NJ Restaurant Makes Elite List Of America’s Best By New York Times

A New Jersey restaurant is included in The Restaurant List 2026, an elite compilation of the 50 best restaurants in America by The New York Times.

A 16-person scouting team traveled across the country for the list, eating everywhere from small-town Wisconsin to downtown Manhattan. The critics made reservations, waited in lines and arrived unannounced, paying for their meals and accepting no freebies.

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Included from New Jersey is Korai Kitchen, which is located at 576 Summit Ave. in Jersey City and is known for Bangladeshi home cooking by Nur-E Gulshan Rahman and her daughter, Nur-E Farhana Rahman.

The Times singled out the restaurant's weekday buffet and takeout operation, as well as the weekends, when a colossal, three-hour, eight-course meal is served.

"Chiles and mustard oil are exuberant signatures, and everything is cooked with vigilance, down to each grain of rice. You leave enlarged — your heart does, too," New York Times critic Ligaya Mishan wrote.

The restaurants aren't ranked, and none appeared on a previous edition of the annual list. The selections include places that opened only weeks ago as well as restaurants that have been serving customers for decades.

Several restaurants from the region are on the list, including one in Philadelphia and several in New York City.

In New York City, three eateries were cited, including Bistrot Ha, Meju and Yamada.