Andrea Lekberg, The Artist Baker
The newest inductee into TPW’s chef-picks-chef club of top toques in the Garden State is multitalented in various art forms, an activist with commitment and passion for her community, and has a background as diverse as her culinary crafts. She’s the consummate Renaissance woman.
Baguette Bistro
Classic Vietnamese covers the basics in style at a shopping center storefront shepherded by a couple who know the cuisine as well as the importance of mindful service.
El Pacifico
With a voice unlike any other in the Garden State, Eduardo Espinoza fashions a seafood-centric menu that reimagines standards and reinvigorates the outmoded. Whatever the emerging chef cooks will keep you glued to your table in this modest, unaffected space.
Around the World, in Two Weeks: 09-25-23
No matter where you are in the Garden State, there's a veritable U.N. of exceptional foods. The fortnight just past proves that true.
Beans with Custard
Top of the new season to you! And, speaking of tops, how about a creamy-cheesy blanket for your pot o’ beans?
Cardinal
Quirks of choice keep a newcomer piloted by an old chef hand from hitting consistent heights. Adam assesses a teeter-tottering experience in Monopoly City.
Bloom
Concepts are smart and primary ingredients properly handled at a BYOB storefront where Korean accents and influences permeate French classics.
Apples Another Way
It’s prime time for a favorite fruit – and high time to take a road perhaps less traveled in its use.
‘Blessed Little Fishes’
Tinned fishes are easy to take for granted. They’re also easy to take advantage of when dinner-in-a-minute is the order of the day.
Amasi
Jordanian specialties take the lead at a new Middle Eastern restaurant in western Warren County. Once you’ve been awakened to the considerable charms of mansaf, mutabal and magluba, there’s no turning back.
Paratha, Cooked to Order
At the Holland Delta Mart, sitting astride its companion gas pumps in the far west of Hunterdon County, South Asian flatbreads are flipped off a hot griddle into the custody of fortunate passers-by. As well as those who know enough to make a special trip.
Fat Choy
It’s a mishmash of cultures, of times and of places. It should be fun. But this refugee from the other side of the Hudson is plagued by cooking lapses that shortchange its concept.