savory-bites » New Jersey

Tops Diner in Newark

Jessie — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:03:17 +0000

Mark is going to the undergrad business school at Rutgers Newark. Hooray!! So on Saturday, Alex took us around the neighborhood, giving a tour of the campus as well as shortcuts/backroads to take when there’s congestion. I really tagged along for the food part of the trip.

Around noon-ish, we headed over the bridge towards East Newark to Tops Diner. It’s Alex’s favorite.

The place was packed. There’s additional parking in an “upper lot,” which is really an elevated addition via a slight ramp in the middle of the ground parking lot. Right when we stepped outside, we were hit with fumes of fried chicken. Only, this isn’t really a fried chicken joint. And even stranger, when we stepped into the diner, all fried chicken-like fumes disappeared.

As the parking lot indicated, the place was completely filled. Not a shocker given that it was prime-time brunch time on a Saturday. The diner is pretty big with two sections. For a party of three, we ended up waiting roughly 15 minutes.

All the specials are in the mid-teens to twenties price range

We were fortunate enough to snag a booth in the very back of the diner where it was more quiet. Luck also had it that the server was an old family friend of Mark’s. And then, as if that weren’t enough, it ended up that Alex’s good buddy in college was the server’s boyfriend. What a small world.

The three of us got omelets, despite our goal to each get something different. Well, at least we got three different omelets.

Whole Wheat Toast: Buttered and Complimentary of all omelets

All the omelets come with both homefries and toast. For the toast, you have a choice between whole wheat, rye and white bread. We all got whole wheat. It even comes buttered for you. In the beginning, it’s what every toast fanatic dreams of- a generous slab of butter right down the middle. But then, towards the end of the meal, it sorta gets gross because the butter solidifies!! YUCK!

Colorado Omelet: A Meat Lover’s delight with ham, bacon, sausage, peppers, onion, Jack & Cheddar cheese ($9.50)

This was actually my favorite omelet of the three. I ended up getting the Bourbon omelet (which is not pictured since I couldn’t seem to focus!) and that basically had spicy Andouille sausage with peppers, onions, tomato, and cheddar cheese. The difference between the Bourbon and the Colorado was the slightly spicy kick from the Colorado omelet. The peppers were a bit more pronounced and I think the onions really made a difference. However, the Bourbon omelet is by far the cheesiest!

But both were pretty delicious. Fluffy egg and plenty of stuffing!

Steak Fajita Omelet: Grilled Steak, Peppers, Onion, Jack & Cheddar Cheese ($10.50)

Alex opted for the Steak Fajita omelet. Out of the three omelets, this was the most photogenic. I think the guys liked this omelet the most, but for me, I’d rather have sausage in my eggs. Plus, the meat was a bit dry. But the bite with the onion was just oh so amazing.

Whereas the other two omelets looked like the stuff was cooked along side the egg, the egg in this omelet wrapped around the filling, which was pretty awesome.

HOMEFRIES with peppers, onions, and mmMMm goodness!

Of course, the homefries were amazing. Crisp on the outside, soft on the inside. Plus tons of peppers!!

Key Lime Pie (~$6.00)

It took us awhile to decide dessert and in the end, we had to flip a lens cap. It was between red velvet and key lime. They’re apparently known for their red velvet. Given how good the red velvet is at the Cheesecake Factory, I really wanted to try this. This one actually looked bigger (if that’s possible). But in the end, Mark wanted key lime and honestly, I wanted something “light” and tangy.

By far, the best fruity cheesecake I’ve ever had. The key lime slaps you in the face, but in a good way. It’s super tart but has all the consistency of a soft cheesecake. The only thing that could have made it better was a thicker graham crust but this was spot on delicious.

We got a red velvet to go for Clare. I have a feeling I’ll be back at this place again, so when I do come back, I’ll be sure to get the red velvet then. As for now, I’m stuffed just thinking about this meal.

You must come here if you’re in Newark. It’s diner food, but it’s cheap, it’s big portions, and it’s just amazing ordinary food. Can’t ask for anything more!

MENU
500 Passaic Avenue
Harrison, NJ 07029
(973) 481-0490

You should also check out:

Trip to Newark: Hamburgao & Riviera Bakery Cafe

Jessie — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:17:29 +0000

Cheese Tudo Burger: Bread, hamburger, mozzarella, ham, bacon, egg, potato sticks, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and corn (for a whopping $6.00!!!), Sumol carbonated drinks, Side of fries

This post is so long overdue by about 10 months? Maybe? So this post will be short and sweet.

