You don’t feel that it got better after the Sandy-induced remodel? My husband is a big guy and he hasn’t complained recently. Of course, we time our visits to avoid peak. I do remember the first few times we went to Anjelica’s, and we were bothered by being crammed in with servers and waiting diners hanging over our table due to lack of elbow room.
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You may need a grain of salt for some of these “best restaurants” as they are based on Yelp reviews.
That being said, you’ll notice that @paryzer is cited in one review, and therefore is quite credible.
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I’m honored that they used my picture for Bloom, but that wasn’t my review. I also agree that Il Nido belongs on the list.
I wasn’t sure about the review but I knew you were a fan of Bloom and so would trust the Yelp review.
Il Nido is on my long list of places to try based on your review and pictures.
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NJ monthly just came out with their top 30 new restaurants. I can vouch for Bistro D’Azur, Bloom, Il Nido, and Osteria Crescendo.
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Thanks for posting this. I am excited that the canal house in Milford is finally open. My dad had been working on that building for what seemed like years. I’ll need to take him out to dinner! This Milford is a river town right on the Delaware river. One town north of frenchtown.
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Finally had a chance to scroll through these… I have to admit that I’m peeved. Calling chefs ‘adept’ and saying ‘not everything is wonderful’ do NOT necessarily say ‘BEST’ to me. Maybe I’m being too literal, but they’re either REALLY doing it right, or they’re not quite there yet. IMHO, if you’re a BEST new restaurant, you’re firing on all cylinders already (as Il Nido and Heirloom Kitchen were able to do). Otherwise, you’re just a new GOOD restaurant. /rant 
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Show your favorites some love…
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Wow that’s some list of places to choose from. I might have to block out an entire afternoon to review all the choices for each category!
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If Chinese includes neither Sichuan Cottage nor Jinli nor West Lake, the heck with them.
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You can write them in under Other (every category drop-down ends with it), or WE CAN JUST KEEP THAT INFO TO OURSELVES. 
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I like the latter idea , but my point was that NJ MONTHLY doesn’t seem even to consider these, nor does anything not listed really have much chance of winning.
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I’m not sure, but it seems like NJ Monthly is the same as Jersey Shore in Motion in that they only consider those restaurants that advertise with them.
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Agreed. It’s always been that way.
Correct, I think that’s more the norm than not.
Why else would anyone pay to advertise with them? Have any of you or anyone you know ever said “I’m going to try this restaurant I saw an ad for in NJ Monthly”?
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The Record is starting to highlight foodie towns each month. They picked @CurlzNJ favorite town Asbury Park as their first town. Montclair will be highlighted next month. I’m not sure if they really picked the best of Asbury Park with this list, but I am not familiar with Asbury Park.
Thanks for sharing! Not really sure how I feel about that list, plus it’s fairly limited. There are certainly some respectable places listed, but saying “greatest restaurants” is a fairly high standard.
I think there are a couple of serious gems in AP —and Cardinal is certainly one of them. I also love Ada’s and Frank’ s and I can’t disagree about the food at the Biergarden, either. But to do this list without Reyla? That’s my #1 in town. If only they had said casual eats (or something like that) to differentiate… I’ll bet we see the opposite when they do Montclair—it will swing towards the more ‘formal’ places.
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