Cafe 37 — Restaurant in Ridgewood

Cafe 37 embodies the best of a chef-owner restaurant experience. The restaurant is a veritable gem. Chef Sotomayor is a culinary genius. The staff are welcoming, accommodating, and professional. We dined outdoors and found it as comfortable and well executed as indoor dining.

My wife and I were tasked with planning two memorial luncheons, each of these events for approximately 30 people. The memorial luncheons honored family members who died during the pandemic and provided an opportunity for our family to finally gather safely. After extensively researching restaurants across Bergen County, we decided on Cafe 37 based on the quality of food, service, and the attention to detail provided by Chef Sotomayor.

My wife and I live in Manhattan and are no strangers to fine dining. In all honesty, we are very demanding; yet, our experience at Cafe 37 exceeded our expectations and some of experiences at some of the best restaurants in Manhattan. Cafe 37 is successful at providing fine dining without sacrificing authenticity and intimacy. Eating at Cafe 37 is the experience you would imagine eating at a friend's house --- if the friend was an award-winning chef.

From the beginning of planning our events, Chef Sotomayor was extremely responsive and thoughtful. In the early stages of planning the memorial luncheons, my wife and I visited the restaurant to sample from the standard dinner menu. The most difficult part of planning was narrowing down the dinner menu to a luncheon menu; we liked virtually everything on the dinner menu. Chef Sotomayor worked with us to narrow down the menu to a few appetizers, entrees, and desserts. My favorites were the kale salad (and I do not really love kale), tuna, filet mignon but our guests loved the other options.

The feedback from our guests was overwhelmingly positive. The food was excellent; the service was exceptional (thanks Felix!). My wife and I plan to return regularly, especially while the weather is still good and there is the opportunity to sit outside under the nicely adorned tent or in some of the non-covered seating.

The only downside is that there is no liquor license. However, there is a very well stocked liquor store across the street with a very good...

Cafe 37 is a New American restaurant with a Spanish Flair. The restaurant is small inside, but they have a larger outside dining area. The owner is the chef, and those are usually the best restaurants to dine at. All the ingredients the chef uses are top notch. Portions are nice sizes too besides the desserts being rather small. Stand out and must try dishes are the goat cheese raviolis, truffle risotto, and the halibut over saffron rice. All those dishes were AMAZING! You must try them! Halibut is a hard fish to prepare, and when a chef can cook an outstanding halibut you know it’s a 5 star restaurant! Other dishes I tried was the crab cake which was excellent! The filet mignon with shrimp was very good! The chicken dish was good! Only one entree I didn’t care for or wouldn’t recommend ordering is the Cafe 37 Frutti di Mare. The pasta wasn’t fresh made and kinda mushy and flavor wise it just was ok. I’d take it off the menu and replace it with something else. It didn’t have the WOW factor as all the other dishes on the menu had. All the desserts are house made and my favorite is the bread pudding! It’s fantastic! That’s another dish that’s hard to get right, but the chef here made it to perfection! The only complaint is it’s much too small. Its should be served twice the current serving size. The other dessert I tried were the coconut profiteroles. I didn’t care much for it, and I wouldn’t order it again. I really enjoyed almost everything here, and I am very impressed with the food! The chef/owner is warm and welcoming too! I highly recommend dining at Cafe 37...

First time at Café 37 and not really sure if I would return. Cute place which has about 7 tables outside to eat and a bit more inside It is a BYOB and there is a liquor store across the street. My wife had the lump crab meat appetizer with plantain and thoroughly enjoyed. The roasted beet salad was a dry lump of mixed greens piled on top of one small red and one small yellow sliced beet...cut in half. They had forgotten to put the vinaigrette on it. Server did not know his menu and when one member of our party asked if there was dairy in a topping, he said he would check and did not return. He had a very difficult time corking a bottle but possibly it was his first or second night. The bus lady was more attentive for sure. The Sashimi tuna dinner was cooked perfectly with red peppers and wild rice. Our guests had the filet mignon medallions and enjoyed it completely. Lamb was tender and cooked just as ordered. Cappucino (no sugar/Splenda served-they forgot) and tea For a BYOB without desert the total came to $250 without the tip for 4 people. There are better places to eat at fairer prices...