The pupusas are outstanding. They come in 3 varieties: Cheese, cheese and black beans, or cheese and pork. The first two are vegetarian, the last obviously not. In particular, the black bean filling is superb, and the pupusas arrive with nary a glimmer of excess oil on their perfectly grilled exteriors.
Don’t let the name fool you, La Chapinita offers a full Guatemalan menu. Order off the menu to get wonderful, fresh-cooked food at incredibly reasonable prices. Located where Papas Tomato Pies used to call home.
Ila Mae’s is a neo-soul restaurant that opened in the winter of 2013 in a charming storefront on the 300 block of Market Street. The menu is eclectic and slightly quirky. Sandwiches are generally featured: most come on a whole wheat torpedo roll or a wrap. There are many vegetarian options, and many meat sandwiches that feature vegetable fillings as well. There is an fairly extensive selection of fish (flounder, tilapia, salmon, whiting) served in sandwiches or dinner entrees.
Roti comes from Trinidad: the cuisine of residents of South Asian descent. It refers to the bread, yes, but also the curried meal that comes with it (and often stuffed inside like a giant burrito).
There aren’t many places in Trenton where you can get good food late. The Buzz is basically a bar, and stays open until 2 AM. It’s owned by a middle aged Polish couple, who are at the bar every night. She keeps the kitchen open for the “full menu” at least until 10 just about every night. If the joint is hopping, it might be a lot later. And then they have a “late night menu” that’s good at least until 1 AM.
According to the Urban Dictionary, the term Hoagie is Philly slang for a sub sandwich. Italian men who lived on Hog Island (an island intersecting the Delaware and Schuylkyl Rivers) packed lunches made from large loaves of bread filled with meats — known as “hoggies.” Sometime by the end of WWII, the word transformed into … Continue reading Hog(ie) Wild→
Mariachi Grill (not to be confused with El Mariachi) serves Tres Leches, a fabulous dessert made from sponge cake and traditionally three different kinds of milk: whole, condensed, and evaporated (plus a whipped cream topping). It’s the best I’ve ever had. And I love Tres Leches. For me, there’s no more to be said.
The Hummingbird is a Jamaican restaurant downtown in the Warren Street revival area. And just as any decent Italian eatery in the ‘Burg used to have a photo of Frank Sinatra on the wall, the Hummingbird celebrates Bob Marley with a large poster in the dining room. Something of Marley’s spirit seems to inhabit the place, which has great food and a pleasant atmosphere.
El Chapin is a new Guatemalan restaurant at the corner of Cass and Lamberton Streets, within spitting distance of Waterfront Park. The specialty of the house is charcoal grilled rotisserie chicken, and it’s really, really, really good.
Five Guys serves an outstanding burger and fries. The fact that it’s a chain, and in Ewing, made me hesitate to add it to “Hidden Trenton”. Then, I ate my first sample. The burgers and fries are that good. I consider Five Guys a non-chain, chain (harkening to Watergate’s non-denial, denial): it’s thriving because the food is really good (if in this case, not good for you), not just fast or convenient.
With so much great tomato pie in Trenton, why does Dominick’s deserve a place on Hidden Trenton? A few reasons. First, the pies are genuinely good, made with fresh ingredients. While the tomato pie doesn’t quite match the sublime heights of Papa’s or DeLorenzo’s, it’s darn good. Second, it’s open when those other places aren’t. Want a pie for a Tuesday lunch? You’re out of luck with either of the classic Trenton establishments, which are basically open only for dinner.
Mastoris is one of those places that doesn’t seem possible when you first go there. First of all, it’s impossibly huge… the website claims they serve up to 2,800 people per day, and certainly the facility is large enough. Second, when you sit down, your waitress will bring you a plate piled high with two loaves of sweet bread, one each of cinnamon and cheese. Don’t eat too much bread, though, since the portions on your order, when it arrives, will be huge.
Prices are incredibly reasonable. The food, including the tacos, tostadas, and several of the meat platters is very good. Note, this is a dive. Clean, friendly, but still a dive. English skills of your server are likely to not exist, so if you don’t speak Spanish (like me), be prepared to puzzle out the menu on your own, and order via sign language.
