I honestly struggled with what to focus on in this blog post. I was blown away with all of the food that I ate at Calandra’s Italian Village in Bloomfield, NJ. The visit to this literal village was definitely unexpected. I never planned and definitely did not expect this delicious of a meal on this particular night. Originally, I was just planning to go with my really good friend and her mom to their dress fitting for her upcoming wedding. I have to say it really was so fun and exciting because they both looked so beautiful in their dresses. I was so caught up in it all that I totally didn’t even think I was hungry.
Then we got into the car…and I was hungry! My friend said we could go to Calandra’s bakery and although I am typically down for bakery visits, I really felt like I needed to eat real food. Who knew that Calandra’s was not only a bakery but an Italian restaurant directly connected to it.
Because it was so late, we had to pick up out baked goods first. The place is HUGE!! I didn’t know where to start. So many displays, so many options. I could have purchased the entire store. and I really wanted to for my dad but I held back.
These are just a few of the displays. The cupcakes looked so amazing and there were so many options. Although the cookie case does technically look “empty”, it was about 9:00 at night which tells me that their cookies are an absolute HIT! I decided to buy a few mini treats. I had a mini vanilla cupcake, mini lemon cupcake, mini raspberry cupcake, an eclair, a cream puff, and a mini fruit tart. All so cute and adorable. The cupcakes were my favorite though. Not too sweet and freshly baked for the perfect fluffy texture. Just the perfect amount of frosting on the top with so much flavor! I want more!
Once finally making a decision and packaging up all of our treats into little white boxes, we headed to the restaurant portion of the building. Which was beautiful by the way. The tables were beautifully set and huge windows lined the walls.
As soon as we sat down this was put on our table…
Oh my God. A whole ramekin filled with grated parmesan cheese- YES! And right next to it…
Freshly baked bread. YES! Put it all together…
Heaven on Earth. Although there were only three of us, we went through TWO of these warm, crunchy, flavorful loaves of bread. It was the most perfectly delivery system for the salty, parmesan cheese. I could eat this for every single meal every single day.
After reviewing the menu, our waitress came over and brought us the good news. The fact that it was Tuesday allowed us to indulge in half price pasta entrees as well as half price Calandra’s wine. I mean really? What did I do to deserve all of this?
This made the decision process MUCH easier. I went with the special of farfalle pasta with grilled chicken, and broccoli in a homemade tomato basil sauce.
The bowtie pasta was al dente- a perfect bite. The valleys in the pasta held pockets of the slightly sweet, not too salty, smooth tomato sauce. The huge broccoli florets were steamed just enough that it left a slight crunch. The chicken was super thin, tender and was just enough to add in some protein. I could only eat about half of this because 1. I had filled up on alot of bread and 2. the portion was huge. Half the price but not half the food. I like it.
My friend’s mom got the rigatoni primavera. It looked delicious! I’m sure the pasta was cooked just a perfectly as what I had and huge pieces of vegetables were tossed with a white wine sauce and parmesan cheese. I’d definitely want to try this next time!
I won’t lie after I finished eating what I wanted from the pasta, I had another piece of bread. It was just too good to be true. I must’ve done something right in order to deserve this delicious, carb filled meal. I can’t wait to go back and try something else!
For more information please visit: Calandras Italian Village
shut up and eat with me 