fixe.


Picture of the table setting


Pretty daisies!!!


Mini croissants with butter. Super flaky and fluffy croissants!


First Course: Endive, grapefruit, orange, red onion with tangerine honey vinegrette with pecan pieces. First time I had endive! They look like a version of Chinese Nappa Cabbage...the nut clusters were tasty though.


Appetizer: Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with Citrus Remoulade - okay, so this pic is a close-up, but the crabcake was still pretty big! There wasn't much flour, mostly crab cake! Yumm~


Second Course: Sauteed Shrimp, Penne, Pancetta - had to ask them to leave out the peas...that's why there's not much "green" in this dish.


Entree: Brook Trout, Roasted Sweet Potato, Smoked Pork Belly, Brussel Sprouts in sage brown butter - Every component of this dish was awesome, how could it go wrong?


Fork for dessert...thought it was defective or something since one side is thicker than the other.


Third Course: Almond Cake, Spiced Poached Pear, Mascapone Cheese - Mascapone Cheese is the same that's used in tiramisu...not cheesy at all!

I would probably go back to CulinAriane again, but it seems like the a la carte menu is a lot better than the prix-fixe menu.