Aozora Japanese Restaurant

Food was OK. The menu is large and it boasts of a truly unique and fabulous dining experience... I suppose the author of that was sipping too much saki, because everything was very average. They add several different items on the menu from your standard sushi restaurant, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
The decor is lovely and serene, but decor does not a unique dining experience make.
If you really want a unique and fabu experience I would just go down the block to Nouveau Sushi.

I love Aozora--all my friends love Aozora. Enjoy creative, fresh Sushi, delicious entrees, and nice service.
(Aozora is more casual and friendly than Nouveau.)

I have never had a bad meal here, and I've been here quite a few times. Great sushi -- even the non-sushi-eaters in any group we go with are intrigued by the beautiful presentation and pleasantly surprised when they do try the raw fish. There's plenty of great cooked food on the menu, too.

I loved the numerous selection and varieties offered in their menu. Chef Nelson is perhaps the most creative chef i have met and I have eatened in almost half of the restaurant in town. He combined French and Japanese cuisine artistically and tastefully. Last time I was there they order a 600+ pound Bluefin Tuna that was flown in from Madrid and was over $10,000 and caught at the height of the season. The Toro was so good its like butter and melts in your mouth.
I also love their 5week dry aged steak that was so tender and mouth-watering. I have been there over 100 times since they open and they continue to surprise me everytime with original creations. I tried Nouveau twice and I was not impressed by their hype or presentation. The quality of the fish was not what I expect for the price.

I finally got to try this place! And I'm going to assume based on the other reviews here that I went on an off night.

First - for a table with an advanced reservation we were packed in! The waitstaff couldn't get to the reservation desk because our table was right up against it.

Second - something went wrong somewhere - it took forever for food to be served. Some people had soup, some appetizers, some sushi and some entrees - everything came after a long, long time and except for the soup course everything came at once. Some stuff was cold, some stuff was overdone.

While all restaurants have off nights, people we knew came in after us - were served a several course meal, at different times, and left before us.

The menu was great, but I wouldn't try anything I had again - canned ingredients were used in place of fresh, even thought it is a current seasonal ingredient.

When I first walked into the place I struck by a dazzling decor. The interior design of the place was simple yet had a feeling of zen.
The staff was very friendly and on the ball. I ordered the Neslon Yips deluxe because the waiter convinced me. It was spectacular to say the least! The toro just melts in your mouth like butter and the uni was the freshest I've ever had in the east coast. I definately give this place 2 thumbs up and I would most certainly go again.

If you have doubts about what is the best rastaurant in town then you must not have gone to AoZora.

Love it! Love it! Love it! Food is so fresh and always presented very well. The pork gyoza is the very best around.

Oh god... this place is heaven! I can't get enough. And there's such a selection... I wish I could eat the whole menu. I'm working on it, though!

Went here recently & I hope this helps:
the food is average. Some items are great, while others are below average.
Tables are tightly packed in, service stinks. When I went to the ladies' room, it was filthy.
I have been in the NYC restaurant biz and this place is dirty and incapable of good service. I won't be back.

I agree that the table are packed together but that is the only thing you got right. The food,service and decor are terrific. In my opinion it is the best restaurant in our area.

mountie 4 life seems more suited for Chevy's or the Olive Garden.

This is as good as any NYC Japanese restaurant. I have to admit, the service could improve, but the food is amazing!!! Nelson whips up sushi like no one else and his cooked items are also top tier. If you love japanese food, you'll love Aozora!

If you like Aozora:

Just tried a new Japanese Restaurant in Caldwell called Ocha with friends. You might be saying, that is all we need, another Japanese restaurant. We have so many in the area.

But this one is a real gem, we all loved it.

Ocha, green tea, is the creation of Neil and Joyce, a sweet and unpretentious couple from New York. Neil has been developing his craft over the last 10 year. His last stint was at the very popular Sushi Samba in New York.

