Broa

Very small and cozy. You will probably have to wait awhile unless reservations are made. However, the wait is soooo worth it!!! The food is delicious. The only downfall is that the menu is changed up quite frequently :(

Awesome dinner at this place tonight. I like all the food we had: gooseneck barnacle, sardine salad, blood sausage, prawn, eel, gazpacho soup and egg tart. Every dish was fresh and delicious. Gooseneck barnacle is the novelty, the prawn is so fresh hence my favorite. If I have to critic, the gazpacho soup was a bit pricy even though it’s tasty and the egg tart can be more flaky.

I was expecting to be really impressed based on hear-​say, and it didn’t meet my expectations. The service is slow. The sausages were mostly all too dry and soaked in oil. Sausages are their main thing from what I understand.

Will never visit again!
We went upto the guy who was seating people for a table for 3. Unfortunately since it was full he told us to go around and check back in 20 mins. There were a couple of guys who wanted to get up and leave and offered us the table. Instead, the guy seating us told them that they had not been served yet. Looks like the guests did not want to eat at all.
We waited for around 30 – 45 minutes for the table. In the meantime the guy who was supposed to seat us wore his jacket and took off! We went in and told the lady serving drinks that we would need a table. After a while the same guests finished and left and we had our table.
Then came our turn! The menu was limited, no veg options and almost nothing in chicken. We were not served any break.
Glasses that were given to us to pour ourselves some water were not washed from the previous place they had been. Unknowingly i filled my glass and gulped down water as i was thirsty! Voila! ALL shitty port-​side whisky!!! Why would you use the whisky glass to serve water that too not washed!
The food is pretentious and horribly expensive. We ended up not being even half full after spending $ 40. They do not give a bill too. I paid cash, did not tip and left. Never want to go there again!!!

Warm and cozy atmosphere, BYOB, traditional Portuguese food, and friendly but absent-​minded service. We enjoyed the tomato salad with octopus, the heirloom tomatoes were terrific and the octopus well prepared. The ceviche was merely okay, with some of the calamari almost too tough to chew. The tuna deviled duck eggs were interesting and not terrible, although I think that I prefer the old school U.S. Southern family picnic style better.
The russa potato salad never arrived on the table but did show up on our bill (and was quickly taken off upon request). Water and bread took a while and a request (once for the bread and twice for water) to arrive. Our credit card almost went home with someone else when it was brought back to another table for signing. That was caught in time, however. Yikes. Friendly staff and home style kitchen and ambience. The food was good, but it’s not my favorite and the service was a little too lackadaisical. Despite really wanting to like Broa, we probably won’t rush back.

I really wanted to try this place, but I will never be back after my experience there.
Went on a Saturday with a 7:30p reservation for a party of 5. Place is packed and smelling great, our whole party is excited. They tell us they’re behind schedule and we’ll have a brief wait. Not a great start, but we were happy to a wait a bit. Little did we know what was about to unfold. We waited for literally an hour after watching 2-​top after 2-​top get sat in front of us. One or two 2-​tops is no big deal, but when you’re waiting an hour for a place you have a reservation and you watch six 2-​tops get sat in front of you, it’s not pleasant. We waited respectfully for an hour before we got upset when they were about to sit a 4-​top in front of us. Yes, it was 8:30p at this point and they had an 8:00p reservation, but we had a 7:30p reservation! Which apparently meant absolutely nothing to the super-​rude host who told us that he had no priorities because we weren’t there at 7:30! I couldn’t believe that asshole. We’d been waiting respectfully for an HOUR only to get treated like shit. And yes, we were on time. Complete joke. Food might be good, I didn’t try to so I don’t know, but the service is an absolute disgrace.

Stumbled upon this place a few weeks ago with some friends. We were walking past it and I thought that place looks Portuguese… sure enough it was. I was drawn to Broa bc of its Portuguese-​ness. I’m Portuguese if you hadn’t’ guessed. The ambiance and décor makes you feel like you’re in Portugal.
It was around 4:00 on a Sunday. There were plenty of tables available so we had no problem being sat. We ordered a few tapas including fresh goat cheese with presunto, snails, and rissoes-​which are shrimp croquettes. Everything was good although the rissoes were just ok. I was also disappointed that the bread basket did not include Broa (a traditional Portuguese cornmeal bread that is soo good) as the name of the restaurant would suggest. Maybe they just didn’t have it that day? Our server was really nice and pretty attentive. It’s BYOB so bring some wine. I would definitely go back again.

