Between Trenton itself and its inner suburbs (Lawrence, Hamilton, Ewing) you have a wonderfully diverse set of inexpensive, ethnic restaurants close-by. Drive to the “outer” suburbs (Princeton, Bordentown, Hopewell, Lambertville, New Hope), and you can find wonderful, upscale dining.
It is good to have somewhere to take a date. You probably want something not too stuffy and formal, but not too relaxed either. The food should be very good, even a little fancy, yet offer a variety of options for any palate. And probably, since you are aiming to impress, you might consider some … Continue reading Date Night Delicacies
Sometimes, you need to escape to something over-priced, pretentious, and utterly scrumptious. And on those days, you’d better get in the car and go to Brick Farm Market.
Brick Farm Market is located in the Malek Chevrolet Building (a 1930’s brick auto-repair shop) in the center of Hopewell. It is about a 30 minute drive from Trenton. A beautifully renovated establishment, they are part farm market (from their sister farm, Double Brook Farm), part bakery, part coffee shop, part butcher, part cheese shop, and part deli. It’s a little bit like walking into the cafe shop of a Whole Foods, only the food is superior, the ambiance is nicer, and the prices are (believe it or not) slightly higher. Is it worth it? Occasionally.
There is ice cream worth making a drive for. There is ice cream worth eating in the winter. And then there is ice cream worth shoving your firstborn child out of the way so that you can get the final spoonful. Princeton’s The Bent Spoon is all of the above.
(Covid Update Dec 2021 – in business) Cafe Antonio is really two restaurants. Step left when you walk inside, and you’ll be taken to a charming (if a little chintzy) old-style red-sauce Italian restaurant with formal service. Step right, and you’ll enter a plain and unembellished pizza parlor, where you order at the counter. Depending … Continue reading A Restaurant Divided
Updated December 2021 Chencha y Chole (“C y C”) opened in June of 2015 in a distinctive, triangular shaped storefront at the intersection of Cass and S. Broad. It has survived COVID and remains one of our favorites in town, with superb, homemade Mexican specialties. (Thanks to our friends at Roebling Lofts for sponsoring this … Continue reading Mountain out of a Mole de Pollo
(Covid Update Dec 2021 – in business) Captain Paul’s proves that inventive entrepreneurs can make a go of even unlikely business concepts. Take the hot dog. Many spurn it as an overly processed, heavily salted, highly fatted anachronism. American cuisine at its worst. One of the culprits (though perhaps not the primary one) in a … Continue reading Man Bites Dog
Living in Trenton and there’s very few Greek restaurant around. Except Mikonos, which was recommended to me by a friend. I’ve now eaten most of the offerings on the menu, and while I have a few reservations, I’m happy to recommend it. It offers tasty, authentic cuisine Greek cooking that ranges from OK to sublime, depending on what you order.
(Covid Update Dec 2021 – in business) City Deli is a somewhat misleading name for a small restaurant near the statehouse that is serving up an ambitious, home-cooked, vegetarian-friendly menu. If you’re a carnivore, don’t let the veggie-friendly tag get in the way: you’ll find plenty to eat, too. Indeed the menu is astonishingly broad, … Continue reading Deli-cate Offerings
(Covid Update Dec 2021 – in business) Italian People’s Bakery (“IPB”) has been an institution in Chambersburg since Pasquale Gervasio opened a bake shop in 1936. The current location on Butler St is one of the few surviving hold-over businesses from Chambersburg’s Italian past, in part because the bakery services a local chain of suburban … Continue reading Power to the Peoples
When a friend told us that we had to go to Ewing and order the “Falafel Pie” at Little Moe’s Pizza and Grill, we were skeptical. Perhaps we were imagining it wrong–thinking this would be a regular pizza (red sauce and cheese) dotted with falafel as though it were sausage. Or perhaps the falafel would be sliced … Continue reading Franken-Pie
If you like to drink your coffee in a hip, buzzing cafe, then you may need to head over to Princeton. There, you’ll find one of our favorite coffee shops, Small World Coffee. Small World is a Princeton fixture (in fact, there are actually two of them, one on Nassau and one on Witherspoon, though … Continue reading It’s a Small World
The rechristened Broad Street Diner is a superb place to get breakfast. Frankly, I haven’t tried their dinner foods, but if it’s as good as their breakfasts, it will be great.
