Shahzad’s Halal
A Middle Eastern counter-service take on city-style street-cart fare hums along astride the Garden State Parkway in Parlin, serving forth fat-and-happy gyros and many-layered rice bowls built on the principles of good, hearty home-cooking.
Freeze-Spiced Grapes
Party, at your house! Start off with these very chill treasures that adhere to both do-ahead and easy mandates and suit just about any end-of-summer holiday fete.
Tamada
At a swanky Georgian newcomer, dinner is a built-in show of well-prepared classics and the occasional riff on something routine that doesn’t wholly reinvent a dish, but reimagines it in sunnier form. With standouts that showcase its homeland at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it’s ready for a close-up on date night.
Pho Viet Express
A Vietnamese family whose skilled kitchen team turns out well-crafted versions of classics that never stint on authenticity has developed a strong diner base in a locale not known for hosting culinary adventures. They come for a surfeit of fresh rolls and uncommonly robust pho.
And Now for Something a Little Different
Our quintet of favorites as summer winds down sees members of the produce family having their say – and not always in the expected ways. Which is why, perhaps, these dishes stand out.
Samfaina
The Catalan version of ratatouille is a dish you need to have on your high-summer menu card. Today, super-star chef Craig Polignano offers tips to making the best-ever version of this celebration of the season.
Carnitas Taco Factory
Come armed with an appetite and maybe even an army of sturdy flatware when you visit this fast-casual Mexican in a storefront that barely contains the gargantuan quesurritos made right in front of you.
Sweet Dynasty/Old Bridge
In an old Exxon station with plenty of space to make her Asian-inspired ice creams, Song Lee continues a tradition of artisan craftsmanship in scoopable frozen treats.
Bread & Culture
Breads and pastries deserving of praise fly out of this popular downtown eatery. But sandwiches with promising concepts falter due to lack of focus in the assembly.
Potato-Tomato Causa
By subbing this season’s primo piece of produce for the usual chicken or tuna salads, you can put a new spin on the Peruvian classic that is so right for right now.
S&Y Mini Hot Pot
An eminently pleasant, casually covert eatery run by a couple steeped in on-point cooking and hospitality might be the leader of a most respectable pack of hot-pot specialists now raising the bar on the genre in the Garden State.
The French Fry Guy
Andrew Keris, potato farmer and master of the double-deep-fry, turns out carton after carton of superior frites from the confines of his snappy green food truck. Catch him wherever you can.