Reader's Digest, you can't pick one diner in Jersey. Here's a list of North Jersey's best

Esther Davidowitz, NorthJersey.com
Updated ·4 min read

Oh my goodness. I'm getting a bit tired (miffed?) of having to correct publications when it comes to their Jersey food coverage. Today it's Reader's Digest, which recently had the gall to name the "Most Iconic Diner in Every State."

According to the Digest, it "thoroughly investigated customer ratings, TripAdvisor scores, and local gossip to find the absolute best diner in every state." Yes, maybe, just maybe, it should have asked New Jersey food lovers.

Or, ahem, me.

I'm the food editor for The Record and NorthJersey.com. My job is to suss out the best restaurants in the region. I think I know where to eat in the region or at least work day in and day out to find out.

Exterior photo of the Tops Diner in East Newark on 11/09/21.
Exterior photo of the Tops Diner in East Newark on 11/09/21.

It's obvious that these other publications haven't a clue.

Sorry, Thrillist, these are the actual best New Jersey restaurants

In November 2021, it was Thrillist that I took on. In an article entitled "20 Best Suburban Restaurants Outside NYC," the well-known food website could only come up with four restaurants in New Jersey? Four(!). I returned with 22 more.

Oh, please, Yelp! Are these the top places to eat in North Jersey?

And less than two months later, Yelp came out with the "Top 50 places to eat in North Jersey." Oy vey. What a disaster. I hadn't heard of one-third of them, 48 of them were BYOBs (Who cares about wine and cocktail service? Certainly not teetotaling North Jersey), and many were so casual they didn't even have tables or chairs. Yes, I chewed Yelp out.

Really, Jimmy Fallon? This is the best crumb cake in New Jersey?

And, okay, not a publication, but I couldn't let Jimmy Fallon and his Instagram followers believe that B&W crumb cake in Hackensack was "best in the world." It's what a friend of Fallon's apparently told him and it's why Fallon and his two daughters were then seen eating the cake online and recommending it to his followers. Really? B&W crumb cake is bone dry. Go to Styertowne in Clifton if you're looking for terrific crumb cake. It made my list of "22 Best Desserts."

The best restaurants in North Jersey, according to AI

And just a few months ago I had to take on AI, you know, that machine learning thingamajig, when it — after I asked it to — came up with the top 10 restaurants in North Jersey. Not a complete disaster, however. Its list included Common Lot in Millburn, Cafe Matisse in Rutherford, Fascino in Montclair (which recently closed and is today Gioia Mia) and the Saddle River Inn in Saddle River, to name some that I am a big fan of as well. But its list included one restaurant (Cucharamam in Hoboken) that had closed three years ago and two restaurants (The Ryland Inn in Whitehouse Station and The Bernards Inn in Bernardsville) that aren't in North Jersey but Central Jersey.

Okay, so now onto Reader's Digest, which, unless the 100-year-old publication has changed radically since I last read it, isn't known for food coverage. More like stories about American heroes (and, no, not hero sandwiches) or alleged medical breakthroughs.

The Digest named Tops Diner in East Newark as the best in the Garden State.

Great. We all love Tops Diner. But come on, we're talking New Jersey, the diner capital of the world! There are some 500 diners in New Jersey: 500! The competition is way too stiff. There are just too many great diners to name one.

So here is a brief list of some of the top diners in just the north part of our state. To list the best in the entire state, forgetaboutit. And by the way, I conferred with the diner expert in New Jersey, Michael C. Gabriele, a Clifton resident and author of “The History of Diners in New Jersey" to ensure I'm offering you a really good list.

The best diners in New Jersey, according to NorthJersey.com

  • Tops Diner, East Newark

  • Summit Diner, Summit

  • Tick Tock Diner, Clifton

  • Dumont Crystal Diner, Dumont

  • Colonial Diner, Lyndhurst

23655 Hackensack; NJ 9/13/2009 Community Guide: White Manna Christopher Trento / Freelance Photographer
23655 Hackensack; NJ 9/13/2009 Community Guide: White Manna Christopher Trento / Freelance Photographer

  • White Manna, Hackensack

  • Tom Sawyer, Paramus

  • Arlington Diner, North Arlington

  • Johnny Prince's Bayway Diner, Linden

  • Park West Diner, Little Falls

  • Bendix Diner, Hasbrouck Heights

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Best NJ diners: Forget Reader's Digest rankings, these are better