7 Doors Down Eatery feat. Blue Steel Pizza — Restaurant in Bloomfield

First, I just wanna say that staff was nice and I do understand what the resturant was trying to do, deconstructing dishes, and it's attracting a certain demographic with that. This is a place you pay for the experience and atmosphere.

As a peruvian who loves japanese food, I was super excited to see a resturant like this pop up, thinking there was a Nikkei fusion resturant close by, and even had a nice selection of ramen, my absolute favorite dish! Prices for certain peruvian dishes seemed a bit steep than you would get at a usual peruvian joint, but we decided to try anyways. First we were a bit confused since the restaurant was so dark, that we assumed it was closed at first, until we noticed movement inside. To which, we open the door and see no indication this place was peruvian or japanese with the books on the wall being about korea as the speakers blasted 80s american hip hop, I realized this is a place for people who have never been to a peruvian of japanese eatery, but we pushed on hoping that the food will be good at least.

This restaurant left me throughly disappointed and confused at the choices that were made for the menu. There are so many great combos to be done with peruvian and japanese cusines (yakitori/anticucho, ceviche/sashimi, fried or grilled fish etc.) that just wasn't on the menu. Simple and easy dishes like salchipapa, which is hot dogs and fries that is supposed to be filling, were instead turned to tiny hot dogs and potatoes that you finish in one bite or papa la huancaina that deconstructed the main sauce and uses ingredients as a garnish. I kept seeing praise for the ramen, especially an easy to replicate dish such as tonkotsu, and was excited that it would at least be something enjoyable, but instead I bit into undercooked noodles and rocoto spice that overwhelmed any other flavors in the broth. The best parts of the dish were actually the meats, the hot dogs and charsu, which made me even more sad there weren't any skewer options because I believe that's the chef's trademark and it should be further pushed if they want people to come back. Overall, I think this place seems to be unfocused on what it wants to do, I see a lot of potential here and a lot of friends and family are interested but I have to warn them that they will be dissapointed in what would be done to their favorite dishes in this place. If this doesn't get deleted, I really hope this review becomes obsolete and the owners don't take my critique in such a negetive light, but more so that I really REALLY wanted to like this place, but as I ate the tonkotsu ramen at 7 Doors Down, it made me wish I was eating a cheaper bowl from the food court at Mitsuwa in Fort Lee. TL;DR: Do not eat here if you're expecting decent peruvian or japanese food, you're better off eating in places like Passiac or Fort Lee unless you're ready to pay to eat in a dark room, with small and sad...

UPDATE: Tried this place again after giving it a 5 star review. I don’t know what changed but any love or passion this place had has died and gone to rest. Walking in I knew it was trouble as we waited at the host stand for 10 minutes before any member of staff greeted us. We ordered over $100 worth of food and our server barely paid any attention to us - we had seats at the kitchen counter and not one chef even said hello. All 6 of our appetizers came out at the same time making it impossible to eat what is meant to be eaten hot and we felt overwhelmed by the amount of food in front of us all at once. Our server didn’t come back to check in and compared to last time: the calamari was over salted, the shrimp ceviche was cut into huge unmanageable bites, and the Cesar salad happened to be the star of the show which was not what we expected at a fusion Latin restaurant. The hanger steak was fatty and served with fries that were soaking wet. I - as a fellow server - was very disappointed in my experience here. We spent $130 and were in and out within an hour, it felt rushed, amateur, and passionless. For a Saturday night the place was dead, I don’t see this place staying around long unless the life is brought back in this place, I suggest hiring more knowledgeable and passionate staff. Also if you stopped serving dishes - the filet- why is it still on the menu??

small but intriguing - the chef clearly has passion! The Peruvian influence was noted in each dish, the standouts were the coconut shrimp bao buns and the lobster ceviche. The place was BUSY so service was a bit funky but our server was kind and clearly was putting in his best effort. The open kitchen concept is fun and different, maybe one day I’ll get a counter seat. Will be...

This is a 2x takeout review, as we haven’t sat down to eat in restaurant yet.

Most recently we ordered 2 orders of ramen and 2 orders of wings when we walked in around 8pm on a Wednesday. We ended up waiting outside for our food until 9:15… I don’t think I’ve ever waited that long for takeout, not with Uber or DoorDash, but a simple over the counter order I placed myself when it’s not physically so busy.

It wasn’t busy in restaurant but there was, indeed, a steady flow of delivery orders coming in. But tbh I think they messed up our order and didn’t want to tell us. We don’t eat pork and we asked for no pork broth in one dish. If we’d been told, we would’ve understood because that happens all the time and it’s no biggie but now this is my impression of what in-store takeout is there.

To be fair, though, we can brush off waiting an hour 15 for takeout if the food is worth it…This is the second time we’ve gotten takeout and the food wasn’t up to our liking, unfortunately. The wings were dry with minimal rub / seasoning and we ordered 2 :/ The duck ramen was quite tasty actually but his ramen had minimal protein and the broth wasn’t as good. (Perhaps bc no pork but still… one still wants a tasty iteration.) The first time we ordered we called-in ahead of time (20mins out) and the food was ready when we got there on another weekday night but we had tried another ramen and steak dish and didn’t fancy either and yet decided to give it another go this week with something different and it wasn’t all that different.

Maybe eating in will be better…The ambiance is nice and I actually want to like the food it’s just not hittin’ right now like our fave spots in the city. But I’m rooting for this place and it’s still new so there’s...