Best Restaurants In (Or Close To) NJ: Daily Meal’s 2019 List

If you love to dine out, we’ve got some good news for you.

The Daily Meal unveiled its “Best Restaurants of 2019,” and the online food and dining site included one restaurant from New Jersey. Another nine may be within a short drive or train ride from your home (see list below).

Our state clearly values a good meal. Roughly 19,050 restaurants are in New Jersey, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Many New Jersey restaurants already have found themselves at or near the top of the lists produced by the Daily Meal and other food-loving publications in 2019.

Related:

• 6 In New Jersey Are Among 101 Best Pizzas In America In 2019
• 11 NJ Restaurants Among North America's Best: New Report
• 30 Best Restaurants in New Jersey 2019: New NJ Monthly Rankings
• NJ Burger Named Among Nation's Best
• 3 NJ 'Hole-In-The-Wall' Restaurants Listed Among Best In America

Here is the best restaurant in New Jersey, according to the Daily Meal’s report, which also cited the establishment as one of the best in America:

• Bread and Salt, 435 Palisade Ave., Jersey City: "Rick Easton is one of the country’s most meticulous and renowned bakers, and he first gained recognition back in 2015 for a stone-milled, high-extraction wheat flour 'local bread' sold at his shop in Pittsburgh. So it goes without saying that the pizza dough he’s turning out at the Jersey City location of Bread and Salt is going to be equally fussed-over."

Here are the New York City best restaurants within a drive or train ride from your New Jersey home, according to the Daily Meal’s report:

• Atomix 104 E 30th St, New York, NY: "Ellia and Junghyun Park are giving modern Korean cuisine the chef’s-counter treatment at this showstopper, where 10 courses are served at two nightly seatings for anywhere from $205 to $295 per person."
• Eleven Madison Park, 11 Madison Ave., New York, NY: "Although Eleven Madison Park opened to much fanfare and subsequent acclaim in 1998, it was Danny Meyer’s hiring of Swiss-born Daniel Humm to helm the kitchen in 2006 that elevated the place to the level of the finest restaurants in the country."
• Frenchette, 241 W Broadway, New York, NY: "Chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr rose to prominence at the helm of beloved Keith McNally restaurants including Balthazar, Pastis and Minetta Tavern, and their take on a French bistro, Frenchette, opened in 2018 and was met with near-universal acclaim."
• Keens, 72 W. 36th St., New York, NY: "Perfectly charred steaks and chops have been served at New York institution Keens since 1885. Before you’re served your expertly cooked, dry-aged sirloin, filet mignon, prime rib, porterhouse for two or porterhouse for three, have a look around."
• Le Bernardin, 155 W 51st St., New York, NY: "This elegant seafood restaurant, headed by chef Eric Ripert, has maintained four stars from the New York Times since shortly after opening in 1986. Ripert is an artist working with impeccable raw materials."
• Pastis, 52 Gansevoort St., New York, NY: "Restaurateur Keith McNally’s Pastis was a Meatpacking District celebrity magnet during its initial run from 1999 to 2014 with perfectly executed bistro fare and a 'see and be seen' vibe."
• Prince St. Pizza, 27 Prince St. A, New York, NY: "Prince Street Pizza started serving “SoHo Squares” in 2012, and since then, it’s gone down as one of New York’s finest pizzerias. Owner Frank Morano, who uses his family’s Sicilian recipes, installed a new gas-fired, brick-lined Marsal & Sons oven to fire up both Neapolitan pies and square slices."
• Una Pizza Napoletana, 175 Orchard St, New York, NY: "Legendary pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri first opened Una Pizza Napoletana in New York in 2004, but in 2008, he closed it down and decamped to San Francisco. In May 2018, however, Mangieri decided to come back to Manhattan, and the city welcomed him with open arms (and stomachs, and wallets). "

Here is the Philadelphia best restaurant within a drive or train ride from your New Jersey home, according to the Daily Meal’s report:

• Pizzeria Beddia, 1313 N Lee St, Philadelphia, PA: "When Pizzeria Beddia first opened in 2013, it was a two-man operation — just Joe Beddia and his friend John Walker serving 40 pies a night, four nights a week, in a cash-only, no-phone, no-bathroom space. After being named America’s Best Pizza by Bon Appetit in 2015, crowds began lining up hours in advance for a chance to snag one of the four available styles of pizza."

The Daily Meal only considered restaurants that served consistently excellent food across all aspects of the dining experience, had frequent menu changes, and showed a strong connection with their local community.

“Our list of the best restaurants of 2019 encompasses universally beloved fine dining restaurants, casual institutions where time stands still, perfect pizzerias both old and new, trendy must-visit, classic steakhouses as well as some of the very best restaurants to have opened this year,” an author of the report said.

California had the most restaurants on the Daily Meal’s list with 12, followed by New York with 11.

The full list of restaurants is available on the Daily Meal.