I promised Suki I’d blog about our trip led by Dave and his gracious parents through the Portuguese side of Newark. We landed up at Hamburgao, a cheap but totally delicious hamburger joint and then a quaint cafe.

I can’t remember much, but I do remember the burger exploding with fillings like a fat sandwich from the grease trucks does. The fillings totally make the burger.

No idea (but it looked pretty!), Vanilla wafer pudding, Cappuccino, Tiramisu

At Riviera, we sat by floor to ceiling windows. Outside, parking was rare to come by, so we witnessed several instances where people just literally parked in the middle of the street, shut off their engines, and dropped in for a late afternoon coffee. That’s Newark for you.

I’d totally recommend getting the Cappuccino. They deck it all out and it’s enormous. I remember thinking that the Vanilla wafer pudding wasn’t my thing (David liked it though) but the Tiramisu was to die for and it had plenty of rum.

Hamburgao Menu
288 Lafayette St
Newark, NJ 07105
(973) 465-1776

Riviera Bakery Cafe
124 Ferry St
Newark, NJ 07105
(973) 491-9000

You should also check out:

Rodizio at Fernandes Steak House

Jessie — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:40:48 +0000

Sirloin cut

It poured, the parkway entrance was closed off, and route 9 was backed up, but we made finally made it! By the time we got to Fernandes in Newark, around 7:30pm, the place was jammed packed. They have an outside waiting area, which was swarming with people. There was a confusion in the reservation, so we ended up having to wait an additional 20 minutes. But by the time we were seated at 8pm, it seemed as if the party had just begun.

Pitcher of Sangria, Red ($23.00)

Mark ordered rodizio for both of us. Rodizio is a meat-lover’s heaven. You pay a fixed price (in this case $28) and then servers holding giant skewers of meat start coming around and slicing you the meat. It just never stops. At Fernandes, they had a ton of variety and even though we were seated the front corner, they made their way to our table almost immediately.

Before we ordered, they gave us a warm loaf of bread, which sadly, I only had one piece because I was saving my stomach for the rodizio. We also ordered a pitcher of red sangria, which in retrospect, was a bit too much for both of us. We each literally got a bit over three glasses full of sangria for that one pitcher!

Fries/Rice, Black Beans, Tomato/Onion dip, and Fried Bananas- complimentary of rodizio

When you order the rodizio, they bring over three complimentary dishes (shown above). We only touched a few of the fries and shared a fried banana. I think they’re just trying to load you up on the carbs so that you get full faster. The fries were ehh but my favorite was the fried bananas.

Squishy! (Fried Bananas!)- complimentary of rodizio

No, they’re not fried plantains; they’re fried bananas!. I’ve never had fried bananas before but they really don’t taste much different from a regular banana with a fried coating around them. We waited a bit into the meal before we ate it, so I wish I had it when it was warm. Either way, this was definitely my favorite from the three plates.

All you can eat rodizio ($28 per person)

When the rodizio came out, I was already starving, so I pretty much said yes to just about every person who passed by. Overall, I’d give the rodizio a 7/10 rating. Some of the cuts needed salt (they have coarse sea salt at the salad bar) and once we sprinkled some salt onto the meat, it was so much better. Other cuts were simply awesome as was. Some of our favorites of the nights were-

Top sirloin covered in garlic wine sauce
Filet
Hanger cut
Mini rotisserie chicken
Chicken sausages
Short ribs (asado style)
Charred sirloin

Bacon wrapped filet

Interestingly, we weren’t a big fan of the bacon wrapped meats. We speculate that the bacon had stayed out too long and by the time it came to us, it was cold and too dry. In turn, the filet, which was wrapped inside the bacon, was overcooked and a bit chewy. This was probably one of our least favorites, as well as the cheesesteak cut (which was eh despite the cheese on there) as well as the roast beef (which was SUPER bloody). The lamb kebobs were somewhat disappointing more tough than I had expected.

By the time the 8th guy came over, I was DONE. Some of them were super generous with the cuts. One of them practically gave me the whole slab of meat! Because there was simply so much meat, I ended up getting a ton of grilled onions from the salad bar to balance the meal out. If only I came here about 5 years ago, before college started…

Grilled Pineapple following rodizio

After a couple of more guys came over and saw us decline the meat, they offered us grilled pineapple, which signaled the end of our meal. The grilled pineapple came out, still warm and juicy. They sliced it right in front of us.

Sliced grilled pineapple

The heat intensifies the sweetness, making the pineapple taste like its been sitting in concentrated sugar water. The outside rim was covered with cinnamon. Definitely a favorite. Mark wasn’t so keen on the pineapple though.

