Jersey Exploration: Tapas at Due 360

Tapas.  We love them.  We've mentioned that.  A lot.  So yes, we found another place to try here in Jersey:  Due 360 in Summit.  The restaurant doesn't have a website, but the Yelp reviews were decent so we figured it was worth a visit.  The first time we went was for Mel's birthday in November 2016.  We tried the crispy crusted oysters, buffalo milk burrata & cured ham, albondigas,  and papas bravas.  We loved all the dishes except the papas bravas.  They were lacking that extremely crunchy outside/pillowy inside combination and were more like eating regular fried potatoes.  We wound up only taking a few bites.  But since we were pleased with the meal overall, we knew we'd return at some point.

Recently, we made our way back and had yet another enjoyable sampling of flavors.

We went with the Crispy Crusted Oysters again because we loved them so much in November.  Unfortunately, this time around there was more aioli than oyster inside each shell.  Looks like maybe the supply of oysters just wasn't so great that day.  But essentially a good dish.

We also tried the Polpo ala Plancha.  The pieces of octopus were charred beautifully, but we wish they had put a little more of the sauce on the plate.  Especially because the pieces of potato under the octopus were quite thick, so the extra sauce would've helped all the elements come together nicely.  We wound up eating the octopus and leaving the potatoes behind.  (Hmm... just like the papas bravas.  Perhaps we just aren't fans of how they prepare their potatoes.  Everyone has different taste in that regard.  Po-ta-toe, po-tah-toe.  HA!)

ANY-ways, by far our favorite two dishes this time around were the crab cakes (great crust and filling) and the Argentinian hanger steak (grilled PERFECTLY - so tender and flavorful with just the right amount of sauteed onions to kick things up a notch). 

We figured we'd close things off with a taste of something sweet so we ordered a slice of tres leches.  Unfortunately, the cake was barely soaked in leches.  In fact, some pieces were a little dry.  But we were still on such a high from the awesome steak that we didn't care too much.

So while we may not say Due 360 is our favorite tapas place ever, we definitely appreciate that it's relatively local and the dishes are generally solid.  When we don't feel like venturing too far for a tapas adventure, it will certainly do the trick!

*ADDENDUM *

We visit Due 360 pretty regularly and realized it might be useful to update this post with pics of some of the other dishes we've tried.

 Shrimp ala Ajillo
(pan seared shrimp, bean puree & white wine glaze, chili, lemon oil)

Super yummy!  We never think to pair shrimp with beans beyond a gumbo.  Turns out the combination is pretty nice with the right sauce!

Choripan

(mild spicy chorizo, fingerling, bean puree, chimmichuri crema, toast points, chive oil)

We're not usually a fan of the potatoes here, but they're a nice base for this chorizo and sauce.

 Crispy Squid
(pomodoro, herb salad, citrus)

Holds its own in the vast realm of fried calamari.

Red Sangria
Delicious and quite the generous pour!  They also have equally awesome white sangria.