New Brunswick Cheap Eats

This was looong before the Stop 'n Shop, lemmejustsay. :grin:

You know Tastee Sub is right on the corner of Plainfield and 27 too. For value and plain ole delishusnus it is hard to beat a double meat super sub dressed with oil vinegar and hot peppers.

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this thread is making me sad I was a commuter and ate all my meals at subway b/c I didn’t know any better…or Wendy’s dollar menu b/c I was poor and didn’t know any better…
Didn’t even know about the grease trucks until after I graduated…

On George St I like My Way Korean for bimimbap and Indochine for the spring rolls. Indochine have really good spring rolls. Both are pretty reasonable, keyed in to student budgets.

For Mexican I like el Poblano which is a really small place with mostly outdoor seating or take away. The are just off 27 to the south after you go past the hospital on a side street on the left. Everything I’ve tried was good, but I especially like their carne asada. They’ve also been around for a while, maybe 15 years. I think they do a good take out business with the hospital. Again very reasonable.

Also north of Highland Park on 27 on the left are Sichuan Spring and Jina House Korean. Both have tables but also do a pretty good take out biz.

At Sichuan you want to get the spicy dishes like the shredded beef with hot fresh pepper, the rabbit with Sichuan peppercorns, or lamb with hot sauce.

At Jinas pretty much everything is good.

The advantage with these two places is that they are right next to each other, so you can just go and then decide what you feel like once you get there.

Skylark Diner on Route 1 is also good. It’s an updated take on the diner with more of a new food twist, so Angus beef, tuna tostadas, chili orange ribs, etc. and no GREEKS anywhere.

They also have really interesting specialty drinks.

This might be a good place for a splurge or an evening visit. The food is good, creative, reasonable for the price, and it’s always busy.

It was also on diners drive ins and dives, but that would be no reason not to visit.

Agee on skylark…tally great concept…

Stelton Pizza on Stelton Road is also pretty close to the Livingston campus Rac and has good NJ pizza kind of fare. Again, reasonable.

So sorry for the serial postings but we used to live up there and these were my low to mid level go to places. All of them have good food and are reasonably priced, and many have been around for at least 10 years. They are also not more than a five or 10 minute drive from some part of Rutgers, although Rutgers itself is pretty spread out. Hopefully this will keep you busy for a while.

Btw for deli I used to love love love Jackie Cooper’s Celebrity Deli. Amazing chopped liver, pastrami and half sours.

It is sadly closed and the owner recently passed, which gave me reason to mourn all over again.

I will add in closing that I am not a huge fan of Harold’s.

We enjoy Efes on Easton Ave for Middle Eastern food. They also have a location in Princeton.

We used to frequent the Somerset Diner quite often while at RU. I had a friend who waitressed there (back in the day when there were waiters and waitresses who carried plates up and down their arms and no one was a server ). After we ate we’d go “right back to school” which meant you weren’t allowed to make any left turns. This made for quite a ride if you lived on College Ave.

Missy

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Hansel and Griddle is excellent, for breakfast, the breakfast burrito, for lunch the hamburgers and wings are great.

There is a new taco place on Easton, I think it is Tacoria, it is excellent and very reasonable.

Add me to the list of fans of the Skylark…

And I was out last night with a friend from RU and told him about this thread; when I mentioned the Chinese place in the KMart plaza, he yelled, “SHRIMP CHIPS!” I had completely forgotten about them, but it came right back…it was the first place any of us had ever had them. And he agreed–back in the day it was some of the freshest Chinese we could get. Plus I had a car, so any excuse for an excursion that didn’t involve a Crampus Bus was a good idea!

@MsBean - I was curious about Efes. Plan on giving it a try soon.

Does anyone remember the “coffee especial” from the grease trucks? :wink:

@jsfein One of Mr. Bean’s former work associates ( who is Turkish) highly recommends Efes but it took us a while to get there. We’re just not in the New Brunswick area all that often.

You walk in and it looks like a strictly take-out place. The dining room is upstairs and very pleasant. It was a while ago and I don’t recall what we had but I do know we enjoyed it very much.

We’ve also been to the Princeton location which is bit more “divey”.

I hope you enjoy it.

Noodle Gourmet is classic New Brunswick! And the food trucks obviously. Man that Coco crisp sounds amazing.

@jsfein If you don’t have to be confined to NB the best lunch deal is probably in Edison at Little Sheep. You can get lunch hot pot for 10$ and it’s a good portion. You might also want to check out Shanghai Dumpling house. Also, most of the Chinese/Korean places along Rt 27 in Highland Park and Edison have really good lunch deals.

I haven’t been yet but everyone raves about destination dogs, also.

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Didn’t even know about the grease trucks until after I graduated…

This is a travesty!!

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