Located at 403 Bloomfield Avenue, Caldwell. 973-228-8856

We started with a Seaweed Salad; Yellowtail Cerviche with ginger garlic and soy; the Chicken Tako, chopped chicken perfectly spiced with lettuce wraps, and an Age Tofu with a special sauce.

Each dish was served alone which was very nice, enabling us to share and savor each flavor. They were all special in their own way, perfectly prepared and presented.

We then enjoyed several delicious rolls. Our favorite was the Ocha, shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado and spicy kabayaki sauce. It was a work of art to the eye and the pallet.

The Crazy Spider, with soft shell crab and the Caldwell, tuna, yellow tail, fluke & cucumber, avocado, tobika, ajiamarillo, with Key lime mayo.

We also had a tuna "pizza" on a crepe, out of this world.

Again each dish was served to share one by one. The grand finale was a chef's creation off the menu. Not sure what it all was but it was delicious.

I agree the food tastes great, but I'm not so sure that makes up for the truly inferior service. We waited over an hour for our food to arrive, and this is not the first time this has happened to us. Last time I thought we would give them a break, but after the poor service and to top it all off the waiter spilled sauce all over the back of my sweater...we will not be going back.

aozora may have nice design but that doesnt make up for the lack of service we recieved, the food was poor and some of it was undercooked.

I thought Aozora was fabulous when it first opened. The service has always been lacking, but the ambience and food were wonderful. As the years have gone by, the service is still terrible, they have packed in additional tables so you feel like you're sitting on top of other people and the food quality has gone down hill. They also need to dust occasionally and paint the walls. The walls are all chipped where the tables touch up against them. At these prices, the restaurant should have great service, an immpeccable room and amazing food. I think Nelson has become distracted. (perhaps with his other recently opened restaurant) Unfortunately, what used to be my very favorite restaurant in Montclair has dropped to the bottom of my list.

I was simply blow away. While the service could use a little help, and the decor could use a little revamping and added space, the food is what was spectacular about Aozora. It is easy to tell when you have been to a bad sushi restaurant. That said, it has been years since a sushi restaurant has outwardly impressed me.

The menu is fantastic and eclectic. Tired of the same generic Sushi menu regardless of restaurant? This is the place to go, fantastic secection had the Hamachi Kama for an app for under $8 and was rocked by the flavor of the yellowtail collar. Sushi was fantastic, tried a duck spring roll which was also a nice change of pace. Fantastic restaurant, grab a booth and bring 2 bottles of wine and have a spectacuar night.

Frankly...as a member of the staff, and only the staff, we are sadly dissapointed at the character of most of our customers.

We all have tried our best, old and new staffers. At times when the restuarant is overflowed(and yes we notice it too), people demand booths(with no reservation), and can obviously see that the three sushi men making sushi and changing orders for the entire place are working their hardest, people can be extremely nasty, and very immature. Killing the messanger would be an understatement..

We're a humble little place on bloomfield ave., our owners take pride in the food and decor and try there best to maintain the up-keep. As do the staff. if you want to compare to new york, then GO TO NEW YORK.

For all of those that stand by aozora, we all truly thank you. For a place with a rapidly turning staff, the new waiters and waiteresses, busgirls and boys, and food runners try there best to keep up, and do the best they can. We have made some good friends over the course of the years, and love serving those that love to be served. thanks for going, and keep going back!

Once again for the rest of you, the Dining Dead, we're sorry you've been so dismayed by our service, food, decor, whatever, i know we..well you, all wanna go out and be treated like kings when you go eat out. but maybe you should just stay home, for the good of your sanity, and the well being of young employees that get chewed out by you everynight.

thanks for adding to the social gravelpit that montclair has become. then again this is all my own opinion

ugh futhermore, tell the people that stick gum under the table, do coke in the bathroom, chip the wall paint by scrapping the chairs against it, and steal things, about all that. we're no chain, we're a single functionaing organism that takes care of things when we can, like your home, unfortunatly not all of us can be housewives

I love this restaurant, food has been fantastic every single time. A little on the expensive side, but it's a special treat for me whenever I go there (they do delivery as well!).