The Dessert Menu

Then, they came out with the dessert menu. First, they give you a real menu with all the prices and names so you can figure out what you want. Then, a guy comes out with a tray full of all of the desserts so you can visualize and see what each of the desserts look it! Geeee-nius, I tell you! We had such a hard time choosing because they just all looked sooo delicious.

Serradura, Cookie crumbles & cream ($4.50)

We finally both agreed on the Serradura, which is a simple parfait-like dessert with two ingredients- sweet cream and fine ground cookie crumbles. The whole thing was amazingly delicious, but when we got to the end, we had all of this cookie crumble left and no more cream. At that point, it had the consistency of saw dust so we had to stop.

Our whole stay took 2.5 hours and Mark would have loved to stay longer if it weren’t for me literally falling asleep at the table. There just seemed to be unlimited sangria from that pitcher. Sad to say, we wasted two glasses of it since we had to drive home.

Overall, this was an awesome place. The rodizio that I hear about in NYC will typically cost you from $50-80 so this is definitely a steal by comparison. The service and hospitality is amazing and the rodizio is definitely worth the money, especially if you have the stomach for it. However, a dinner for two is still a splurge. Our dinner for two came out to roughly $110 including tip. Between the day before yesterday (Will brought me to a the NYC Food&Wine Show where I tasted over 20 wines in roughly two hours) and last night, I think I’m going to lay off the wine and the meat for awhile…

There was also a photographer who walked around during the night. He had one of those large old school polaroids and took people’s pictures for $7. A bit pricey, but we splurged, and I’m sure glad we did.

MENU
158 Fleming Avenue
Newark, NJ 07105-4008
(973) 589-4344

You should also check out:

Keum Ho Jung Restaurant

Jessie — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:46:27 +0000

Gop Dol Bibim Bap: assorted vegetables and a little beef over rice cooked in a stonewater pot ($12.95)

To say that this was the best Korean restaurant I’ve been to would be, well, simply irresponsible. After all, we skipped the traditional Korean dishes and ordered cheaper items, comprising primarily of rice and noodles. But what is safe to say is that this restaurant offers the best banchan I’ve ever had at any Korean restaurant. Banchan are those tiny complimentary plates that you get at all Korean restaurants. Typically, there’s kimchi, bean sprouts, potatoes, and some form of fish that is pulverized to pulp and remolded into cakes or flat strips. What we didn’t expect was a REAL, fried, and salty fish.

We arrived a bit before 7pm on a Thursday night. The place was practically empty, save for 2-3 parties. Upon ordering, the service was quick. Hot teas in tall classes appeared (remember to ask for water) and the banchan suddenly multiplied in front of us. Then, in the midst of our wide eye staring at the fish, the server delivered miso soup. We began eating.

Banchan- COMPLIMENTARY!

Banchan highlights:

Potatoes: Typically, the potatoes I’ve had are cold and creamy. This one was at room temperature and was slightly sweet. It was a brownish color, so I suspected it was marinated in some sort of sweet soy. But it’s safe to say that this was our favorite!
Fish cakes: I typically don’t touch these, but they were awesome. They looked like tiny egg omelets and were super savory.
Bean sprouts: They tasted like any normal bean sprout to me but Esther particularly liked them so I thought I’d mention it.
The Fish: The fish was probably 8 inches long and 2 inches wide. It was a traditional fried salty fish. They all taste the same. But seriously… a free fish?!

These were good too! I’m not going to pretend that I know my Asian greens, because I totally don’t.

Our gorged fish- funny story. The server came by and leaned into our table. For a moment I thought it was someone Esther knew. But nope! She slowly whispers to us in broken English- “You know. You can eat top. Right?” And I was like, “Oh, don’t worry lady, we will DEFINITELY eat all of it!” (well, sans the head!)

Kimchi Pa Jun: kimchi, scallion and meat pancake ($14.95)

We ended up ordering the pancake for the appetizer. It came out literally within 5 minutes. The pancake turned out to be a bit less flavorful than I had expected. I’ve had this at other restaurants where the kimchi flavor really came out and then was a bit dull. However, they provided some soy sauce for dipping which rectified this. The saving grace was the texture of the pancake. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Super amazing.

Seriously crispy…

Bee Bim Naeng Myun: sliced beef and vegetables over buck wheat noodles with spicy sauce ($10.95)

Esther settled on the buckwheat noodle dish because it had beef, which was what she was craving. The dish was decent, but the noodles were a bit chewy, to the point of being rubbery. In addition, there seemed to be alot of water in the bowl, which was magically soaked up by the noodles by the end of the night. Esther’s dish also came with a soup which she definitely did not like. It didn’t taste like anything. It looked like a murky cloud of nothingness.

