Restaurants in Secaucus

The scent of exotic spices drifts through Indigo Indian Bistro's dining room as cooks sear, roast, and grill Indian dishes in the kitchen. Percolating sauces exude aromas of peppery tomatoes, almonds and saffron, or incendiary chilies as they arrive at the tables. A clay tandoor oven bakes orders of vegetables, lamb, or fish in one of the sauces, infusing entrees with flavors more harmonious than a barbershop quartet made up of clones of your high-school music teacher.

Native Vietnamese chefs cover An Nhau’s wooden tables with modern and traditional dishes concocted from fresh vegetables, meats, herbs, and spices. Catfish simmers in a clay pot, curry cloaks tofu and chicken, and fillets of salmon sizzle atop grills. Indoors, saffron-hued murals of Vietnamese street scenes peep through the fronds of potted palms, and outside floral-printed banquettes line a patio flanked by sheer red curtains and off-duty waiters posing as live bamboo.

Chef Sam Bryne and the staff at The Purple Fig acknowledge that their goals might be ambitious for such an intimate bistro, but the challenge of reviving French bistro cuisine with contemporary cooking methods and unusual ingredients is just too exciting for them to pass up. They're true artisans: not only do they butcher and fillet their own meat and fish, they also make their own terrines and other “squeamish things” such as blood pudding and Care Bear cake. The results are toothsome dishes plated with style and levity. Entrees have included dover sole with tomato confit jauntily topped by a pane of crisp prosciutto and other dishes like cylinders of rare lamb crowned with ratatouille and couscous.

The food isn’t the only thing that’s artfully arranged, the restaurant itself alternates between vintage and elegant. Exposed brick walls and dark wooden columns back the marble-topped bar and recall a glamorous speakeasy. White-clothed tables populate a dining room with purple patterned walls and a geometric skylight that allows the moon to slaver over the food below.