Imagine if there were an Italian restaurant, perhaps in Trenton’s old Chambersburg neighborhood, and it were frozen in time for 30 years. There’d still be the same linoleum on the floor, the same wood paneling and fading wallpaper, the same staff, the same food, the same pictures on the wall, and the same people patronizing … Continue reading Nostal-Chick (and Nello’s)
Once upon a time, Trenton housed a very well-regarded Bagel Shop on South Broad Street, run by the entrepreneurial TC Nelson (now the proprietor of Trenton Social). Since the closing of that shop in 2003, downtown Trenton has been bagel-less. Sure, you can get bagels at one of any number of Dunkin’ Donuts franchises–but those … Continue reading The Bagels Are Back
I was taking an Uber ride home from the Trenton Train Station with a very sweet driver who said he was originally from Pakistan. I asked if he had tried Shan’s Restaurant in Trenton, and he said it was a favorite. But had I tried Afghan Kabob and Grill, he asked? And with that, I knew I had a tasty trip ahead.
It is hard to find a good source for Asian ingredients around the city of Trenton. For years, I’d been driving up to the Asian Food Market in Plainsboro, which is a traffic-filled ride along Route 1. It’s a market with an impressive selection, but poor service and a not-so-clean environment. So when I stumbled upon H Mart in Levittown, PA, I was delighted. It’s closer, cleaner, and features a surprisingly decent Korean food court style restaurant inside of it. A true find.
Indian Hut is a slightly odd, new restaurant in a small retail strip just south of the Quakerbridge Mall in Lawrence. It offers a cake bakery (not Indian desserts, but western style cakes with butter-cream frosting) combined with a casual Indian Cafe serving an extensive Indian menu that includes chaat. The food is well prepared, and prices are reasonable.
To many, tomato pie is Trenton’s signature dish (sorry, Pork Roll fans). A thin, crisp crust, light cheese and crushed tomato. Deceptively difficult to make well. Transcendent when successful. Since some of the famous tomato pie establishments left town, we’ve been looking for a worthy successor in town. We’re excited to be able to report we’ve found one: Jerry’s on the 700 block of S. Broad. The owner, Luis, apprenticed at Papa’s and Two Brothers before taking over Jerry’s. Make sure you order your tomato pie directly from him.
Crown Fried Chicken is the dive that you expect it to be–or maybe even more so. There are two greasy tables in the corner, but most of the traffic here is take-out. The interior is dominated by a massive menu that wraps around the entire counter–and doesn’t mention falafel at all. (Eventually we did see a small sign in a far corner of the room that mentioned the falafel, but only after we’d eaten.) If you know to ask for it, they’ll happily dish up some falafel for you–and it’s pretty darn good.
The greater Trenton restaurant scene has been enriched by Asian immigrants, and Shanghai Bun is a great example: its head chef, Chung Hwang, was born in Taiwan to a Shanghainese father and ran a restaurant with him outside of DC for 15 years before moving to this area. Significantly, walk into Shanghai Bun at any … Continue reading Squeeze Bun
Trenton is the home of tomato pie. So why would Hidden Trenton bother covering an out-of-town pizza place that doesn’t serve tomato pie? Because Osteria Procaccini offers something you can’t get anywhere in town–artisanal Neapolitan-Style pizzas using locally sourced organic ingredients, gourmet salads, and service that can’t be beat. It isn’t a Trenton tomato pie, but it’s absolutely worth a a visit.
Mauceri’s is an “old line” Chambersburg pizza joint now under Latino management (as most are). In our limited sample, the pizza is pretty good… the ingredients taste fine but the crust is disappointing. But it’s not a place to make a special trip for. So why are we reviewing? In a word: pupusas! The chef is from El Salvador, the traditional home of these wonderful, stuffed tortillas, which may be the best in town.
