30 Best New NJ Restaurants In 2020: New NJ Monthly Rankings

NEW JERSEY – Maybe you can enjoy a good meal before the Super Bowl. Or maybe you can find a good restaurant in New Jersey with a TV and watch it there. Or maybe you need a good retreat from it all.

New Jersey has some of the finest restaurants in the nation, but there has been no list that perhaps definitively captures the essence of the state's fine food establishments than New Jersey Monthly.

Now the magazine has released its list of the state's 30 best new restaurants, and they can be found throughout the Garden State. So you don't have to travel far to enjoy good food before, during or after the big game (see list below).

Indeed, New Jersey Monthly says the state's restaurant climate is in a "golden age." As a result, the publication increased its annual list of the state’s best overall restaurants last year from 25 to 30 establishments. Read more: 30 Best Restaurants in New Jersey 2019: New NJ Monthly Rankings

Below are some of the restaurants that are in Patch towns that our readers may find to be the perfect retreat:

• 100 Ocean, Long Branch. NJ Monthly says: "Tucked inside the new Wave Resort in Pier Village, sleek 100 Ocean opens onto the bustling boardwalk. It operates year-round, but come summer, expect the restaurant and its outside tables to be packed solid with diners diving into decadent seafood towers, shareables like fava-bean hummus and whipped eggplant dip, housemade pastas, and well-executed fish dishes such as steamed black sea bass and roasted branzino."
• Allegory, Montclair. NJ Monthly says: "The western end of Montclair’s main drag gets a needed boost from the long-awaited MC Hotel and its ground-floor New American restaurant, Allegory. Framed by window walls facing the avenue, the dining room and bar are spacious and comfortable."
• Benares, Wyckoff. NJ Monthly says: "Perched on India’s sacred Ganges River, the city of Benares is the Hindu world’s holiest pilgrimage site. Pilgrims of another sort have made Benares in Wyckoff a destination for authentic, full-flavored Indian cuisine. The basmati-rice casseroles known as biryanis, available in meat or vegetable renditions, are particularly good."
• El Nopalito, Haddonfield. NJ Monthly says: “ 'I want people to know our culture, not just American Mexican food,' ” says Roasalba Palillero. “ 'I want people to know what is authentic in my family.' ” While Palillero and her sister Maria run the dining room, their mom, Estella, cooks.
• Meeting House, Princeton. NJ Monthly says: "Opened by New York transplants and restaurant veterans Amanda Maher and Amar Gautam, Meeting House fills the location, about 10 blocks off the Princeton University campus, formerly occupied by Two Sevens Eatery & Cantina."

Read the entire NJ Monthly list here.