Normally, Broa does not open on Mondays. But for the Jersey Girls Food Tour they hosted a small private dinner with a sampling of their tapas! So good! The décor in here will transport you to Portugal I swear. I love how cozy and intimate it feels, everything is made of wood or ceramic, and the food is just out of the world.
Really loved their bean salad, sardines shipped from Portugal, and their garlic shrimp. MmmmMmmm good.
Definitely will be back. This space is great for a small private party.

The food is very good and the place has a great atmosphere. There is no menu, they just write it up on the wall. I take it that it changes frequently. My group had the shrimp fritters, chickpea salad, octopus, scallops, and some additional shrimp dish the chef cooked up. Everything was tasty.
However, that list illustrates the biggest problem with the restaurant, which is the service. We had ordered octopus, scallops, and quail as a group, but they only brought us octopus (and the free shrimp dish). At this point, the original waiter left, without giving any indication that he was leaving for the night, and a new guy took over. When we asked where the others were, the unfortunate new guy had no idea what we were talking about because the original guy had only put in the octopus. The new guy eventually brought us scallops, but no quail. I didn’t feel like correcting him on that. Finally, the additional shrimp dish was something that was supposed to be free because the chef had some leftovers or something, but it was still on the bill and I had to get it changed. Also, they never brought us any water.

Stopped by on a Thursday night for dinner. There are very few tables but we got 2 seats at their small communal table in the center of the place. Menu is written on a chalkboard when you walk in and it changes daily, but the host/​waiter/​manager guy explained it to us as soon as we walked in and recommended we take a photo of it before we sat.
As typical with tapas, it’s pretty pricy, but it’s BYOB which helps offset the cost. We ordered 4 tapas for the two of us for about $ 60 and left feeling surprisingly full. Bread & olives on the tables to share were a nice touch.
The only dish we didn’t like was our order of the traditional chorizo sausage, it was hard to chew and extremely oily.

Very excited to try. Made a reservation for 6pm early dinner. We were told if we sat at a table instead of the communal table we had to leave in 1 ½ hours. Was not a problem, but not a nice feeling to start the night. First dish was great, goat cheese and Serrano ham. Though no cooking is required in this dish. Hard to mess up. Second dish we had black eyed peas and added sardines. It was good, but just okay. Sardines tasted like canned sardines on top of a lot of peas. Third dish is where we were really disappointed. Razor clams that came out looking great but then first bite was filled with grit. I worked my way through the whole clam. All grit. Even my husband heard my chewing the grit. Could not eat the clams. $ 16 for uncleaned clams. Then we got our last dish, which was a prawn with fries. Fries were great! Prawn was over cooked. There were only 3 tables in the restaurant. No excuse for over cooked prawn. Especially when it’s $ 20 for one over cooked prawn that was stuck to the shell.
When the check came, server addressed the issue with the clams, apologized for it. Yet it was still on the bill. I would get being charged if it was us claiming it was not to our taste, but it was filled with sand.
We won’t come back. We won’t suggest this for our friends either.

We’ve been meaning to try this place for months, just couldnt get reservation. We are happy when they said theres a table available for 4ppl.
Menu changes everyday. Bread and olive oil were awesome! We started with a lot of tapas, croquettes were really good my fav were ham and cheese and shrimp. Kale salad with sardines was great as well. They had beef stew for main course, we were all not thrilled about it.
Service was great! Owner went around the restaurant to say hello to everyone.
Overall we would go back again.
Tip: make reservation and BYOB

I was very intrigued when I head of Broa — a Portuguese tapas place — How unique! I was very excited when I walked in for dinner. The place is cute and lots of 2 top tables fill the room.
As other Unilocalers have mentioned, there is no printed menu as it changes daily. There is the chalkboard at the door — so as others have recommended, we took a picture of it so we could reference and review it at our table.
The food is great! We ordered a few of everything — some sausages, some fritters, a salad, and a few mains. Everything was pretty good. I think the fritters were perfectly fried. They were a big hit among everyone at our table. Portions are pretty small — so it’s best to order 3 – 4 plates per person.
The unfortunate part was the service. We asked for waters when we ordered our food and one of my friends also asked for sliced lemon for her water. We had to ask again a few times before we actually received said glasses of water and sadly my friend never got her lemon despite the multiple requests. Additionally, there were a few plate changes throughout the course of the meal, and the waiter always brought out one less than the number of people… so it always took a few minutes to get his attention again to have him bring another plate. However, the waiter was on point when it came to the wine. He made sure we had glasses and made sure a new bottle was opened when we were nearing the end of one. I guess their motto is to keep pouring the wine and then everything else will fall into place!

