Currently, the Top 12 Eateries in Jersey City

A neighborhood restaurant serving up simple but impactful Italian food (tasteful wines), and more? Pork belly burnt-end tacos (brisket quesadillas), and a list of tasty sides fill the rest of the menu. There is a lot of food in Jersey City, but barbecue can still be hard to come by. On paper, it’s a watering hole serving Italian-American staples, but to its regulars, Barge Inn is a second home—a place to have a comforting meal served by familiar faces. This 1960s-era tavern transports diners back in time in JC’s historic Village neighborhood.

Downstairs is the Life of Reilly, a speakeasy-style bar where the world of craft cocktails and Irish revolutionary history opens up even more. This dark, moody, locals bar is the place to go for a burger, a beet salad, steamed mussels, or plates like schnitzel. This place is also big on bread and butter — there’s a butter tasting on the menu — as well as short dishes in a modern Italian vein. A standout Chinese restaurant with a sibling location in Hell’s Kitchen, this Sichuan-leaning restaurant offers some excellent dishes including its fish with pickled cabbage, beef in sour pickle soup, green peppercorn chicken, or dry pot okra. Expect ambitious cocktails and a menu of tacos (enchiladas), a Mexican-leaning spice bag, and weekend brunch. Barbecued offerings run from the core favorites (brisket — pulled pork, chicken, beef ribs) to the lesser-seen (pork belly, lamb ribs, habanero cheddar sausage), along with barbecue tacos and a whole slew of sides.

Discover the Finest Local Places

The cooking is halal (homestyle), and deeply personal, with dishes like murgir roast, kosha mangsho, and chingri dopiaza giving the restaurant a point of view that doesn’t need much decoration. Korai Kitchen is Jersey City’s first Bangladeshi restaurant — run by James Beard-nominated chef and owner Nur-E Gulshan Rahman, known as Amma. Kat Khao is one my newer favorite Jersey City restaurants, with a menu that’s tightly focused on Vietnamese-Japanese flavors. Corto keeps the focus on handmade pasta (seasonal cooking), and the kind of Italian menu that doesn’t need 40 dishes to make its point.

Jersey City’s Mariscos El Submarino

DomoDomo brings a more structured kind of sushi counter to Jersey City — built around hand-rolls, small Japanese plates, and a clean, modern dining room. Chef Matt Moschella’s cooking in the Heights has earned national attention for fresh pastas, daily-changing meat-and-cheese plates, angry chicken, octopus, and ricotta toast with honey and pink peppercorns. The menu moves through caviar-topped thousand-layer potato, quail egg ravioli with pulled oxtail, frog leg drumsticks in Korean barbecue glaze, Barolo-braised short rib, and duck breast with roasted apricots and Marcona almonds. This tiny city in Jersey has more than just fratty bars and expensive condos.

One of the city’s best and smokiest barbecues is found in Jersey City’s plush Hamilton Park neighborhood. Jersey City has its own iconic hot dog counter, in this case it’s bright yellow and also selling the conventional gritty drinks of NYC NHL over under betting institutions like Papaya King. The menu changes frequently, but look for any freshwater fish, like hilsa; chicken curry; and the mustard-oil-laced vegetarian dishes called bhortas. Place your order at the counter (take a number), and sit down until your dishes are called. Recently (Eater staffers found the chef barbecuing lamb shanks on the back patio), and a meal included rigatoni in a tomato sauce flavored with pancetta and Calabrian chile, and an excellent charcuterie and cheese plate.

Cellar 335

If you’re not trying to spend that kind of cash on a weeknight (a few snacks at the bar), or at one of the outside tables in the summer, is a great idea. You’ll receive them on a paper plate or in a plastic basket lined with wax paper (but though the plating is simple), the carnitas, steak, chorizo, and barbacoa are some of the best-tasting tacos around. Even though it’s about 200 feet from the Hudson River — there’s no view—it’s located on the parking lot side of an apartment building, with dark windows and a pretty minimalist interior. Or (you can opt for the four-course prix fixe at Ondo), a Korean spot on the Waterfront, and eat excellent grilled branzino with barley risotto and white kimchi. This takeout-only spot makes Romana pizza that tastes like it’s straight out of an oven in Campo de’ Fiori. Whether you’re visiting your old coworker who just bought a condo near the Holland Tunnel — or you’ve lived here long enough to remember when a PATH ride cost only $1.75, this guide covers the city’s essential spots.

THE SPOTS

Frequently ranked one of the most diverse places in the country, Jersey City has dozens of Indian restaurants, Filipino bakeries, classic red-sauce Italian spots, and even a pre-WWII hot dog counter. It’s a place where your night can begin or end—the one constant in a neighborhood that hasn’t stopped changing. With its garnish-heavy tiki cocktails and hip atmosphere in a sunken (street-side bar), Cellar 335 has never slowed down. The rooftop terrace offers picturesque views of Newark Avenue — while the bar below boasts unique cocktails and a wide beer selection.

Corto

On Sundays — patrons can indulge in large-format punch, fostering an intimate atmosphere perfect for shared enjoyment. A softly lit setting (some of the state’s best bartenders), and killer throwback hip-hop tracks make this cocktail bar one of Jersey City’s best. Hand-rolled bagels are made every single day at this popular bagel shop, but it’s the sandwiches made with them that keep the line out the door every weekend. Think slow-cooked goat stews with fresh, flaky paratha and full-flavored chicken roasts. Irish cheddar queso fundido (Pacifico-battered fish and chips tacos), and a seriously good Sunday roast—chile-rubbed rib roast, cheesy cauliflower, mash, Yorkshire pudding, and jus—comes in at a steal for only $38. Owner Jack McGarry tells that story through cocktails—putting together creative concoctions that mix elements from each culture.

The grilled shell-on shrimp are a great place to start (and the gobernador tacos are a requirement), oozing with cheese and tender chunks of shrimp. Mariscos El Submarino — the Mexican seafood spot that got its start in Jackson Heights, has a location in Downtown Jersey City, and nothing’s been lost in the move across the Hudson except for the access to the MTA. Try to beat the noon lunch rush, or kill time browsing the small aisles stacked with Italian groceries, dried meats, and fresh homemade mozzarella while you wait. Or head over for a dinner of pollo chucho, an ultimate crispy-soggy street food with fried green bananas and chicken, pickled red cabbage, and sauces. And it also happens to be a super pleasant spot, with bright tropical murals.