Avenue East
“BYOB with Breens liquor store across the street is very convienient too.”
“I had the Coconut shrimp as an appetizers, and it was really good a long with the dipping source.”
“Another neat point is their listing of calorie counts on the menu, which is super helpful to those of us battling the bulge!”
Avenue East
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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This place has been very popular for a long time–expect to wait to get in and/or for your food on weekends. Nicer decor than most Asian places, but byo.
Cranford has better sushi at Mizu and better Thai food at Siam Inn, but when you want one and someone else wants the other, this is a good choice.
Had the Tom Yum soup today with Shrimp…. Delicious!
Came here Friday night and were seated within 10 minutes. The perk is that it's BYOB so we got to bring a bottle of wine. The waiter quickly uncorked it like a pro and he was super polite and attentive the whole meal. Big fan of him!
The menu has some items that have calorie counts while others don't. Obviously, it was the weekend so I was going big!
For my meal, I got the vegetable and tofu green curry with white rice. Delicious! It was spicy, just the way I liked it. However, I could only eat half of it because I got full quickly.
That was until I saw there was chocolate molten cake on the menu. It came out perfect. Just wished I had asked for it a la mode with some vanilla ice cream. But it was still really good.
I would definitely be up for going back!
Scoring a parking space directly outside of Avenue East was what started my night out on the right foot. AE is BYOB and luckily there is a liquor store (Breen's) right across the street. And they had our favorite Riesling chilling in the fridge (Dr. Loosen's). Two pluses and I'm not even in the door yet.
Our 8:00 PM reservation was honored and we were seated promptly. AE was hopping at that point and there were several people waiting for tables. We split an order of edamame…a very small order, might I add. Maybe I'm spoiled but this was the smallest plate of edamame I've ever seen. And it had to be split between three people.
We decided on sushi (as per) and ordered a few pieces of sashimi, in addition to the yellowtail jalapeno roll, the Philly roll, the fantasy roll, the rainbow roll and a couple others that escape my memory right now (they were on the special rolls menu). A lot of their special rolls come with dipping sauces and the like, which is nice, but in some cases the sauces overpower the rolls and you cannot truly taste the sushi. One negative is that they serve you the rolls on separate plates (due to the sauces, I presume) so we wound up having a table filled with plates with only one roll on them. Since the tables are small, this made for a very crammed situation.
I would agree with the other reviewers that the service is spotty. My friend was dying for a water refill and it took a very long time for our server to swing by our table. She didn't check on us at all. That being said, the prices at AE are very reasonable. Most sushi places in North Jersey charge in the upwards of $13-$15 for special sushi rolls. Here they were mostly $10.
I might have bumped this review up to 4 stars had my friend not been parched by her lack of water. I hate to watch her suffer.
I recently took my mother and girlfriend here for a Mother's Day dinner and we had a great time. I had dinner here once before, but I wanted to wait until a second meal before writing a review.
Avenue East is a trendy looking Asian Fusion place, similar to what you'd expect to find in Manhattan. Its decor is mostly dark, but very modern and the seats are all big and comfortable. There's even a really nice waiting area in front with comfortable seating. The lighting is just right to give the place a sophisticated atmosphere.
Service both times I visited was great. The host seated us quickly (despite it being busy) and our waiters were all courteous and answered all our questions. The place is BYOB, so we brought a bottle of wine. When the cork broke, they actually gave us a replacement rubber cork so we could bring the rest of the wine home! Super cool. Another neat point is their listing of calorie counts on the menu, which is super helpful to those of us battling the bulge!
So let's get to the food!
SPICY BASIL CHICKEN
I've had many basil chicken dishes before, but most of the time it just tastes like a stir fry with only a hint of basil. This dish brings the basil full force, and in a good way. The basil and the chicken are the stars of the dish, not peppers or onions. Truly a favorite.
GARLIC SPINACH TOFU
This is a simple, yet incredible addicting dish. The spinach is always cooked to perfection and the sauce on it is amazingly addictive. The tofu is a softer type that melts in your mouth. I could eat this every day!
SAMBAL NOODLES
Or as I like to call them "crack noodles". The Sambal sauce is a wonderful combination of deep, savory flavors with a touch of sweetness on top. The noodles have a nice, soft texture but were never overcooked.
Just writing this review makes me want to go back today! If you're in the Cranford area check out Avenue East for a really tasty meal.
This is a fusion restaurant with a nice ambience and good service. The food was so-so, although I was quite impressed with the chicken pan fried dumpling and the sweet and sour chicken. They came or piping hot and the dumpling had just the right amount of crisp. The chicken fried rice was very bland and the trinity sashimi appetizers is pretty-looking but not that substantial. Overall alright, but nothing special.
As you can see from my track record, I so rarely give a one star. In fact, I'd give this a 0 if I could but that's not an option.
I feel that I have a decent taste for food, what's good and bad, especially at a place like this that has so many flavors I love. It's BYOB so that's already amazing, right? Right but it would be even better if the food and the service wasn't horrible. What happened to the customer is always right? Not here.
This is what happened:
I ordered the red curry with tofu. I have eaten enough curry from different kinds of ethnic cuisines and restaurants in different states to know what red curry should taste and look like.
First of all, my dish was cold. It looked like they took slabs of soft tofu and sliced it up and threw it in the bowl over raw vegetables. I think there was cucumber in there? Wtf? There was no curry. It was watered down tomato sauce. There was absolutely no spice, seasoning, heat, NOTHING. It was disgusting.
What do I do even less than give a restaurant a review a one star rating? Send food back. I DO NOT SEND FOOD BACK. Until this place…
The food was just not edible. I called the waiter over and said, "I'm sorry but this is really very bad. I can't eat this. May I have something else?"
He got the manager over and we proceeded to FIGHT.
Mgr: Why do you want to send this back?
Me: It's cold, flavorless and doesn't taste like curry. It's really bad.
Mgr: This is a really popular dish, so many people order it. I don't know why you don't like it.
Me: Ummm.. Maybe they don't know what curry is supposed to taste like?
He went on and and on to tell me the dish is good and popular and he'll give me a new dish "just this once but never again?" Um. Thanks A-HOLE, don't do me any favors, just make better food. Really? I'm sorry if absolutely no one knows what curry is supposed to taste like but that was disgusting. Hell, youi know how tofu is one of those things that people either love or hate? Yeah. This would make people ABSOLUTELY DESPISE IT. Even I was afraid to eat tofu for days afterwards. I had to remember that tofu IS good and can be done WELL by people who know how to cook.
Then I ordered the garlic tofu thing with spinach and that was just as disgusting. Again, the tofu was mushy yogurt and tasted bad as well.
The only good thing about this place is that it has pretty chairs and it's BYOB. I really can't believe the manager was arguing with me in front of everyone because they didn't prepare the food well. What happened to, "I'm sorry, can we get you something else?" or "That's a shame, this is a popular dish, would you like to try…"
Amazing the audacity. Shame because it's close to home and, if it had been done well, I would absolutely have frequented this place more. Never again.
The interior decor is modern and very nice, and I love the fact that it's BYOB. (Especially convenient with a liquor store being across the street!)
To start, we had the Wonton Soup. The wontons were very flavorful, as was the broth. They only give you two, small wontons, and I definitely think it could have used one more. Still a good soup.
My dinner was the Japanese Noodles with Chicken. The sauce was very flavorful and all of the vegetables were fresh. Everyone else enjoyed their dishes as well, except the sushi that we shared I felt was below average and not very fresh.
The service was very, very slow and inattentive.