A Local’s Guide to the South Jersey Shore Food & Restaurant Scene
Where should we go to eat?
I’m so glad you asked.
From A.C. to Cape May, the South Jersey shore has a food scene that reflects the area: on par with the best you’ve ever had, but only if you know where to look.
The area rewards explorers, seeming to almost purposely hide its best and reserve the “good stuff” for locals (and the kinds of visitors who take the time to do more than a quick Google search).
Never thirsty, the bars and restaurants here don’t scream how awesome they are. They just deliver.
Here’s your guide to the best places for a casual breakfast, a fancy dinner, and everything in between.
Best Shore Towns for Breakfast
Winner: Ocean City
The family-friendly capital of the Shore has zero bars and zero dinner options. The upside is that breakfast and lunch are stellar from one end of the island to the other.
Jon & Patty’s: A long-standing OC institution (though it’s changed hands in recent years), expect a line, but it’s worth the wait. Creative takes on breakfast classics and a wide selection of thoughtful coffee options, all in a cozy, old-school setting.
Yianni’s Cafe: Greek-ish menu, but with the option of hearty classics like omelets, pancakes, and the rest. Go hungry and leave several pounds heavier.
Arlene’s on Asbury: A low-key favorite that serves the basics, but puts more love and care into them than they have to.
Runner Up: Ventnor
Best described as “quietly hipster,” Ventnor’s breakfast scene is experimental and original, but in a way that’ll have your stomach rumbling rather than your eyes rolling.
Queen Bean Café: Incredibly creative and forward-thinking options you definitely don’t have on your bingo card, executed to perfection.
Velo Café: A cozy but bright Euro-vibe with quietly elevated dishes like bell-pepper based “Balkan Toast,” wildly creative takes on eggs Benedict, and other inventive—but not risky—options.
Hannah G’s: The comfort breakfast spot in town, serving filling, familiar fare that’s classic without ever being boring.
Honorable Mention: Essl’s Dugout (Pleasantville)
Drive 10 minutes offshore from Chelsea Heights in A.C., and on the side of the highway you’ll find a completely unpretentious, and undeniably delicious, spot for old-school classics in an old-school setting with mostly old-school clientele.
Don’t let the location fool you: this one’s a gem.
Best Shore Towns for Lunch
Winner: Ventnor
If you wake up too late for breakfast, Ventnor’s increasingly impressive collection of daytime restaurants keeps the creativity flowing into the afternoon.
Queen Bean Café: Just like their breakfast, the lunches on offer at QB are nothing you can predict, and everything your palette will obsess over.
Velo Café: Inventive, satisfying, and reliable fare that seems like it should be in a bigger city, but feels right at home “Downbeach.”
Sack O’ Subs: There are sandwich joints, and then there’s Sack O’s. The difference is in the details, with powerhouse versions of familiar-sounding sandwiches that are the best for miles in any direction.
Runner Up: Ocean City
With nothing much happening at night, Ocean City has one last chance to tickle your tastebuds before calling it a day. The results are unique, high-quality, and not to be missed.
Yianni’s Café: Rounding out the “also a killer breakfast” list, Yianni’s delivers with solid takes on lunch staples, plus a Gyro that never disappoints.
Doozy’s Place: It’s all heart, with creative but relatable sandwiches, tacos, small plates, and more.
Barefoot Market: All character, all quality in this more-than-just-a-coffee-spot option for smoothies, wraps, and lighter, beach-friendly options.
Honorable Mention: Anchorage Tavern (Somers Point)
Cross the bridge and head just offshore to a Somers Point institution for solid, familiar fare that hits the spot in a traditional pub atmosphere overlooking the bay.
Best Shore Towns for Weeknight Dinners
Winner: Ventnor
Head to your nearest purveyor of fine wines for a bottle or two (or three), and avail yourself of Ventnor’s celebrated BYOB dinner scene. With zero room for pretentiousness in a mostly working-and-middle-class town where year-rounders still outnumber the “shoobies,” these places let the food do the talking
Red Room Café: “Homey” doesn’t do it justice. It’s as local as it comes, the pride of the Ventnor Heights neighborhood. But it’s serving much more than basic pizzas and pastas.