Hong Kong Restaurant, located where Hamilton and S. Clinton intersect is probably the best, true Chinese take-out in town. This is a family-run restaurant, with an extensive menu cooked in front of you while you wait.
Everyone has a yearning for simple, cheap Chinese food from time to time, and you don’t want to have to drive to get it. In a town where there are some truly dreadful take out Chinese joints….listing a few that are pretty good is a useful service. Kam Buffet is a post millenium buffet joint, with a large dining room and a huge array of steam tables. The food is good, and management takes better care to keep it fresh and turning over quickly than many establishments of this type.
From the outside, Lucy’s looks like many other downtown Trenton lunch joints. But the food isn’t what you’d expect. Lucy’s appeals to the alternative eating crowd. There are always has a bunch of specials…for example the other day salmon burgers were on the menu. You get a choice of grilled vegetables with most sandwiches or wraps, where you can select from a lovely platter of freshly parboiled veggies ready to be grilled to order, including broccoli, onions, carrots, zucchini, peppers, and more. Of course, you don’t HAVE to go veggie. You can get a pretty mean cheese steak with all the grease and none of the greens, if that’s what you want.
Let’s face it, there’s not a lot of great breakfast in Trenton. Sure there are some diners and other assorted options, but finding a place that goes beyond the breakfast basics (eggs, pancakes, omelettes, bacon) is rare. That’s what makes Cafe 72 unique. Despite it’s casual luncheonette atmosphere and bargain prices, it is aiming to higher culinary heights (if not always achieving them). What are we talking about? Think Belgian waffles filled with sun-dried figs and topped with blueberry chutney and cannoli cream, “cajun” shrimp and grits with onions and an egg, or portobello mushroom towers with sliced tomato, poached eggs, provolone, and basil hollandaise (pictured here). The menu is supplemented by a variety of specials; on a recent visit we sampled the fresh ricotta donuts with blueberry chutney (and boy were they fresh).
Galicja is a pleasant, typical local bar with an eclectic clientèle that happens to serve draft pints of Pilsner Urquell, a really good Czech beer, for less than the price of domestic beer at most local bars. On Friday evenings, free with the purchase of a beer, the owner puts out an incredible buffet of home made food.
Mi Tierra is another of the many outstanding Guatemalan restaurants in the City of Trenton, serving its burgeoning Latino population. Mi Tierra stands apart because: 1) the food is well prepared, a notch better than typical and 2) the decor is better than most. While not fancy by any means, it’s a pleasant place to eat, and the service is friendly.
From the outside, Henry’s looks like an old-school luncheonette, which went out of fashion in the early 1960’s. However, peer through the window, and you see something’s up with the large, modern cooking area, and nicely stocked shelves. Then you realize all the packages have Polish labels, and you remember that you’re at the very epicenter of the Polish section of Trenton: European Bakery is next door, Cosmo Food Market is across the street, and Rozmaryn Restaurant is around the corner.
Chiarello’s delivers greater-Trenton’s iconic hoagie sandwich (submarine to those of you from northern NJ; hero, if you’re from NYC; grinder if from Boston).
The Mates Inn has got to be just about the most bizarre institution on this website, and an oddity that could only be found in Trenton. It’s a restaurant located at the NJ Department of Corrections’ administrative campus, operated by inmates in the Culinary Arts job training program of the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility.
OK, so your teenage son arrives home on Sunday around 11:30 PM. He’s been out all day, never ate dinner, and is starving. Where do you go with him? Easy, Pat’s.
Papa’s, founded in 1912 by the father-in-law, grandfather, and great-grandfather respectively of the current operators (Abie, Donnie, and Nick) making it the second oldest pizza joint in the country, and by another reckoning (continually operated by the founding family), Papa’s is the oldest in the country. Papa’s makes a proper Trenton tomato pie (it should, it virtually invented it). Unfortunately, moved to Robbinsville recently, so you’ll have to drive about 15 minutes to get there.
A very good Guatemalan joint on Olden, and one of the oldest. Always inexpensive, it’s now one of the cheapest. The archetypal Trenton dive is worth visiting if you’re nearby.