(Covid Update Dec 2021 – in business) I’ve driven past Castillo’s for years. It looks like a classic neighborhood pizza joint, a survivor of the Italian Chambersburg. And at one level it is: the take-out menu is a six-panel tri-fold. Open it, and you think you’re reading every pizza parlor menu on the planet: pizza, … Continue reading Out of Focus
This is one of those unlikely Trenton places that serves great food from a hole in the wall. Literally. Justin’s Crab Shack serves fresh, fabulous home-made seafood (plus a selection of other foods suitable for carnivores and vegetarians) at the Regal I Bar on North Clinton Ave. You order in the back and eat in … Continue reading Crabs ‘n Coltrane
The new Trenton economy is on display at Fuente del Buen Gusto every day. Frankly, it’s not the best Guatemalan food in Trenton. Not that FdBG’s food is bad; it’s actually pretty good, but much of it is served off of a buffet, and it suffers a bit from sitting around. However, you won’t find many other places in town that are busier. The joint is usually packed with working men and women from the neighborhood. I suggest that anyone who wants to understand the new Trenton economy should show up here during the week just to check it out.
Bamboo Grill serves up, to my palate, the best West Indian food in town. And that’s saying something in Trenton, which has seen several good West Indian restaurants pop up in recent years.
El Potrillo (Spanish for a foal, or newborn horse) is a pleasant Mexican restaurant in the heart of Chambersburg. The food at El Potrillo is authentic, home-made Mexican. It’s not gourmet or even particularly subtle, but most of it is pretty tasty, and the portions are huge. Prices are competitive with other Trenton Latino joints, and cheap compared to anywhere else in the greater Mercer County area.
Good Thai food is worth a drive. And you’ll be happy to drive to Ploy Siam, a breath-taking Thai restaurant in Robbinsville, NJ (quite close to the new Papa’s Tomato Pies location), about 15 minutes from downtown Trenton. Inside this unprepossessing strip mall restaurant you’ll find an oasis of relaxation and elegance. The restaurant’s decor is simply stunning; nicely trimmed walls with elegant art surround a central skylight which shines down on a small fountain leading to an orchid-lined stream. If you sit in the center of the restaurant (and I’d encourage you to do so), it’s like stepping into an elegant botanical garden with a Thai theme. Only instead of admiring the horticultural delights, you’ll be savoring the authentic flavors of Thailand.
Located right on the border of Trenton and Hamilton, Olde Liberty Tavern is a basic dive bar, but with Trenton-style prices which makes it a bargain for central New Jersey.
For years, Princeton’s high-end restaurants were stuffy affairs with old-fashioned menus; they were hardly worth the trip and certainly not worth the price. That all changed with the opening of Agricola, Princeton’s venture into the farm-to-table movement. A partnership with Great Road Farm (a 112 acre farm in Skillman, NJ), Agricola offers an ever-changing, inventive gourmet menu using fresh, seasonal ingredients. With formal service in a relaxed atmosphere, this is the perfect place for a dinner before the theater in Princeton, or a nice date. Or, if you’d like something more casual, their bar area is a spectacular addition to the Princeton options.
If you’re looking for a friendly diner to have a leisurely breakfast in downtown Trenton, look no further than Sunrise Luncheonette. This modest cafe has humble decor and decent food, but its chief selling point is the relaxed atmosphere. Step inside, and you’ll instantly feel like you’re a regular returning to a favorite joint, welcomed by the owner and greeted by your (new) friends.
Gyro Express is a small, immaculately clean take-out joint with a straight-forward menu: chicken or lamb gyros, or felafel, which you can have prepared as a salad platter or a sandwich. You can also get Samosas (which aren’t homemade, but are quite good despite that), and baklava pastry for dessert.
Sabor Latino is a friendly Dominican dive located on the eastern fringes of the ‘Burg. I’m not at all familiar with Dominican food, but judging from the menu, it tends more towards stews and soups than the grilled items I associate with Guatemalan cooking; or the various, creative packaging (tacos, burritos, tostadas, etc.) that characterizes Mexican cuisine. That said, it’s all here: as its menu points out in Spanish, it “also serves the cuisine of Guatemala and Costa Rica” and Mexican items show up on the menu under the piquant heading of “International Dishes” .
If Roots has a guiding philosophy in their cuisine, it seems to be delicious, elegant, comfort. They serve food you want to eat, cooked to perfection and served exquisitely. Their ramen warms the soul, the vegetarian version served with a spectacularly poached egg, soft and pliable white with an oozing yolk, filling the bowl with tongue-coating richness. The dim sum and greens are astonishing little bowls of flavor and delight–with care and precision even in the plating of the smallest items. We’ve sampled many of the noodles (including the street noodles, the drunken noodle, and the pad thai) and they are superb. The sushi is served with perfectly seasoned rice and elegant care. The soups are rich and belly-warming, with waves of flavor that wash over your tongue. Even the house-made kimchi is astonishing. The only disappointments so far have been in the dim sum section of the menu–we loved the Shanghai buns, but the bean curd and vegetable dumplings were only middling, as were the soup dumplings (good, but we expect more layers in the flavor of a soup dumpling).