Let me offer you some life advice. When given the choice between regular bibimbap and the gop dol bibimbap, always choose the one that has more words in it. Gop dol, which is the stone bowl, will set you back $1-2 more in most Korean restaurants, but it is TOTALLY worth the splurge. Let me explain why:

It sizzles. [sizzzzzz]
The heat from the bowl creates a crispy crust on the rice. Oh boy.
They typically drop an egg in the gop dol version, so its like frying an egg in your bowl, but the uncooked egg wraps around the rice as it heats up, capturing every grain with that oh so awesome egg.
The person across the table from you will be jealous.

I’ve never met a gop dol bibimbap that I did not like and this was no exception. The one con was that the “little” beef in the description was so accurate to the point obscurity. In other words, I saw like two tiny shreds of beef. But other than that, it’s tough to go wrong when it’s rice + eggs + veggies + that red spicy sauce they give you. Anyone know what that’s called?

MENU
518 Old Post Rd
Ste 12
Edison, NJ 08817

You should also check out:

The Office

Jessie — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:59:39 +0000

BBQ Bacon Cheddar Burger: Chargrilled USDA Choice beef patty topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, frizzled onions and a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce ($6.99)

An observation made by a friend of a friend (Roughly 36 hours before Hurricane Irene…)

In Florida: half days at work, boarded up shops, and the grocery stores are out of water, liquor, and ALL of the edible canned foods and cereals.

In New Jersey/Brooklyn: the canned food shelves are fully stocked, there are a few cases of water (which nobody is fighting for…), all the frozen food is completely gone, and I could have bought every half-decent cereal or soup my heart desired…

Folks, I’d like to remind you that your refrigerators run on electricity. Even with a category 1 hurricane, there’s a decent probability that power lines will be down. So yeah. Last night, everyone at ShopRite loaded up on milk and frozen foods (maybe it’s because Lean Cuisine was on sale). I really wanted to say something to the woman in front of me (but didn’t!).

Now that we’ve gotten my note on what NOT to buy when expecting a hurricane out of the way…

A few weeks back, Esther, Kelly, and I had lunch at The Office near The Green in Morristown. We figured we’d “celebrate” the end of Kelly’s summer-internship. Clearly, she has great timing given that she’s now safely in Chicago and out of Irene’s path. The Office is a bar and grill open late daily until 2am (whaa, in Jersey?!). I stopped by last year for a burger and all I remember was how great the burger was!

Caesar Salad: A traditional Caesar salad with Parmesan cheese and croutons ($6.49)

Given that it was a gorgeous day, we sat outside. It was a week-day lunch so the restaurant was virtually empty. I think a total of two parties entered the venue during our 45 minute dining experience. When we first arrived, two servers greeted us (one was in training) and left a small bowl of fresh carrots, celery, and broccoli with ranch dressing. I guess that’s their form of bread. We ordered immediately.

Esther got the Caesar Salad, and I have to say, the toasted bread that came with the salad looked quite appetizing.

Build your own burger with just Cheddar Cheese

Kelly and I both got burgers. I ended up getting the BBQ Bacon Cheddar Burger, and Kelly got a regular burger with just cheese. For a $7 burger, man, there are quite a few things to rave about…

The burger itself: The meat was cooked to perfection- medium rare. Still juicy and a bit pink, it was very well seasoned. A+.
The bun: I THINK it was a potato bun, but either way, I love those buns that are slightly buttery. This one had a certain sweetness to it like most potato buns. The only con is that the bottom of the bun got pretty soggy due to the juiciness of the burger. This is a pretty common flaw across many burgers.
The toppings: Oh man, frizzled onions make my day anyday. The BBQ sauce wasn’t anything to write home about, but still packed a pretty good kick in the mouth.

Overall: While not one of the top burgers I’ve ever had, this was definitely your above-average “average” burger. Does that make sense? Like if you were to compile all burgers under the $10 range, this would definitely rank high up there. Several little things distinguish it just your above-average “average” burger include the generic bbq sauce and the taste of the meat (you can tell that the grind wasn’t anything too special).

The fries were also quite crunchy and decent.

When we got the bill, I seriously thought the server undercharged us. $18?!?! For lunch for three?! It was ridiculously cheap. On their website, the BBQ bacon cheddar burger is $8.99 but I guess those are dinner portions. Anyway, for that steal, this place is definitely worth checking out, especially at lunch.

MENU
3 South Street
Morristown, NJ 07960
(973) 285-0220

You should also check out: