WHERE TO EAT IN NEWARK’S BEST RESTAURANT NEIGHBORHOOD
One of the most appealing aspects of Newark as a dining destination is that it is filled with independent restaurants: Chances are, when you walk into a promising spot and ask, “are you the owner?” There’s a likelihood that the answer is yes. The food is often generous and sometimes elevated— hibiscus horchata, arty wheels of boquerones — but much of it has the spirit of home-cooking, too.
Newark’s Ironbound, named for the rail lines that border this community east of the city’s downtown, is where most of the dining is happening, with old-school classics and newer hipster options. Traditionally, the neighborhood was home to breweries and metal manufacturing, mixed with residential areas for people who worked in those industries. The four-square-mile neighborhood — has been a magnet for people from elsewhere for generations, and has become so again in a new way, as a dining destination. (It’s a close enough drive — about 16 miles from the city — or easy to get to via NJ Transit from Manhattan’s Penn Station, or by bus.)
Angel Leston, the owner of Casa d’Paco (73 Warwick Street, at Jefferson Street), opened in 2015, exemplifies the spirit of the new Newark. With roots in the city, Leston’s Galician-infused Spanish restaurant is named after his father, Francisco “Paco” Leston, a former head chef at old-school Newark Basque-inspired standby, Casa Vasca (141 Elm Street, at Prospect Street), which opened in 1976. Leston Sr. left the kitchen for a union construction job in his 40s to spend more time with his family, but returned to help his son launch the lively restaurant.
The renovation was a DIY family affair: Father and son did the demolition themselves and built their own tables. Now, they share time in the kitchen, turning out creamy zamburinas (scallops), tender pulpo a feira, and restorative soup, caldo gallego. Leston’s mother, Ana Maria, makes the homemade desserts. The crisp, citrusy house white, Paco Luca Albarino, is made for the restaurant by a small Iberian wine importer.
“The staple restaurants have been here for years,” Leston says of the Spanish and Portuguese classics in Newark. Try Forno’s of Spain (47 Ferry Street, at McWhorter Street), open since the 1980s, for traditional takes on Spanish; or Krug’s Tavern (118 Wilson Avenue, at Napoleon Street), open since the 1930s serving one of New Jersey’s best burgers.
Expanding his commitment to the Ironbound, Leston opened the Standard Cafe (68 Wilson Avenue, at Lafayette Street), a breakfast and lunch spot that in its first two months has already become a neighborhood scene
Three new-wave neighborhood restaurants include Sabor Unido (77 Jefferson Street, at Ferry Street), for date-night Brazilian and Portuguese, No Pao! 100 Reservas (149 Oliver Street, at Pacific Street), for casual lunch-counter Portuguese and Brazilian, and Taza Dorada (108 Jabez Street, at Wilson Avenue), a cafe serving Ecuadorian cuisine.
Taza Dorada, perhaps the most exciting newcomer, is a blond-wood dining area with counter service and upholstered banquettes. Chef Juan Cristobal is from Ecuador, and serves sophisticated twists on his native dishes, plated in heavy, textural ceramics. A potatoes-two-ways soup-special was melting and savory, topped with chunks of queso and avocado. The El Verde bowls demonstrate different regional ways of cooking plantains, served with toppings like pulled pork, fried eggs and cheese. For dessert there are trembling cheesecakes topped with slicks of fig syrup or caramel.
Another new Newark spot that’s a bridge between old and new is Caserio e Bom Gourmet Market (70 Pacific Street, at Nichols Street), whose name means “homemade and good.” Owner Rodrigo Duarte bought a bodega in 2010 and spent the ensuing years turning it into a palace of meat (there’s a throne in the back, and he is referred to as the “King of Hams”) in the tradition of the charcuterie of his native Portugal.
Duarte spent over a decade getting approval to raise Iberico Alentejano pigs locally, and sells ham made from them, plus jars of white pork fat, ribs, and bacon. Some specialty hams go for hundreds of dollars, and there’s also a full market worth of other fresh meat and produce, imported cheeses, and a line of gorgeous fresh and dried sausages.
The Ironbound also shows signs of hipster dining. The Five Corners Ristorante (10 Wilson Avenue, at Ferry Street ) — in a cool, wedge-shaped building on a crazy-quilt intersection — brings Italian to the Iberian and Latin American neighborhood. Its white-box minimalist interior is a lovely spot for dishes that play to what its peers lack: chicken, light pastas, lots of vegetables.
Elsewhere in the Ironbound but within walking distance of the Prudential Center and Downtown Newark, chef Lynda Molina and her husband, Diego Fonseca, left behind the New York restaurant scene and took over an historic space to make Burke’s Tavern (150 Lafayette Street, at McWhorter Street). Before it became Burke’s in 2022, the low-ceilinged, brick-walled space had been a neighborhood bar for almost 60 years, and has conviviality steeped into its bones. Dishes on Burke’s comfort-fusion menu include a giant crispy chicken sandwich with red cabbage slaw and fennel fronds, served on a brioche bun and a peach salad with goat cheese and prosciutto.
Nearby, the always-jammed Portugalia Restaurant (280 1/2 Ferry Street, at Somme Street), is a double-barrel spot across from a large strip mall that opened in the early 2000s. One side is a dining room, the other is a bar and lunch counter, where groups of construction workers in reflective safety vests belly up next to girlfriends drinking sangria, here for heaping plates of grilled meat, fish and poultry. Frango de churrasco, a juicy, spicy, half-chicken and fries costs $9.50 and is served with a vinegary scoop of giardiniera; mop up the juices with a fresh Portuguese roll.
Valerie Stivers is the author of the The Writer’s Table forthcoming from Quarto in 2025. Hank Zona covers New Jersey’s food and beverage growers, makers, and purveyors and is regularly featured in Edible Jersey and Jersey’s Best magazines.