For most of the second half of the twentieth century, and for a few years post-millennium, there were two DeLorenzo’s in Trenton. One established a national reputation… that was the one on Hudson Street, which closed in 2012. The other DeLorenzo’s was on Hamilton Avenue, founded by two brothers of the Hudson Street founder. This DeLorenzo’s is THAT DeLorenzo’s. While not quite the transcendent confection that used to be found on Hudson Street, it’s still a more than adequate tomato pie, with a crispy crust with a little bit of char, and high quality ingredients.
Little more than a stone’s throw from the Princeton Junction train station, asianbistro was one of the original Asian fusion restaurants in this area, and still one of the best. My sushi-eating friends claim that the bistro serves up some of the best sushi in Mercer County, and the Korean and Japanese cooking, in particular, are quite good.
Owner Lavalle Williams runs the Downtown Deli with an eye to detail. He’s there almost all the time. The women behind the counter make up a nice sandwich from fresh, high quality cold cuts. Service is fast, even at peak lunch rush. Prices aren’t particularly cheap, but they’re not unreasonable for the quality
In the heart of Lawrenceville (about 15 minutes from downtown Trenton), you’ll find WildFlour, an utterly charming bakery/cafe. Set in a beautiful old house, the bakery features a small service area for ordering pastries, cookies, breads, cakes, scones, etc, as well as a simply gorgeous cafe dining area, tastefully decorated and with beautiful natural light. They have everything that you could possibly want from a bakery (from gorgeous cakes to brazilian cheese puffs), and the cafe boasts a menu of crepes, salads, and sandwiches that’ll make you feel like you’re in Paris. What’s the catch? Everything, absolutely everything, is 100% gluten-free (and vegetarian).
But here’s the trick… depending on what you order, you might not notice that it’s gluten-free. I would put their danishes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, and knishes (oh, the knishes!) against any other bakery’s–they are simply among the best I’ve ever had. The danishes are flaky and decadent, I particularly recommend the nutella danish which is so lush it ought to be illegal. The cookies have just the right blend of browned crumble and buttery softness. The cinnamon rolls are unforgettable, delightfully dense, not too sweet, and with a nutty caramelization on top. And the knishes… you will swoon over these knishes! Light and airy, they are the perfect bite with an exquisite flavor that’ll transport you to a bygone era. They come in two flavors (potato and spinach with caramelized onion) and are only served on weekends or by special order.
The revived Warren Street–Trenton’s own “restaurant row”– used to host a wonderful coffee shop, Cafe Ole. This year, Cafe Ole shut down their walk-in restaurant, functioning solely as a catering business now. Ever since that closing, we’ve been lacking a place to go for a quiet morning cup of coffee downtown–somewhere that wasn’t a diner or a restaurant, but had a coffee shop feel to it. Now there’s a new kid on the block, the E. Front Cafe. Technically not on Warren Street, E. Front Cafe is is right around the corner (appropriately on East Front Street). The cafe provides a humble and cozy coffee shop vibe, a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of downtown life. With a remarkably friendly staff, and an eclectic menu at “Trenton prices” (i.e., significantly less inexpensive than comparable joints in our neighboring towns), it’s a welcome addition to the Warren Street family.
E Front Street 2The best thing about E. Front Cafe is the atmosphere. It’s an quirky mix of tables and booths and odd little trays on wheels, along with scattered phrases written on the walls, a giant American flag, and a hand-written menu on white board. But there’s something delightful about it, and if you find yourself sitting by the window, you’ll enjoy your breakfast or lunch by a warm (though artificial) fireplace. It’s a nice touch.
The Food Court at the Capital Center is a great (hidden away) place downtown to sit down and get out of the weather, and maybe even buy some food. It’s nearly charming, with tall ceilings, tiled floors, and comfortable chairs. If you need to kill a couple of hours between appointments, you can buy a cup of coffee or a sandwich, and be quite cozy while you work on your tablet or laptop. No one will bother you.
