Los Bandoleros Tacos
Beefed-up Mexican staples benefit from the slow-cooked techniques of classic barbecue and a chef’s imagination to create a roster of winsome dishes. What’s fast-casual elsewhere is inherently deliberate and unhurried here. And all the better – much better – for the pace of cooking and eating.
Black Sheep Bar & Provisions: Fridays
It’s the most wonderful night of the week to many who frequent a place piloted by a chef with boundless creativity and a sense of pure fun too often missing in serious-food restaurants. Come to experience imagination gone edible and leave better educated. And smiling.
Lita
Glorious modern interpretations of Iberian classics come to tables in a setting chic, welcoming and spirited, and staffed by a team that’s truly all-hands on all-decks. There’s a glow about the entire place, as well, on the faces of Team Lita and on plates that hit their marks.
Hen Vietnamese Kitchen & Bar
Miscues by both front-of-house and kitchen crews hinder what’s being served at a splashy, swanky restaurant and prevent diners from understanding key components of a cuisine that’s inherently vibrant and vivacious.
Chutzpah Kitchen
In the distinctive downtown district that is the Village sits this Middle Eastern mecca that’s emblematic of the neighborhood’s singular charms. It’s owned and operated by Sagi Ohayon, a chef who is something of a Pied Piper for dishes that have been around a mighty long spell. But he never lets them feel old and always makes certain they get respect and TLC.
Moksha Eats
The staples of India are on the menu of this fine-tuned storefront, but it’s the comprehensive listing of Nepalese fare that you must not ignore. Indeed, if you zero in on these flavors that are more subtle, with spices less prominent and dishes extra-carefully rendered, you’ll hit Himalayan heights.
Good Earth Organic Eatery
The name may suggest an all-out hippie bill of fare. But while the food divined by a couple from Italy is much about vegan and vegetarian, fish gets its own listing and local roots and homey styles prevail. It’s the place to plant yourself on Cape Island when trendiness isn’t your groove. Er, jam.
Finch
Disconnects to communities clip the wings of a restaurant designed to provide a high-toned dining experience at a remade landmark in the smallest of Hunterdon County’s River Towns. With too little respect afforded the region’s farmers and food artisans and lack of proper attention in the kitchen, flawed dishes dominate a menu designed by a chef with an impressive pedigree.
Kanpachi Sushi
Much loved and resolutely patronized by its fans, this johnny-on-the-spot for all things sushi is the definition of what a local is in 21st-century New Jersey.
Oasis
Moroccan classics may get the respect they’re due at this downtown storefront in a restaurant-rich town. Or they may not. Poor handling of what could be, what should be satisfying signature dishes results in failures too ignoble to dismiss.
Cap’n Cat Clam Bar
A stalwart for seafood in Gloucester County’s Franklin Township is this old-school spot with a lively bar and throwback vibes that vindicate those who favor the basics, particularly when it comes to shellfish.
Bombay Street Food Malvani Katta
Inside a humble food court on state Highway 27, the Garden State’s own Spice Route, is the equivalent of an immobile food truck in which a woman whips up what you might find in the home of a top-flight cook in Mumbai. Catch her if you can, adventurers, and heed her advice.