I’ve wined-​and-​dined-​it-​up in Portugal (Lisboa and Albufeira) and none of those generic retos in Newark, with those redic all-​you-​can-​eat menus compare to this JC gem.
Tiny resto with like 3 workers.
The Chef and Host are legit Portuguese… lots of Portuguese peeps walking in talking to em, all night long.
The Host, on a daily basis, writes the day’s menu on a chalk board. The writing is barely legible but totally authentic.
BYOB but you can order Portuguese wine from down the street and they deliver.
The food totally reminds me of the fare served in the little restos in Portugal.
The garlic is infused into everything… including my blood, now.
The turnovers and the cod were really delicious. I can’t wait to try the sardines, once they are in-​season.
I hope the annoying RT ³⁄₄₆ suburbanites don’t destroy the ambiance of this spot with their ruckus. Stick to your Newark rodizios, please.
This place if for refined palates, like mine.

Came here with a hungry stomach & a bottle of red as this place is BYOB. We waited in anticipation about 45 mins on Friday night around 7pm. Love the quaint atmosphere, romantic lighting and even concentrated kitchen smell that drenched our coats.
Small plates were written on a chalk board so that while you wait, you can decide what you will order.
Ordered 3 small $ 8 plates and 2 x small plates, $ 10 and another sandwich to share for $ 23.
Humm. we asked for the sandwish about 3 times and all 3 times, re received the response from the server «about 10 mins». After being there for 2 hrs, we were still without the last plate. 50+ mins after seeing 2 of our sandwich being served to table sat later than ours, we casually asked for a check. If they feel that they can pick & choose who they prioritize as customer, they should also know that customers also can take their money and go else where.
What a pity. this truly could have been a great 5 star gem if service was at least consistant.

So. Much. Yes.
From the ambiance to the fantastic food to the BYOB and everything in between, Broa has got it all figured out. I finally came in for dinner and am already planning my next visit.
The space is small but that’s part of what really gives Broa it’s charm. You almost feel as if you are in the chef’s personal kitchen /​living room. But the cool thing is, you actually are. Mike who is the chef and owner is actually cooking all of the food in a kitchen that is right next to the seating area. So when you are eating something that is really yum (which will be anything) you can basically just shout over your praise and he’ll give you a thumbs up.
Don’t expect to find a set menu here because there isn’t one. Yes, they’ve got some staples that usually don’t change such as the fritters, breads and salads, but all of the entrees change daily depending on what Mike finds at the market that morning. It’s usually a variety of fresh meats, seafoods and chorizos and everything sounds mouthwatering.
Upon being seated you’ll find some fresh bread and olives at your table. I pulled a typical me and filled up on way to much bread. There is so much delicious food to come that next time I’lll resist the bread basket. We started off with chorizo bread and octopus fritters. The bread was stuffed with a ton of juicy chorizo and was oily, garlicky and delicious. There were also potato sticks served on the side which added some nice salt and crunch. All of the fritter options sounded delicious, but after consulting with our waiter we decided to go with the octopus. The fritter basket comes with four perfectly fried and golden fritters and they are stuffed with a sweet sauce mixture and pieces of octopus. I’m not exactly sure what the sauce was, but they were so good.
Finally, for our entrée we went splitsies on the shrimp special. I forget what type of shrimp it was but the owner told us that it was the rolls royce of the shrimp world and hot dayuuum was he right. They were absolutely enormous and I basically just felt like I was eating a lobster tail. Oh and the butter dipping sauce on the side was something that I’ll dream about, like forever.
If you haven’t tried Broa yet then don’t waste time! You are missing out!

