Where: 7 Park Street, Montclair, New Jersey

What: Brazilian

Rating: 4/5

After taking a week or so break off of eating at a new restaurant every week due to unforeseen circumstances, my time to return to my usual ventures had reappeared. This past Saturday my ever-present companion and I made our way to Samba in Montclair, thankfully almost right next to a parking garage. The restaurant was themed with wood and iron pots, a sign proudly proclaiming they had no wi-fi and to speak to each other instead. It’s alright, I have 4G.

We were greeted by the owner and promptly seated, although it was lunchtime on a Saturday, I was surprised how few people were inside. The two of us were placed at the side by the window, which unfortunately and unavoidably led to a few fly friends to join our meal for its duration.

Having chosen what we were going to order, we waited for a waiter to come by and looked around at the decor. My mother pointed out the restaurant was farm to table, a fact that did show in their food to come.

To start, we each ordered a drink; I got the passion fruit juice, my companion the coconut lemonade. Both were surprisingly more akin to slushies and iced than straight-out juice, served in glass jar cups with paper straws. My own drink was stupendous, although not as sour as plain passion fruit, it was not overly sweet either. The drink was blended nicely and I had no trouble finishing it, outside of the paper straw becoming hard to drink through about halfway through.

I did taste a sip of my mother’s coconut lemonade. She claimed it had a particular unique taste, though it honestly just tasted like coconut to me. Not too big of a fan on that one. She liked it, though, especially found the mint sprig on top endearing.

First on the menu were Blinho de Bacalahau, our appetizer for the meal. Although I despise fish, my mother insisted on it as I have been recently been informed I am extremely vitamin D deficient. These yuca fritters were filled with cod and served with a side of a light avocado cream sauce. As someone who is not a fan of avocado on its own, I found the sauce surprisingly pleasant. The fritters themselves were fine enough, the fish was made well.

While we watched out the window waiting for our main course, my mother noted the ladies sitting outside had a cheese bread she had been telling me her Brazilian friend made well. A quick request brought out a small skillet of them. I had thought they were complementary based off of Yelp reviews, but this is not the case.

They’re not listed on the menu, but this parmesan bread is worth requesting. Neither too big nor too small, the consistency of these rolls are more akin to Japanese mochi than typical bread. Tapioca flour is used to make them, leading to a more chewy consistency. I ended up eating almost all of them, they’re quite addicting. Out of everything I had and would eat today, these would be the thing I would most recommend.

The first entree we will look at is my mother’s, the Brazilian national dish of Feijoada. This is a black bean stew consisting of pork ribs, beef chunks, and some sort of sausage. It came with yuca powder to sprinkle on top and a side of fresh collard greens.

I only tasted a bite of the stew as my own dish was enough to fill me, but the meat was incredibly tender and fell apart very easily. My mother was barely able to put a dent in this huge meal, we ended up taking home perhaps 4/5ths of it when all was said and done.

The main courses came with white rice and black beans for side dishes, though I did not end up eating either, the white rice was used for the Feijoada.

My own meal was the Prato Vegano, one of the plates in their vegan section. Although I am not vegan, I enjoy vegan foods more than I do meats, so I wanted to give this a try. I was not disappointed.

The collard greens were very fresh and clean tasting, nothing like collards greens I had ever had before. There were pieces of garlic mixed in with it, sauteed in olive oil. Next were the fried yuca; as a fan of yuca I was excited for this portion of the plate. Surprisingly, they were lightly fried, neither too little nor too less, so I didn’t feel terrible eating them and there was a nice more crunchy texture compared to the usual starchy one of yuca.

The sauteed seasonal vegetables were as advertised, no complaints there. I am also a fan of plantains, and I was very pleased with the ones on this plate. They were sweet, but not too overly sweet as many places tend to make them. The sugar was not caked on and dripping off, but an acceptable amount that didn’t throw off the balance of the plate. The sauteed okra was, as the vegetables, as one would expect them to be.

Finally we have the dessert: Bolo de Mandioca, a flourless yuca and coconut cake with blueberries and a passion fruit sauce, and dulce de leche sauce on the side. The cake itself was moist and delicious, the passion fruit sauce going nicely. The blueberries stood to bring down the sourness a bit with their more mellow taste, balancing out the flavors. On the other hand, the dulce de leche did nothing beneficial to the dish. When added, the sauce tasted separate from the cake even when eaten together in one bite.

I’m not a fan of dulce de leche, so I had no complaints.

All in all, a fairly enjoyable experience. The meal was pricey, but the portions in general were large and justified them to a degree. Service was fairly good, no real complaints to be had, and the atmosphere was nice. I’m not certain if I would go back again, outside of passion fruit Brazilian cuisine is not exactly my cup of tea, but I would have no problem recommending it to someone who was interested in having some food from Bazil.