Isabella’s: This is accessible Mexican cuisine done beautifully, striking a perfect balance between approachable and exciting. Bold but restrained, flavorful but not too spicy for your average palette, it’s a home run every time.
Martina’s Trattoria: The owners of Velo took over the former Pulia’s, changing the name but retaining the excellent menu. Nowhere else in America does pizza taste as close to the old country’s version as it does here.
Runner Up: Margate
With several great “middle-of-the-road” options, you don’t have to choose between snooty and divey in Margate when you want a casual, but excellent, mid-week dinner.
Bocca Coal Fired Bistro: One of the best pizzas around, along with other top-notch bar options, makes the actual formal dinner menu feel almost unnecessary. Grab a booth or a barstool and enjoy the lively (but not rowdy) atmosphere.
Robert’s Place: Possibly the most underrated food in the state, from a dimly-lit watering hole with a hidden-gem kitchen that locals know all about, but visitors consistently overlook.
Ventura’s Greenhouse: Head to the deck for shockingly good pizzas, a caesar salad the world should learn from, and sausage-stuffed long hots that are worth every bit of their spicy sting.
Honorable Mention: Fred’s Tavern (Stone Harbor)
A low-key Stone Harbor classic. Don’t let the fact that it’s attached to a liquor store give you the wrong impression: this place is solid.
Best Shore Towns for Weekend Dinners
Winner: Atlantic City
From the old to the new, the modern to the historic, Atlantic City has been punching above its weight for generations. Yes, the city’s a mess and the casinos are mostly depressing, but this town still has something to say, and it’s saying it from its kitchens.
Forget the slot machines and focus on the food.
Chef Vola’s: Old. Cramped. Unforgettable. Sit in what feels like your grandma’s house and tastes like all the love in the world poured into classic dishes whose main ingredient is clearly pride.
Cafe 2825: You haven’t had Italian like this. Every bite of every dish reflects the extra effort this place makes to elevate standard dishes into something more.
Amada (at Ocean Casino): Jose Garces brings Catalonia to the Shore with one-banger-after-another tapas, cocktails, and a view that can’t be beat.
Knife & Fork Inn: Soak in the history of a place that defines old-school elegance. Eat lavishly, drink something stiff, and admire how some things last for a reason.
Kelsey’s: Soul food that defines the genre: rich, unafraid of flavor, and served in a room full of noise and laughter.
Doc’s Oyster House: Another historic old-school classic with a focus on seafood, which they do better than anyone on the island.
Runner Up: Margate
With the “Barbary Coast” days long in the rearview, Margate has morphed into a high-end vacation town with just enough locals left to keep it grounded. The restaurant scene is swinging for the fences, with spectacular results.
Steve & Cookie’s: It’s the Shore’s most sought-after reservation for a reason. Even if you can’t get a table, pop into the first-come Oyster bar for the exact same menu and see why no one can hold a candle to their execution.
Ventura’s Greenhouse: It’s so many things: a sandy-footed tiki bar facing the beach, a white-linen high-end restaurant in its upstairs interior, a mid-range family spot on the deck, and a local dive downstairs. Whichever of Greenie’s multiple vibes you choose, you can’t lose.
Sunrise Tequila Bar: New on the scene, Sunrise quickly generated a tsunami of buzz with killer food, an extensive array of high-end spirits, and a modern upscale vibe that exemplifies the New Margate.
Honorable Mention: MudHen Brewing (Wildwood)
It’s the brewpub that seems to keep growing, adding more spaces on its sprawling Rio Grande lot to hang, eat, and quaff their excellent craft beers each year.
Gather ‘round a firepit, pull up a barstool, or grab a high-top. There’s room for everyone, and the quality hasn’t suffered from the increasing quantity.
Best Shore Towns for Date Night
Winner: Cape May
The town remains steadfastly committed to its historic charm and romance, maintaining an oasis of 19th-century coziness by the sea. But don’t let the Victorian window treatments fool you; the restaurant scene is anything but dusty.
Primal: Book a table weeks in advance and treat someone to one of the best expressions of the Art of Steak on the East Coast. Located literally on the beach, it’s the kind of high-end simplicity other restaurants don’t dare to attempt, let alone pull off.