I would give 10 stars for the atmosphere and decorations of this place if I could. It feels so cozy and welcoming, the owner of the place clearly knows how to make the best out of its space. The place looks super vintage and smells awesome like your grandma’s kitchen. I just can’t speak enough of it.
Free bread and olives were nice, but food and service were horrible. After being seated, we were left with two empty glasses for good thirty minutes before the waiter came to take our order, still no water or anything to drink. Not to mention that the place is small and not packed, I felt like we were invisible.
We ordered beef fritters, garlic shrimp and shrimp porridge. The waiter told us that each dish was served in a half serving, and two people might want to order 4 – 5 dishes for dinner. I was like, wth, each dish is priced at $ 15-​$ 20 and I need 5 of those for 2 people?
Ten minutes later the fritters came, there was no sign of beef in the filling. I started to wonder if my English was so bad that the waiter could not understand and thought I ordered the cheese ones. Anyway, half way through our fritters, the waiter came and asked us if we wanted our beef fritters as the cook sent us the wrong items, we were so ready for the main dish that we decided to stick with the ones we got. Half an hour later, our shrimp porridge came, it was not my favorite but I had not tried that dish anywhere else before so I guess that it might be considered authentic and good to other people.
After I was done with my shrimp porridge for good 30′, my husband’s garlic shrimp never came. We just sat there waiting. Finally the other waiter (or manager?) came by to ask us if things were ok. He probably was ready to hand us the check when my husband mentioned about the shrimps that never came. That was when they realized that they forgot our order. Few minutes later, the shrimps came and looked super disappointing. We could not believe that we paid $ 18 for few tiny shimps that were cold and placed unappetizingly in this big bowl. They must have been some kind of magically healthy, organic, preciously imported shrimps?
When things could not get worse, we were asked to move to another table as soon as my husband got his shimps. We were offered free soda and desserts to compensate, but honestly, at this point I was so pissed that I just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
I am sure some of you may like this place, I probably might like this place better if I came here at a different time. But this is very disappointing experience that I had, and I doubt that I would set foot to this place again, ever.

Okay — there are some super stellar reviews of this place and I was really, really looking forward to coming here.
The menu is on the chalkboard, take a picture (they tell you to because they dont have menus at the table). It would be REALLY helpful if you had a smaller chalkboard that the waiter could bring around to tables… or even just two boards on either side of the place — we sat in the back corner near the bathroom and would have preferred to have a menu closer.
Our waiter confirmed that our order of chicken fritters, octopus salad, and steak sandwiches probably werent enough for three… so he upsold us on mussels and a sausage sampler. Everything we ordered was in the $ 10 — $ 17 range… we didnt ask how much the two upsells were nor did we look at the photograph of the menu. Our mistake.
That sausage sampler was NOT worth the $ 30. when it came… no one explained what any of them were (well, we knew which one was the blood sausage). Pretty disappointing.
The course before that was lovely — the fritters were the star there. the octopus was extremely salty, but very tender. The mussels were fine. a little «fishy» for my taste and the bell-​pepper stuff on top was a bit of a distraction: it didnt really complement the seafood.
The course after the sausages was also mediocre… extremely salty and the steak was well done and tough. Great seasoning on the meat though– very bold and full of flavor.
Overall, Im sure we probably could have had a better server and would have ranked this place a little higher. but, with everything new and exciting going on in Jersey City, it’d be difficult to justify coming back.

A week ago I visited a brand new Spanish tapas restaurant in Jersey City and walked away disappointed at every single aspect of the experience. Tonight, I visit Broa, which specializes in Portuguese tapas, and everything was incredible. Four of us dined for under $ 100 (with our own BYOB bottle of wine) and dollar for dollar, this was one of the best meals I can remember.
Broa is small and the ambiance is very cozy. It can be tough to get into – this evening, people were turned away or waited quite some time without a reservation. (Make reservations by calling the restaurant: 201−463−1467.)
Our group of four ordered four appetizers and one more substantial meal, and we couldn’t finish it all, even though every single item was delicious. The shrimp fitters were rich; the chorizo-​stuffed bread was delicious; the tuna chickpea salad was outstanding; and the tuna steak was incredible. Everything was so delicious, we didn’t have a favorite item or a least favorite. Be warned it’s all a little salty, but our party had no complaints about the taste, freshness or presentation of our very tasty tapas.
The service is very personal but a bit leisurely. Don’t plan on making a quick visit to Broa. If I had one gripe, it would be that after an appropriately relaxed pace throughout our dinner, it took quite some time to get our check. That is a minor inconvenience given the quality of the food and experience at Broa.
We will definitely be back. I’d rank this as easily one of the best restaurants in Jersey City.

Superb atmosphere and feel, but the small plates leave more to be desired.
I don’t hate this place, however I wish that the food would have left me wanting more. While I may not be a professional or know Portuguese food very well, but I must say the food was pretty much average and didn’t separate itself as a place that specialized in their dishes. The stuffed bread was decent but nothing special. Seafood was decent, conches very sandy and nothing too notable about the seasoning. The fritters were amazing though!
I suppose maybe the ingredients may be quality but by the looks of the place and price point I guess I had expected more.