I love it when food service workers bitch about their customers in a public forum. That will surely do great things for your hole in the wall on Bloomfield Ave.

I'll be sure to give you and your waiter friends pennies for a tip next time I have the audacity to expect good service at a restaurant that charges $30 for an entree.

Go get a job at Burger King moron.

This message is for whoever wrote under the nick 'you're a waiter'.
Customers ain't always right, and if you think that just because you pay 30 bucks for a meal you expect a good service, sorry...you're wrong. I'm in the restaurant business too, and I don't give a f*** for nasty customers. Some people think that they deserve be treated as king when they eat out..they better stay home. Busy restaurants do the best for their customers...that's the reason they're busy...but some customers do all they can to get a free meal...or try...come on....if you want a waiter just to wait your table...get your own restaurant...And if you don't know...we give what we have...by given pennies, or nothinhg at all...that shows what kind of person you are

You know how I gauge if a rest really cares about the Voice of the Customer? I look for a feedback card. I try to give honest and open feedback, just as I’ve done with my own rest’s in the past. It may sound cliché, but honest, constructive feedback is a gift.

I actually quite like Aozora but agree with some of the comments I’ve seen here. I’ve seen the service and ambience wane in the past year (the food, thankfully, has remained mostly very good.) But with new competitors arriving almost daily (like Nori) Aozora’s mgmt cannot afford to have its front-house staff posting such ridiculous and un-customer-centric posts. True, all businesses have customers you don’t want / need. Segment these people out (frankly, I thought Aozora had done this thru their pricing.) But don’t denigrate them publicly. The rest business is at the end of the day a hospitality business – if you don’t care to be hospitable to even the most surly / annoying of your customers (whose money you happily take) then get out of the business.

Were I any of the chefs working behind the bar, I would be greatly offended by waiter’s post. Waiter has surely differentiated Aozora from its competitors – as the rest that just doesn’t care about its customers.

comment cards? Was your restaurant a Stuckey's, a Denny's or a Golden Skillet?

Now I understand your posts.

Mmm, good point. Most good feedback comes from your wait staff and GM but as is obviously the case with Aozoro, they’re not too interested. Feedback cards (like BLU does, like Hearth and Craft do in NYC) are a great mechanism for gauging VOC when your staff simply doesn’t care. Gone are the days when the front of the house was briefed on what the reviewer from the Ledger or the Times looked like and the aliases of their credit cards.

I can't tell who's worse here, the customers, the help or self annoited experts. Getta life people.

C'mon, ninach is an old drunk who goes around town pretending he's a food reviewer while it's obvious he doesn't know shit about it. If this guy wants to open a restaurant in Montclair, he's welcome to do it but in the meantime, SHUT UP... It's not our fault that your restaurant failed.

Myself and two friends ate here last week. The food was excellent: had the Nelson Special. The attention to detail is apparent: the presentation was amazing. The tuna sashimi was adorned with gold shavings, various pieces of sushi were formed into different shapes... One piece even had three different types of fish braided on top... The fish was fresh, and the other rolls that we had were excellent. I have nothing negative to say about the food... The wait staff does get a little busy if the restaurant is packed, but any one of them will be very quick to assist you if you beckon...

Additional notes: the water in this restaurant goes through an extensive filtration system... Nelson was explaining why the water doesn't taste like the rest of montclair ;)

Recommendations: Spicy miso soup to start as well as the crab/avacado salad (substitute the wasabi dressing for the normal dressing)...

I'm not a fan of gussied up sushi rolls with every fish in the sea twisted together around some rice and seaweed, given a funny name, and maybe drenched with some sauce that further masks the texture and flavor of the fish. That's Aozora. I also get uncomfortable when the servers are a little bit too chummy and chatty, when I've come to the restaurant to enjoy some conversation with my wife. I also think Nouveau is guilty of the same culinary sins...pieces too big, too much sauce, and too many cute rolls with stupid names. Just give me some fresh, precisely sliced fish...Daikichi is excellent.