Panico’s: Set in a refurbished church, their takes on Italian classics will stay in your memory until your inevitable return trip. Bring a bottle of wine, and make the absurdly hard choice between their top-class pizzas and their elegant entrees.
Port: When the unpretentious Harbor View restaurant, just across the water from the US Coast Guard Academy, closed, many shuddered to contemplate what would replace it. Breathe easy: Port is more expensive, but it’s also incredible. Upscale, elegant, and delicious, it’s worth the splurge.
Runner Up: Margate
Margate is small. Margate is quiet, mostly. But it knows how to deliver when you want to make a night memorable.
Steve & Cookie’s: A seat at the Oyster Bar, a booth in the piano room, or a coveted table on the veranda; it really doesn’t matter. Every square foot exudes the care and elegance the place is known for, as the Shore’s best overall restaurant keeps the focus where it matters: on the food.
Upstairs, Inside at Ventura’s Greenhouse: It’s technically the same restaurant where locals are watching football and drinking Coors light downstairs, but it feels light years away.
Tideline: It’s all about the views in this sleek new spot directly on the bay. If you really want to impress your date, get there by boat (you can even get service to your boat if there aren’t any tables).
Honorable Mention: Amada
Let’s just accept it: Jose Garces knows what he’s doing, and he did us all a favor by bringing his Old City Philadelphia tapas joint to the beach.
A far cry from the casino restaurants that slap a celebrity chef’s name on the door and serve mediocre versions of once-celebrated fare, Amada showcases the best of Catalan cuisine in a space to die for. Bonus: the unbeatable cocktail menu features Easter eggs for Almodovar fans.
Best Towns for Local Watering (& Eating) Holes
Best: Margate
Margate may be a beacon for wealthy city-dwellers with beach-house money, but its working-class roots haven’t disappeared entirely. A few stubborn, beautifully rough-edged spots function as oases in a sea of McMansions.
Robert’s Place: Dark. Cash-only. No taps, and maybe one kind of wine, if you really insist. The food is unbeatable, especially for the price. The staff and crowd are almost entirely locally sourced, so show a little respect and you’ll be just fine.
Maynard’s Café: Opened around the turn of the previous century by an ex-boxer and run by the same family since the 1960’s, Maynard’s is many things: rough & tumble dive, community hub, a throbbing party in the summer, and a noted all-are-welcome space despite serving a hardscrabble, blue-collar clientele when it isn’t full of frat boys shooting Fireball.
It’s also pet-friendly, which includes dogs and at least one guy’s parrot. It’s Maynard’s, man. Just go with it.
Greenhouse (downstairs): The deck and tiki bar are prime spots in the summer, but when it’s too cold for all that, locals huddle in Greenie’s low-ceilinged, vaguely nautical-themed “dungeon” downstairs. The food remains excellent, especially the pizza. The beer remains cold and plentiful. Make some new friends, and for a moment you may not feel like such a shoob.
Runner Up: Atlantic City
Yes, it has historic, excellent restaurants. But it also has straight-up bars, the kind where people still know each other’s names and send each other rounds after a long day in one of America’s most troubled, if ever hopeful, communities. Tip handsomely. These people work for a living.
Tony’s Baltimore Grill: A staple of good vibes, stained ceiling tiles, and brilliantly ok food. This is a place to end your night eating comfort pizza and cracking jokes with a cinder-voiced waitress who’s seen some things.
Ducktown Tavern: A windowless, 24-hour institution where time passes in ways that you won’t understand until the next day — which it already is, as you discover when you finally open the front door and find out the sun rose at some point.
The Seed: Not a dive, but a truly venerable passion project in the middle of the city serving best-in-state brews from people who deeply, obsessively care about their craft. Do not miss.
Irish Pub: As historic and straightforward as its non-name implies. Have a pint and a bite, and enjoy the surreal experience of their over-the-top Christmas decorations during the season.
Honorable Mention: Mooncusser’s (Cape May)
Pull up a stool at one of the ramshackle “bars” that comprise this deeply local, wholly unique clusterfreak of a business. Grab something delicious from one of the food trucks parked just outside the fence, smell the bay, and know that there are places in this world that will always be exactly what they are.
