4 NJ Restaurants Are Among America's Best For Eating-On-The-Cheap

Forget the rain (if it even comes)! New Jersey has four casual restaurants where you can go – right now! – to take the kids and get cheap food, and you don't even have to dress up.

Or maybe you can take a date, because you don't have to worry about making a reservation. And you don't have to pay too much to enjoy yourself.

And you probably don't even have to change out of your bathing suit.

These places are so good that the popular food-and-drink website, The Daily Meal, named them among the 101 best casual restaurants in America.

The Daily Meal says that, since its 2011 founding, its set out to compile a comprehensive ranking of the 101 Best Restaurants in America. "However, we’ve been hit with a dilemma: Does a restaurant like, say, the venerable Frank Pepe Pizzeria in New Haven, Connecticut, as stellar as it is for what it does, really belong in the same ranking as a place like Manhattan's Eleven Madison Park, with its three Michelin stars?"

"That’s why four years ago we decided to separate out the casual from the fancy with an initial ranking of 50 casual restaurants, expanded to 101 in 2015," the website says. "From hot dog shacks to taco joints, from neighborhood hangouts to legendary barbecue spots, these are amazing restaurants where price is no barrier to entry and you'll feel right at home in jeans.

The Daily Meal's criteria:

• "Can two people fill themselves up and get out for less than $50, excluding tip and alcohol?"
• Is there "an overall comfortable and relaxed ambiance"
• Does it have "a 'destination' status (that is, is the place worth traveling for?), and a proven reputation and longevity?"

The Daily Meal compiled a list of America’s best purveyors of pizza, burgers, hot dogs, tacos, and more, ending up with more than 500 restaurants that the website believes represent a vast cross-section of America and the casual restaurants that make them great.

"From there we assembled a survey, and sent it out to a panel of hundreds of America’s leading culinary authorities. We asked them to vote for their favorites, but only ones that they’d dined at within the past two years."

Here are the four New Jersey restaurants on the list:

#18 White Manna, Hackensack, N.J.

"White Manna is one of the last remaining diner-style burger joints that arose in the tradition of White Castle. What’s served here is the perfect interpretation of that form, perfected over decades and decades, unchanging. You walk up to the tiny counter, place your order with the grillman, and watch as he smashes a small wad of meat onto the flattop with a handful of thin-sliced onions, keeps careful track of it as it cooks, and sandwiches it into a Martin’s bun."

#36 White House Subs, Atlantic City, N.J.

"It’s hard to imagine a trip to Atlantic City without a stop by the White House Sub Shopto get one of their legendary submarine sandwiches. The family-owned shop opened in 1946 and quickly became one of the most iconic sandwich purveyors on the East Coast. You’ll see how popular it is when you arrive — the line often extends out to the street."

#57 Papa’s Tomato Pies, Trenton, N.J.

"Lombardi's may generally be considered to be "America's first pizza," but as Nick Azzaro, owner of Papa's Tomato Pies, isn't shy about telling you, Papa's — founded in 1912 — is actually America's oldest continuously operating family-owned pizzeria. For Papa’s, the family behind the pie is just as important as the slice, as the recipe has been passed down through generations."

#66 Razza, Jersey City, N.J.

"Razza opened just across the Hudson River from New York in Jersey City in late 2012, and it quietly became renowned locally for its wood-fired pizzas prepared by chef-owner Dan Richer, who was a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Award and is so meticulous about his craft that he was nicknamed “the Jiro of Bread,” after the sushi chef featured in Jiro Dreams of Sushi. But it wasn’t until New York Times critic Pete Wells showed up last year that pizza lovers across the river really took notice. Wells gave it about as glowing a review as possible, even going so far as to deem it 'the best pizza in New York.' "

Image courtesy Anthony Kostelis