Montclair Restaurant Week - Aozora

The week after Easton's Restaurant Week was Montclair's! First place was Aozora. Name of the restaurant literally means "blue sky". A Japanese and French fusion restaurant.




The prix-fixe menu. Donations would be made to local food charities! Good food, and good deed!


Absolutely loved this little fish that was on the sushi menu!!!


First course: Trio appetizers - Filet mignon on the left, tuna on the right...forgot what was in the middle.


Main entree: Omakase sushi - the pieces of fish were enormous, with only a tiny bed of rice. The roll was made with salmon, tuna, and other fish...I think this might've been the best sushi I've ever eaten!


Dessert: Creme Caramel - the presentation isn't the best since it was taken home. It wasn't as good as the sushi...it kind of ended on a low note. The strings of sugar tasted better than the creme caramel itself...can I just have the sugar?

Nonetheless, I'd definitely go back for the awesome fish! It was so fresh that it was sweet!!!

Sakura (Millburn, NJ)

Last Sunday after going to my uncle's company picnic (DCH Auto Group), we had dinner at a local Japanese restaurant in Millburn called Sakura. Decor was pretty modern, and everything looked clean and decently new. Not surprisingly, the people working there were Chinese, and I speak the same dialect they do too.

Anywho, onto the food.


Salad with Ginger dressing - Tasted like a pretty normal Japanese salad you would find at a typical Japanese restaurant.


Calamari - This appetizer seems to be Brandon's favorite at any restaurant. Shhh, he doesn't know what's inside. He likes the crunchyness.


Soft-shelled crab - Fried tempura style. I'm more used to the crab cut in half rather than into 4 or 5 pieces, but it was good too.


Tobiki sushi - also for Brandon. He usually eats 4-6 pieces of these (special request without the seaweed wrapping), but he got sick after gulping down an entire cup of apple juice within about 5 minutes. He didn't put up his A-game that night.


Tiger roll - Didn't expect this to be so...overflowing. The roll had salmon, tuna, yellowtail, and eel on the top, spicy tuna inside, and tobiko, tempura flakes, scallion, and chef special sauce over the roll. The tempura flakes were actually more like panko bread crumbs. It DOES sort of look like a tiger, right?


Shrimp Tempura that came with the noodle dish below


Nabe Yaki Udon - I thought yaki meant stir-fried? I was confused when they said it was soupy.


Sushi and Sashimi boat for two - 10 pieces of sushi, 18 pieces of sashimi, eel avocado roll and rainbow roll. Some pieces of fish were...fishy. It wasn't because it wasn't fresh, I think that was just what the fish tastes like in general. Not sure what kind of fish it was though, maybe it was mackerel or something...

I also had a bubble tea that I forgot to take a picture of, the milk tea was extra foamy, but the bubbles were a tad too hard. I like my bubbles squishy!

Overall, Sakura was a nice place. Sushi was fresh, service was decent, decor was nice... it was a place rated 4 stars by New York Times and Star Ledger.