Restaurants which principally feature burgers or sandwiches, though they may have a limited selection of other items on the menu. Includes burger joints, hoagie shops, sandwich shops.
128 West State Street Café is an elegant, little, post-modern eatery that serves freshly-made espresso drinks, and a limited menu of impeccably prepared breakfast and lunch foods. It’s open for breakfast and lunch, from 7 AM to 4 PM, targeting the downtown and statehouse crowd.
Fat Jacks delivers excellent BBQ, particularly if you like it charred, as we do. The food uses premium ingredients and is cooked to order, so call ahead.
Johnny’s has been operating at the same location since the early 1970s. He makes the best Trenton Pork Roll sandwich in town.
Diner food, diner prices, better quality. Just across the bridge in Morrisville: open 7 days for breakfast and lunch (7-3).
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.
(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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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).