Henry sounds like your down-to-earth type guy that enjoys spearing fish and eating it right from the sea with a couple pieces of seaweed to wipe his mouth with... For the rest of us, we understand that sushi is an art, and that the "cute rolls" and various sauces are part of the appeal--it should be an experience to remember, and should incorporate a medley of tastes and options. I think this restaurant is very successful in balancing presentation and excellent taste.

I agree Tim. First of all my wife and I have forsaked Nouveau for a while because of their limited menu. Nori (Montclair) has many exotic rolls that may be construed as, "gussied up" by some, however, we like the selection and applaude them for their creativity.

i think it's fantastic how people hold crazy, in your face grudges and arguments over anonymous posts on a public opinion website. *sigh* ... the social decay continues! `=)

I work around the corner so my coworkers and I will usually go to Aozora around lunch time because we love the food. However, we never seem to be able to get out of there in under 1 hour and 45 minutes. I can never understand why since it's always usually empty on weekdays. We also dread having to verbalize our order because most of the waitstaff's command of the English language is lacking. I hope that's ok to say since I'm also Asian, but even I have a hard time. We resort to just pointing on the menu. Don't even think about placing a pick-up order over the phone unless you like to repeat "sushi and sashimi lunch special" over and over again like a tongue twister.

Ummm...

Since when did Sushi become about postmodernism? Sushi's actually a pretty humble food and while creativity is fine and all that, what matters is the chef's skill in selection and preparation. I've spent lots and lots of money at good sushi restaurants and this passion for exotica in Montclair is strange and alien to me.

wow you people really suck. then again most of you are apart of the dining dead and decaying nature of this town. im sure some of you think the sienna is a good idea still too? good looks to the ones who seem to have been actual humans beings at one point. does anyone know how i could possibly C4 the server(s) that this website is on?

Nelson Yip really cares about his restaurant - Aozora!
I have had consistently delicious meals there over the years. He is very concerned about the freshness of the fish that he serves and has very high standards.
Here is a nice photo of Nelson that I took last night!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68136049@N00/2315666632/

I also took some photos of the delicious Chirashi Sushi that you can check out on the Flickr pages as well.
Aozora is one of my favorite restaurants in Montclair.
Right up there with Fascino, Table 8, Blu, Raymond's, Osteria Giotto, and others. Yes,they all offer completely different dining experiences and that makes living in Montclair interesting.

Had dinner again at Aozora tonight and shot another picture. Here's the Omakase Sushi plate that Nelson created:
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=2344365038&posted=1

Really enjoyed it!

We visited Aozora for the first time last night, having moved to Montclair from the city two years ago. Ordered a la carte.

Pros: Yellowtail and Salmon was top notch, similar to very good places in NYC. Duck spring rolls were excellent as were the pork gyoza.

Cons: As is often the case, the miso soup was too salty. But the real disappointment was the quality of the Toro. At $12 an order ($6 a piece), one expects buttery melty toro. This toro was tough (for toro), like a web of gristle with the buttery stuff embedded. This made it impossible to enjoy whatever taste it had.

Decor was great and service was very good though a little tentative.

Bottom line, we will probably go back, but will unfortunately avoid the toro, our favorite fish.

Another great dinner at Aozora yesterday.
Here's the picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillannsiegel/2643882064/

A number of people have raved to us about this restaurant so we took a friend in from out of town.. It was very expensive for what it was, which was not very good. The sushi just did not taste like much, there was no spark to the dishes. Kind of the opposite of what I expected. Service was so so, but I was mostly surprised by the mediocre food.

Have you gone to Aki on Broad Street (past the Friendly's) in Bloomfield? I have found them to be hands down the best for fresh, innovative, delicious sushi.