We went to Sayola Restaurant, an upscale Spanish restaurant in Montclair, for the first time, and had an excellent dinner. The restaurant is gorgeous and the service was exemplary. We even had our first soft shell crab of the season We also shared appetizers of excellent dates stuffed with cheese and wrapped with crispy Serrano ham, as well as a light and refreshing seafood salad with calamari, shrimp, octopus, and avocado. I had a pork loin special with sauteed peppers and garlic, and the most amazing potato au gratin with bacon and cheddar. Mrs.P had a John Dory special in lemon butter with escarole and beans. Everything went great with a 2015 Domaine La Consonniere Chateauneuf Du Pape. We have to find a way to work this restaurant into our regular rotation.
Thanks Johnny! I was shocked to see soft shell crabs this early in March. I usually don’t see them until some time in April. It was a nice size too, and very meaty.
Thanks Curlz. It’s located at 38 Valley Road, just past Bloomfield Avenue and the police station. It’s underneath a brand new condo/ apartment building.
There is a small outdoor metered parking lot across the street (that is always full) and an indoor parking garage (that only takes credit/debit cards) directly around the corner.
We had another nice dinner at Sayola tonight. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that they have live flamenco dancing on the last Sunday night of every month, so we couldn’t sit in the main fancy dining room. We had to sit in the smaller room that is usually reserved for small parties.
We started off with an excellent special appetizer of fresh figs stuffed with blue cheese, over Serrano ham and radicchio, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. We also shared a scallop dish stuffed with seafood and topped with béchamel and cheese gratin, as well as beef empanadas. For entrees Mrs. P had red tuna tataki crusted with sesame seeds, with teriyaki sauce, wasabi, and mango. I had the paella with shrimp, lobster, clams,mussels, calamari, chicken, chorizo, and black squid ink rice. The paella is NOT burned. That is the black squid ink which embedded itself into EVERYTHING! My fingers, face, and teeth were all covered in black. I thought I was scarred for life You had to see the horrified look on Mrs. P’s face I looked like the Joker from Batman She picked the wrong day to wear white Next time I stick with the yellow rice. Luckily our experienced server brought over 2 moist wash cloths and lemon slices. He poured boiling water over the wash cloths and told me to bite into the lemons to get the ink off of my teeth and squeeze it on to my fingers. The lemon and hot wash cloth definitely helped get the black ink off. I just thought that the black squid ink rice would go good with our Cooper and Thief red blend aged in bourbon barrels for three months. It was just made it worse because I had to touch all of the shell fish to get the fish out of the shells.
We also shared appetizers of excellent dates stuffed with cheese and wrapped with crispy Serrano ham, as well as a light and refreshing seafood salad with calamari, shrimp, octopus, and avocado. I had a pork loin special with sauteed peppers and garlic, and the most amazing potato au gratin with bacon and cheddar. Mrs.P had a John Dory special in lemon butter with escarole and beans. Everything went great with a 2015 Domaine La Consonniere Chateauneuf Du Pape. We have to find a way to work this restaurant into our regular rotation.
You had to see the horrified look on Mrs. P’s face 
I looked like the Joker from Batman 
She picked the wrong day to wear white 
Next time I stick with the yellow rice. Luckily our experienced server brought over 2 moist wash cloths and lemon slices. He poured boiling water over the wash cloths and told me to bite into the lemons to get the ink off of my teeth and squeeze it on to my fingers. The lemon and hot wash cloth definitely helped get the black ink off. I just thought that the black squid ink rice would go good with our Cooper and Thief red blend aged in bourbon barrels for three months. It was just made it worse because I had to touch all of the shell fish to get the fish out of the shells.
I couldn’t even grab the camera because my hands were black.
